• Magazine

    “They don’t know how to fight for this”

    In year four of the COVID-19 pandemic, will unions fight for workers’ right not to get sick on the job?

  • A black and white digital comic with three panels. In the first is four women workers in a factory assembly line. They are all wearing collared shirts, aprons, and bandanas. In the second panel is two workers unloading goods from a ship. The ship is behind them, and they are in the foreground pushing dollies with large rectangular crates on them. The third panel is a close-up of a construction worker suspended in the air. He is wearing a hard hat and a collared shirt. He is holding a rope and grimacing. In the background are half a dozen large buildings.
    Magazine

    Indigenous labour struggles

    From leading one of British Columbia’s earliest strikes to fighting against low wages and racist bosses, some pivotal moments in Indigenous labour history.

  • A black-and-white digital line drawing of five men in wheelchairs, each of them with someone behind them pushing their wheelchair. Behind them are indistinct figures holding a banner that reads
    Magazine

    How Quebec workers won – and kept – anti-scab laws

    If anti-scab legislation is to be extended across Canada, the NDP’s best efforts and the Liberals’ reluctant co-operation might not be enough. The history of the Quebec labour movement can show us how to fight for anti-scab legislation.

  • A digital illustration of two farm workers at work. The farm workers are in the center of the illustration, and both are wearing black rubber books, marine blue pants, and plaid sweaters. They are fist-bumping while holding a crate overflowing with vegetables. Pumpkins, corn, swiss chard, and other vegetables surround them. Plant roots are visible below them.
    Magazine

    Building farm worker power

    Across Canada, farm workers are facing hotter summers and extreme weather, while being denied basic labour protections like a minimum wage. The farm workers organizing within the National Farmers Union want to change agriculture’s unsustainable conditions.

  • A copy of Briarpatch's Nov/Dec 2022 issue on a yellow background.
    Magazine

    Keeping justice in a just transition

    As the term “just transition” gains traction with policymakers and fossil fuel companies trying to paint themselves green, the articles in this issue remind us that a just transition means justice for workers, migrants, and Indigenous Peoples.

  • Magazine

    The right to return to work

    At the beginning of the pandemic, the Pacific Gateway and Hilton Metrotown hotels laid off their workers – then refused to hire them back. Hotel workers are fighting for their jobs, and for the future of the hotel industry after the pandemic.

  • Magazine

    Building feminist, anti-racist unions

    More strategies for challenging patriarchal white supremacy in labour

  • Magazine

    A penny a poppy

    Millions of Canada’s plastic Remembrance Day poppies have been made by prisoners and people labelled with intellectual/developmental disabilities, who are paid pennies on the hour. It’s part of a long history of prisons and institutions using poverty to control disabled and criminalized workers.

  • Magazine

    “Do not ever get used to it”

    Union members and staff say that sexism, anti-Black racism, and other oppressive attitudes are deeply entrenched in many unions. Drawing on a history of women, trans, and racialized workers fighting for their place in the labour movement, trade unionists share ideas to transform unions today.

  • Magazine

    The labour movement is stronger without police in it

    It’s time for unions to expel police from their membership, because a strong labour movement can only be built on a foundation of safety for Black and Indigenous members. 

  • Magazine

    The HuffPost Canada union is dead. Long live the HuffPost Canada union.

    My newsroom unionized. We were shut down two weeks later. Here’s why it was still worth it.

  • Magazine

    Tough conversations about Canada’s labour movement

    Where can we speak honestly about the weaknesses of the labour movement, offering constructive criticism and debating paths forward, without making the movement vulnerable to bad-faith attacks by neoliberal columnists and far-right ghouls? 

  • Magazine

    Raising the floor

    Celebrating the 40th anniversary of CUPW’s 1981 strike, which won postal workers paid maternity leave, and raised the floor for maternal benefits throughout Canada.

  • Magazine

    What is a migrant? And is she a revolutionary?

    Migrants are now a central part of the local working class in virtually every town and city. Organizing against capitalism involves treating migrants not as objects of charity, but as revolutionary subjects.

  • Online-only

    Levelling the playing field

    Canadian Premier League soccer players are being paid poverty wages by billionaire team owners. Now, a new union is helping players fight for dignity and respect.

  • Magazine

    Parasitic Solidarity

    Unions are meant to defend their working-class members against unfair criticism and wrongful termination. But in Winnipeg, the police union is working to obstruct accountability for police officers who kill and abuse people.

  • Online-only

    Amazon, McDonald’s, A&W, Sleep Country, TJX Linked To Anti-Union Conference

    Top Canadian companies were among the sponsors and attendees of Canada’s largest union-busting event, according to photos and documents obtained by Briarpatch.

  • Magazine

    New traditions

    As precarious work becomes the norm, labour activists need to combine the best of our traditions with new approaches that respond to the changing realities of work. To do that, we look to the history of community unionism, worker centres, and whole worker organizing.

  • Magazine

    Mistreated, marginalized, migrant

    Following the deaths of three workers to COVID-19, the experience of migrant farmworkers in Canada has received unprecedented media attention. As a result, workers are winning long-overdue changes to their conditions. This timeline charts the wins and losses of migrant agricultural workers in Ontario during seven months of COVID-19.

  • Magazine

    Exorcise Amazon

    Amazon has made a name for itself in pioneering new strategies for worker exploitation. The best way to fight back is to build worker power from below.