Articles
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Growing Older, Working Longer
The New Face of Retirement in Canada
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Ottawa, 2006$19.95, 254 pagesISBN: 0-88627-473-7Review by Ruth LattaBaby boomers need not be afraid of Growing Older, Working Longer, at least not of Monica Townson’s recent book with this title. This 254-page report by an expert in social policy provides a thorough examination of the changing nature of retirement. Townson has been an economic consultant to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, served on t… Keep reading…
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Labourstart And Stop
Online Activism and the Need for Interaction
A few years ago I did a short piece for Our Times about the Internet asan organizing tool. I concluded that, as a tool for helping unioncertification drives, the Internet didn’t yet have a whole lot to offer.This is still true, partly because our legal system is running behindand not all that interested in catching up and partly because theInternet isn’t yet completely imbedded in our culture (especiallyamongst the over-40 crowd). But, mostly, it’s because organi… Keep reading…
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Imagine There’s No Labour Board - Counterpoint
Organizing workers, on the face of it, should be far easy than it is.Twenty-first century Canadian workers, after all, are not slaves, norare they indentured servants. They have extensive rights as workers,which have long been codified in provincial, federal and eveninternational treaties, regulation and law. Put plainly, and as RoyAdams point out, whether or not workers are union members, they have theright to organize collectively, negotiate with their employer… Keep reading…
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Imagine There’s No Labour Board - Point
Roughly seven of 10 Canadian workers are unable to collectively negotiate their conditions of work. There are many reasons for this unsatisfactory state of affairs, including employer opposition to collective bargaining and inadequacies in our labour policy framework. One important reason for the representation gap has gone generally unrecognized. The language that we use to talk about labour relations, and the imagery embedded in that language, have put us in a prison of our own construction… Keep reading…
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Collective Bargaining as a Constitutional Right
A Supreme Decision
It’s not often that labour celebrates a decision by the courts, but a June 8th ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada, in a case involving health care unions and the British Columbia government, is a notable exception. Keep reading…
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Labour, Climate Change and Alberta’s Oil Sands
In the Belly of the Beast
The oil companies leading the charge in Fort McMurray are doing more than developing oil sands; they are also developing a lot of clout in political circles. They have enough influence to make sure that no Conservative politician whispers a word about slowing down the pace of development, or dealing with the environmental consequences the development creates. Keep reading…
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LABOUR’S IMAGE
Back-Page Commentary
For a while there when I went to parties with people I didn’t know, I could usually stop the conversation any time I wanted. All I had to do, when they asked me what I did for a living, was say: “I do public relations for a union.” Keep reading…
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Face To Face Or Cyberspace
I’m a webhead. Ask my partner, my co-workers, friends, myfamily. Many of them wouldn’t ever see or hear from me if they didn’t have ane-mail address.So it pains me to say this: the web ain’t what we thought it would be when itcomes to union recruiting in the 21st century. In the mid-‘80s, I and a bunchof other tech-inclined types were (insufferably) convinced the Internet was goingto change the labour movement in a profound w… Keep reading…
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Making The Right Choices
Bill Murnighan’s article “Organizing at a Crossroads” is a first-ratesurvey of labour’s organizing challenges and the grim situation facingworking people and their unions in Canada: a stagnant union densityrate; labour market changes heralding a steep decline in unionization;more low-paying service jobs; etc. Labour faces real choices aboutvarious paths to growth and failing to make the right ones might placeus squarely in the middle of the intersection, open to… Keep reading…
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Are Unions Obsolete?
Around the world, unions are in decline. For the first time since the 1960s, the proportion of Canadians who belong to unions has fallen below 30 per cent. Private sector union workers, once the bastion of organized labour, are down to 14 per cent. Those employees whose numbers are growing the fastest in Canada — the young, immigrants, the private service-sector wo… Keep reading…
