Articles
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Powering Up Vancouver
A Thirst for Change
Where to start? I’ve just been elected as president of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, the first woman president in its 112-year history.We all agree the VDLC is a great labour council, and that retiring president Bill Saunders provided strong leadership and mentorship, but there’s also a sense of new energy, new ideas and opportunity.Our executive has lots of new faces, including five young activists. It’s encouraging to see their enthusiasm and skills. They are… Keep reading…
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Retail Matters
Challenges & Opportunities for Retail Organizing
Fifteen years ago, two young women made history. Debora De Angelis and Wynne Hartviksen united with their retail co-workers to fight for better pay, basic rights and respect through union protection. Hartviksen led a drive to organize a chain of street-front retail stores in Toronto. The Suzy Shier store in the North York Sheridan Mall became the first women’s clothing store in a mall to be unionized in Canada, thanks to the leadership of De Angelis.Today, retail is the most commo… Keep reading…
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Diary Of A G20 Detention
I scarcely registered how the cement sidewalk felt against my cheek. I was preoccupied by the police officers I could feel, but mostly not see, as they kneeled on my back and squeezed the metal cuffs around my wrists tight, and then tighter. Keep reading…
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His Girlfriend’s Job
Why I’m a Union Man
“Can you get my girlfriend’s job back,” he asked. Just like that. It’s almost nine. I’m working late. The phone rings and I pick it up. Nobody calls us this late. We’re a union for chrissake, not some pizza joint. Regular business is over for the day. That’s the way we do it, nine to five. (Although why we do it that way when a lot of folks don’t just work nine to five still eludes me, but that’s a whole other ball of wax.) So anyway, I’m curious about who could be calling and also at a loss ... Keep reading…
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The Canadian War On Queer Workers
Imagine getting pulled into an office by your boss and an RCMP officer and asked, point blank, if you are a homosexual. Or being cornered at a party and threatened with criminal charges if you didn’t reveal the names of gays and lesbians you know who work for the federal government.While these scenarios might seem like nightmares out of the McCarthy era, they played out over and over in Canada, from the 1950s until the 1980s. Keep reading…
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Workers In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
Maclean’s magazine has called Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside “Canada’s poorest postal code,” which effectively takes away any human element from a long-troubled area. Thanks, however, to the workers at organizations like the Portland Hotel Society and the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, people in this long-neglected area are receiving services that help them find the stability, dignity, and support they need in order to turn their lives around. Keep reading…
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Hotels & Hurting
Less Work, More Injuries for Women
You wouldn’t think toiling away in the back corridors of some of the continent’s most luxurious hotels could be dangerous. But women working at many of those brand-name sleep palaces like Hyatt, Hilton, Starwood and Marriot are facing a high risk of injury, compounded by unnerving slides into precarious work. Keep reading…
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Green Jobs & Power
We often propose that green jobs and stronger public services are part of the solution to the economic crisis we face. But the question that keeps nagging at me is one of power: how will we achieve the political power needed to overcome the natural instincts of global capitalism? Keep reading…
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Capitalism: A Love Story
A Review of Michael Moore’s Film
I call it the “C-word.” Capitalism. Even though the system now dominates more of this sorry globe than at any time in history, it’s strange that you almost never hear its name. Leaf through an intro economics textbook at any Canadian university and, almost certainly, you’ll find that the C-word is not even mentioned. It’s as if they’re pretending that capitalism is a natural state of affairs and, hence, there’s no need to name or define it. (Perhaps more perilous for the status quo: if you we… Keep reading…
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Lessons Learned
Organizing at Queen’s University
For some years now union activists have recognized that an effective rank and file-driven union campaign helps build a sense of community and strength amongst the future membership. That’s the kind of campaign we tried to run in the summer and fall of 2008 at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, to organize graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and teaching fellows (TFs). We almost won. It is our hope that the past experience of trying to unionize at Queen’s can be useful for future org… Keep reading…
