Articles
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The Power To Change Things
At one time, human rights activists tended to focus on individual “prisoners of conscience,” emphasizing the denial of a narrow set of political freedoms. And labour rights tended to be only the concern of unions. But with the end of the Cold War all that changed. Keep reading…
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Notes From A Picket Line
Gender Barriers
I began writing this commentary the day after York University’s administration derailed bargaining talks and decided to push the Ontario Ministry of Labour for a forced ratification vote. This move came less than 24 hours after 85 per cent of more than 500 contract faculty, research assistants and graduate assistants, all members of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903, had voted down York administration’s latest offer at our general membership meeting.A teaching assistant for… Keep reading…
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Podcast To The Working Class
Scott McWhinnie and The Labour Show
Most days Scott McWhinnie can be found doing his electrician’s job at the University of Guelph, roaming the southern Ontario campus doing urgent repairs and general maintenance. But every few weeks, McWhinnie puts his media-mogul top hat on and uses his working-class sensibility to produce and host The Labour Show, a podcast. Keep reading…
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Is The Movement At A Standstill?
Union Efforts and Outcomes
There is a growing perception, among both academics and union activists, that the union movement in Canada is at a standstill. Professor Charlotte Yates from McMaster University recently wrote that: “In the 1990s unions in Canada were relatively successful at rebuilding their membership through organizing and exploiting new opportunities. But in many instances, this progress seems to have stalled in the last 10 years.” Many labour analysts agree with this assessment, some citing battle fatigu… Keep reading…
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The Workers’ Story
Alberta’s Labour History Institute
It’s the end of summer and we are in the Atlas Mine Museum just south of Drumheller, not far from some of the world’s largest dinosaur diggings. We are doing labour history in an area that witnessed some of the most radical trade union action in Canada. Keep reading…
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Rising Up
Have Your Say
Rebellion and solidarity were on clear display in June this year at the blockade of General Motors’ Canadian headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario, after GM announced it would be closing the award-winning pickup truck plant in Oshawa in 2009. This is where I work. Keep reading…
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Manufacturing Gone Missing
Canada’s Economic Disappearing Act
Canadians can be forgiven for being a bit confused about the state of Canada’s economy. Breathless news reports exclaim about the low unemployment rate, surging dollar and buoyant forecasts. But in our neighbourhoods, something seems amiss. Across the country, working people seem to be treading water at best. Keep reading…
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Facebook Facts
Finding Friends and Foes
Unions and workers are making much use of the latest web fad: social networking sites. But are sites like Facebook really adding anything to our ability to organize? If yes, how, exactly? And where are the pitfalls in using online commercial sites for organizing (in every sense of that word)?Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Second Life are hard to avoid these days. For those who haven’t caught the bug yet, these are websites that allow users to organize themselves and… Keep reading…
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Oh Brother
State of the Union Family
“Stop calling me your brother I find it offensive. You are not a member of my family and I do not want to be referred to that way.“That was an e-mail I received at work. And it’s not the first. I get an e-mail like this about once a month. I work for a union local made up of teaching assistants and contract lecturers. Most of them are unionized for the first time, and most of them give me a strange look when I call them Sister or Brother.It’s not that I’m such an old hand at t… Keep reading…
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NEXT UP
A Leadership Program for Young People
“It was either activism or hockey, and I wasn’t allowed to play hockey because I was a girl,” laughs Tria Donaldson, 22, in a quiet Gastown pub. She’s traveled six hours by Greyhound bus through avalanche country from Kamloops, B.C., to the coastal drizzle of Vancouver to be part of “Next Up,” a new leadership program for young people committed to social and environmental justice. Keep reading…
