Tag: Unions

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.

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

Organizing prisoner workers is the first step toward abolishing prisons.

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.

More strategies for challenging patriarchal white supremacy in labour

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.

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. 

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? 

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.

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.

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

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.

Pension funds control billions of dollars of workers’ money. But when pension funds are invested in real estate, are they really working for workers?

How a public-sector union became the leading advocate of jail-building in Manitoba – and laid the foundation for the province’s incarceration disaster.

Toward an abolitionist approach to decent work for all

From socially-distanced protests to virtual union drives, five vital signs of worker organizing during COVID-19

Militancy, “negative solidarity,” and fighting to win in Saskatchewan and Canada’s labour movement

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.

As four Sask. Safeway stores convert to FreshCos, workers are looking at lower wages, fewer entitlements, and fewer benefits

Can Alberta’s labour movement rise to the challenge presented by the new UCP government?