Articles

• Making The Right Choices

  By Brad James & David Mackenzie     October 1, 2003

  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…

• Are Unions Obsolete?

  By Don Wells     August 4, 2003

          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…

• Adapt To Change

  By Megan Flannigan     August 3, 2003

          I read the article “Organizing at a Crossroads” with         great interest. I think the author, Bill Murnighan, might have         been less pessimistic about the labour movement’s future if he         were more familiar with the remarkable organizing momentum of unions         such as UFCW Canada (United Food and Commercial Workers), the union         I am interning with this summer.  ... Keep reading…

• Forget The Numbers

  By Derek Blackadder     August 1, 2003

              I should admit up front that, in 30 or more years of having             a chequing account, I have never had a properly balanced chequebook.            Numbers, columns, rows and totals all drive me crazy.            What I like most about Bill Murnighan’s piece is that it’s             forward-looking and balanced. We have the benefit of having             watched what’s happened ... Keep reading…

• 10 Ways Bosses Break The Law To Try To Stop You From Unionizing

  By Bill Murnighan     July 3, 2003

          Canadian laws say that workers have the right to join a union,          free from interference by their employers. But that is not the         way it always works: employers regularly cross the line. Here are         10 common ways that employers break the law during organizing drives         (and if they do any of the following, let your union representative         know):        ... Keep reading…

• Pssst! Wanna Join A Union?

  A Short Story About How to Unionize

  By Lynn Carlile     July 2, 2003

  Jenny worked in a restaurant franchise and was fed up with her low pay and the unfair way she was treated by her supervisors. Jenny got no benefits, either, which made it really hard for her when she had to go to the dentist. She and her co-worker Mohamed had complained to each other, and to their friend Serena, for months. At the restaurant where Serena worked, the employees had formed a union.Finally, Jenny’s frustration boiled over one day when she was having coffee with Serena and ... Keep reading…

• Organizing At A Crossroads

  A Good News, Bad News Story

  By Bill Murnighan     July 1, 2003

  For most of the last 10 years, management at the Freightliner Sterling truck plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, was none too pleased with the idea of the plant’s 1,100 workers joining a union. In fact, the company let its feelings be known, and organizing attempts were successfully fought off. But the plant is a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler, which, in the fall of 2002, was negotiating a new agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union. The CAW found itself in a respectful negotiating relationsh… Keep reading…