-
Magazine
The struggle lies beyond the bargaining table
Losing an election or settling for a subpar collective agreement can feel like devastating losses in leftists’ larger struggle for power. As we continue to organize for better working and living conditions, the articles in this issue remind us that the struggle isn’t won at the polls or at the bargaining table, but on the picket line, on doorsteps, and in conversations with our communities.
-
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?
-
Magazine
The case for a prisoners’ union
Organizing prisoner workers is the first step toward abolishing prisons.
-
Magazine
The myth of police as “embattled heroes”
The Winnipeg police union says officers are constantly under attack by everything from “gang members” to video games to bedbugs. It’s a strategy to persuade the public that the only solution is more police and more money.
-
Magazine
Building feminist, anti-racist unions
More strategies for challenging patriarchal white supremacy in labour
-
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
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
The strike-breakers’ playbook
For over 30 years, Canadian employers have turned to a private security firm called AFIMAC to help surveil picket lines, provide scab labour, and break strikes.
-
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.
-
Online-only
How Honda’s anti-union monitor works
At a manufacturing plant in Ontario, Honda management maps out vulnerable “hot spots” on the shop floor as part of an effort to stop its workers from unionizing.
-
Magazine
Invested in crisis
Pension funds control billions of dollars of workers’ money. But when pension funds are invested in real estate, are they really working for workers?
-
Magazine
Prison unionism
How a public-sector union became the leading advocate of jail-building in Manitoba – and laid the foundation for the province’s incarceration disaster.
-
Online-only
It’s time to talk about police in our unions
Toward an abolitionist approach to decent work for all
-
Online-only
Collective action is essential
From socially-distanced protests to virtual union drives, five vital signs of worker organizing during COVID-19
-
Sask Dispatch
State of the unions
Militancy, “negative solidarity,” and fighting to win in Saskatchewan and Canada’s labour movement
-
Online-only
IWW members are transforming Montreal’s community sector
Since a team of workers took over the STTIC’s executive board a year ago, they’ve been making the union more democratic and militant, following the model of the Industrial Workers of the World.
-
Sask Dispatch Briefs
FreshCo contracts “a complete downgrade” for workers
As four Sask. Safeway stores convert to FreshCos, workers are looking at lower wages, fewer entitlements, and fewer benefits
-
Magazine
Alberta’s summer of solidarity
Can Alberta’s labour movement rise to the challenge presented by the new UCP government?