As this article is being written, Loblaw workers across Ontario have
given the leadership of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
union a 97% strike mandate, providing the leadership the option of
calling a strike if they see this as necessary to move their
negotiations with the company forward. This is an astounding figure. Negotiations between Loblaw Companies Ltd. and the UFCW began back in April, though Loblaw has
been unwilling to give an inch on their concessionary demands since that
time. The UFCW locals involved in these collective agreement
negotiations represent approximately 30,000 workers, or a quarter of
Loblaw employees across Canada.
On Thursday, 22nd July, over 600 hotel workers and supporters
demonstrated in front of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Vancouver, shutting
down Burrard Street during rush hour. It was organized by UNITE HERE,
the union that represents 1,600 workers at four major hotels in
Vancouver that are currently in contract negotiations—the Westin
Bayshore, Hyatt, Four Seasons, and the Renaissance. The demonstration
was co-ordinated with protests in 15 other cities across North America,
from Toronto to San Francisco, to fight back against the attacks on
hotel workers from the billion-dollar Hyatt Corporation. In Pittsburgh,
16 hotel workers were arrested by police and given citations for
obstructing traffic.
Shortly after 9:00pm on the night of 18th July, the Maritime Employer’s
Association (MEA) released a short bulletin: as of the following
morning, the longshoremen of CUPE Local 375 would be locked out of the
port of Montreal, closing it indefinitely. This action followed over two
years of negotiations with the union, during which the workers have
been working without a contract. In the official press release, the MEA
complained of union pressure tactics that “have begun to impede Port
operations,” while warning the union to “look more realistically at the
challenges ahead.”
Although over a month has past since the G20 protests, Toronto Police Services continue to run roughshod over civil liberties and continue to clamp down on all forms of dissent in the city.
This is an effort to destroy
any dissent or opposition to the bosses' plans to make the workers
pay for the current capitalist crisis.
We republish a call-out by the Esplanade Community Group on
fighting back against these acts of police violence; Fightback
fully supports the statement and encourage all of our supporters
to get involved in the campaign against police violence. An
injury to one is an injury to all!
Even as it enjoys a new wave of growth and prosperity, Canadian airline
giant Air Canada has launched another in a series of attacks on its
workers. Breaking a promise made earlier this year, the company
announced that it will dramatically increase executive compensation,
while simultaneously refusing to negotiate with pilots, flight
attendants, and maintenance workers who have borne the brunt of Air
Canada's supposed financial difficulties.
In order to protect the elite, the democratic rights of every Torontonian were violated. The G20 met to discuss how to make the vast majority pay for the financial crisis created by the banks and corporations. To perpetrate this theft of wealth from the poor to the rich, they spent $1.3-billion to hire armed goons—money that could be far better spent on social services. This is just the beginning of a systematic attack on the democratic rights to free assembly, free association, and free speech, aimed against working people trying to defend their standard of living.
The mood leading up to this weekend’s G20 summit and the protest against
it became increasingly tense throughout the week. The police and the
state spent plenty of time informing the public of its vast arsenal,
troop numbers, facilities, and readiness to defend the fence—itself a
graphic symbol of the growing class divide not only here in Canada, but
around the world.
Hundreds of workers, activists, youth, trade unionists, and students gathered this past weekend at Toronto’s Ryerson University to organize “The 2010’s People’s Summit: Building a movement for a just world.” Aside from the scores of workshops, the summit was aimed at organizing the week-long series of events and demonstrations against the G20 summit in the city, culminating with the giant rally at Queen’s Park on 26th June.
On 5th May 2010, Junior Alejandro Manon, a Dominican youth living in
Toronto, was pronounced dead after police officers pulled him over near
the Keele Campus of York University. The story given by police, and
repeated the next day uncritically by the corporate press, was that
Manon, having been pulled over and his vehicle being impounded, ran away
from the police and suddenly suffered a heart attack. However, it is clear that Manon is only the latest victim of police brutality against working class people.
In the past, May Day was largely ignored by the labour movement’s
calendar in English-speaking Canada. However, this year was different,
particularly in Hamilton, ON; United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005
hosted a major May Day rally that attracted between 1,000-1,500 trade
unionists from all across Ontario. The fact that the tradition of May
Day has been resurrected for the Ontario labour movement is indicative
of a growing militancy of the organized working-class in this part of
Canada.
On 27th April, a group of young workers, members of the Toronto Young
New Democrats and supporters of Fightback, traveled to the City
of Vaughan, Ontario to visit a large warehouse and loading yard owned by
retail giant Sears Canada Inc. The warehouse workers, members of United
Steelworkers Local 9537, have been locked-out since 1st April. The purpose of the lock-out is to break the union and to send a message to other organized warehouses that they are next.
On Saturday 20th March, 75,000 workers from all over Quebec filled the
streets of Montreal to show their strength, 10 days before the end of
the collective agreement for nearly half a million Quebec public and
para-public sector workers. For the Charest government, the end of the
contract couldn’t come at a worse time, since it is faced with a $4.7
billion deficit for this year’s budget.
The 24th January marked the one-year anniversary of the lockout at the Journal de Montreal newspaper. The 253 members of the reporting and office staff were locked out after a contract dispute over salary, benefits, and media convergence. The issue of media convergence is one that the union has been fighting against.
These days, it seems that not a week goes by without Ontario Premier
Dalton McGuinty threatening workers with some new cut or attack. His
latest volley is aimed squarely at the workers of the Toronto Transit
Commission (TTC) who have been the most successful in fending off
attacks from the bosses and the government.
On 7th January, Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced its plans to shut down
its refinery in East Montreal. Shell intends to transform the refinery,
which currently produces 130,000 barrels a day, into a fuel terminal.
The conversion will take roughly a year according to a spokesperson for
the company. After the conversion, the Montreal East facility will
receive gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel (most likely from Europe),
which will continue to be distributed through Shell's nearby terminal in
Montreal. This would be the second major oil refinery in Canada to
close after Petro Canada shut down their Oakville refinery in 2005. The
union that represents workers at the Shell refinery has already sounded
the alarm that the company is trying to close down the plant in July.
The Vale/Inco strike is entering its fifth month with no end in sight. Despite the efforts of the corporate press to attack the striking workers, community support for the strikers remains strong. By fighting back and winning support from the community these workers are showing that there is another option to capitalism’s race to the bottom.
On 2nd November 2009, 2,700 teaching assistants unionized in CUPE 3906 at McMaster University in Hamilton went out on strike. Although this strike didn't end successfully for workers, combined with recent attacks on university workers and students elsewhere in Ontario, this strike demonstrated the need for solidarity and united action in fighting for better working conditions and better conditions for all students.
In the past year, the entire world has been thrown into convulsions. Almost overnight, the underpinnings of the capitalist system were thrown out the window. Governments around the world have thrown billions upon billions toward trying to prop up the system. Now that the bourgeoisie is talking about "recovery," it is the working class that will be made to pay. In Ontario, both the provincial government and their cohorts at the municipal level are threatening workers with mass service cuts, "Dalton Days," and layoffs. However, we are beginning to see leftward moves in the labour movement that can lead a workers' fightback against these attacks.
HandyDart workers in Greater Vancouver, unionized under ATU 1724, are now on strike. The private company in charge of operating HandyDart services is looking to eliminate the pension plan, slash benefits, and cut shifts in half, amongst other concessions they are looking to extract from workers. This is a big shift for HandyDart workers who have never struck in their 30-year history. At the heart of the dispute is a collision of interests as HandyDart service shifts from a user managed, non-profit service to a profit-making enterprise.
On October 27th, 2009 CUPE local 3903 (teaching assistants and sessional lecturers at York University) was put under administration by CUPE National. Administration means that the executive and members of local 3903 lose the ability to make their own decisions and the ability to determine their own fate. Fightback opposes this dictatorial measure and welcomes the attempt by CUPE 3903 members to take back their union.
The financial press tells us that the economy is now recovering from the financial crisis. However, this doesn’t mean that the effect of the financial crisis is over for workers. Countries all over the world have poured in trillions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to prop the failing capitalist economy, creating the biggest state deficit in history. This will translate into vicious cuts in many sectors, including post-secondary education.
A year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a financial avalanche, the US economy remains in a mess. Official unemployment is steadily creeping toward 10%. The total number of job losses since the recession began two years ago is now nearly 7 million. Health care remains the number one issue facing working Americans, as the average premium for family health insurance offered through an employer surpassed the $13,000 mark this year, far outpacing increases in wages and inflation. It is against this volatile background that Michael Moore premieres his latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story. The fact that a film with such broad distribution even openly calls out the system by name is a tremendous step forward, a reflection of how far Americans’ consciousness has come since the dark days of September 2001.
Sudbury, Ontario: Home of the Big Nickel, education capital of the north, mining town, working class town. Sudbury has different associations for different people. This past year, however, Sudbury is becoming more widely known because of labour unrest. On 19th September 2008 a fire completely devastated Sudbury's Steelworker hall, burning it to the ground. Looking back now, this event was a foreshadowing of a fiery year ahead for the residents of Greater Sudbury.
Vancouver Fightback supporters attended a rally in support of the workers of the Coast Plaza Hotel, a hotel in Vancouver's West End that is closing. The owners are building a new hotel nearby, the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel. In a blatant attempt to break the Hotel's union, the owners are refusing to transfer any of the 150 workers who stand to lose their jobs when the Plaza Hotel closes. Many of the workers, who are organized with Unite Here, have been working for Coast for decades and have been making a living wage.
The weather wasn't the only thing that was hot this summer. A series of confrontations between workers and the bosses this summer showed that despite the fact that many workers are fearing for their jobs and their livelihoods, they would not idly sit back while the bosses, the banks, and the government attempted to attack workers' living standards. On this Labour Day, we can look back at how workers are capable of fighting back, and winning, during this economic crisis.
After 39 days on the picket line the 24,000 members of CUPE locals 416 and 79 have achieved an important victory. This strike was the first major confrontation between workers trying to hold the line, and the bosses trying to make the public sector pay for their economic crisis. Management placed 118 pages of concessions on the table which, in the words of CUPE 416 President Mark Ferguson, were all beaten back. Over the focal issue of banking sick days the union gave some ground, but nowhere near the capitulation that corporate interests were pushing. The results of the strike have important repercussions for the fightback against capitalism's economic crisis.
On 12th June, CUPE held a rally in Windsor to support striking municipal workers. The rally was supported by about 2,000 union and community members. Local 82 (outdoor workers) and local 543 (indoor workers) have been on strike to save their pensions and benefits from being eroded by proposed cuts by the municipality. These cuts to pensions and retirement benefits, targeted towards new hires, are the City of Windsor’s response to the growing economic crisis. The rationale for these cuts make little sense in this context because these savings would not come into full effect until 30 years from now. The only thing that we can ask is, how long does the City of Windsor think this recession is going to last?
At the time of writing, 24,000 city of Toronto workers are on strike; almost 2000 city of Windsor workers have been on strike for 10 weeks, and many other groups of workers across Canada are in dispute or heading that way. There is a common thread running through all of these clashes – management is going on the offensive to slash wages and benefits using the economic crisis as an excuse. This slump was caused by the bosses, the bankers and the corporations. Workers are not responsible for this crisis. Fightback says, “Make the bosses pay!”
Written by David May (Workers' International League)
Thursday, 04 June 2009
President Obama has just passed the 100 day mark of his term in office. What a difference a few weeks makes! Even though GM and Chrysler have already been given millions in public money, Chrysler has now been allowed to go bankrupt. All of its plants will be idled until it emerges from bankruptcy. And despite putting forward the option of a UAW “ownership stake” in GM and Chrysler, Obama is at the same time addressing auto workers with the cold vocabulary of Wall Street: Viability, Profitability and Liability. And these words are not hollow.
The University of Toronto has recently passed a plan to begin charging all students a flat fee, regardless of the number of courses they take. This is yet another attack on students' ability to get themselves an education. Students and student groups need to unite to fight back against these attacks, and push forward for a campaign for free education.
The media love to portray Canada as a country that welcomes all immigrants and gives them an opportunity to succeed. The truth, however, is that as many as 500,000 live and work without "legal" status in Canada, meaning that they are subjected to even more abuse and exploitation than other workers. In addition to this, they are under constant threat of being arrested and deported, such as with the Conservatives' recent raids.
UPDATE: Workers' Compensation Board has ruled against EasyPark and a solidarity picket is being organized for Friday 8th May.
On 12 April, 2009 Jim Mullaly, a CUPE 1004 Health and Safety Rep and union activist, was fired from his job at EasyPark in Vancouver. EasyPark is a public-private partnership owned by the City of Vancouver and the Downtown Vancouver Association. Mr Mullaly recently led a safety campaign demanding proper ventilation and clean air in the underground parkade that he works in.
Marxists in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver were active in intervening at May Day rallies this past weekend. We publish here reports and pictures from the three cities.
Over the past month, the labour movement in Ontario has been heating things up to protect workers’ severance packages, pensions, and jobs. The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) has been playing a leading role in organizing a variety of rallies and demonstrations. Here is a report of two rallies that Fightback has attended.
On March 16th approximately 1000 teachers at UQÀM (University of Quebec at Montreal) went on strike. Their modest demands for better salaries and extra teaching staff has proven to be too much for the administration, the government, and the capitalist system. The resolve of the teachers is strong as they have repeatedly voted 90% and over to remain on strike and the majority of the students at the University are striking in solidarity. In the face of the global economic crisis the teachers and students at UQÀM are standing up and fighting back.
On Tuesday, March 17th, a group of 80 workers in the industrial town of Windsor, Ontario, occupied the Aradco auto parts plant. This occupation marks the re-awakening of the occupied factories movement in Canada and is an important turning point in the ongoing crisis of the North American auto industry.
The US Workers International League analyzes the crisis in the auto industry. As the economic crisis deepens, the bosses will seek to unload the burden onto workers’ shoulders. This underlines the need for militant, class struggle policies in the unions to place the burden of the crisis where it belongs: with the bosses!
The 85-day strike at York University contains many lessons for working class and university activists. The employer was forced to rely on the power of the State to defeat the workers. With the bosses and their government committed to making workers and youth pay for the capitalist crisis, we can expect many similar struggles to the one at York University. There would be no labour movement today if workers were not prepared to break unjust laws. With militant, democratic leadership we can beat back the capitalist offensive.
After years of being forced to breathe in toxic fumes the workers at EasyPark are finally breathing a sigh of relief. Just this week it was announced that the city will be temporarily closing the parkade in order to do an investigation into the health effects. However this has come only after a very long and gruelling struggle for the employees to make their work environment tolerable. The following is an interview with Jim Mulally, a Fightback supporter and one of the leaders who led the fight for better working conditions.
For years, parking attendants at EasyPark in Vancouver have been subjected to toxic fumes vented from the restaurants above the parking lot. These obnoxious fumes vent directly into the work area and are a serious health hazard to the workers. Fightback supporters at EasyPark, members of CUPE 1004, have initiated a campaign against unsafe working conditions at their workplace. The CBC has picked up this campaign through their "Go Public" investigative news section:
Yesterday, Premiere Dalton McGuinty announced that he will be calling back the legislature in order to introduce legislation to force teaching assistants and contract faculty at York University, back-to-work. If CUPE 3903 is to effectively resist this legislation it must call upon all of its members and supporters throughout Canada to resist the legislation in the streets and not just in words.
Dalton McGuinty has drafted legislation that will send York University workers back to work without a fair settlement. This is an attack on free collective bargaining, the right to strike and well-funded, good-quality education. There will be a rally at Queen’s Park in Toronto tomorrow, Jan 25, at 12:00 p.m. Please come out and support workers at York University and speak your mind against McGuinty’s back-to-work legislation.
After the appointment of a mediator, and a significant reduction in bargaining demands by CUPE 3903, the University administration is holding firm. They are backed up by every other university in the country and want to make an example of the York workers. Corporate Canada is increasing its clamour for "back-to-work" legislation and putting pressure on Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty. Support the York workers in their fight for accessible education and free collective bargaining.
On Jan 9, York University appealed to the Ministry of Labour to bring its latest offer directly to the union membership for ratification. The vote took place on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Ten days after the administration walked away from the bargaining table, the results are in: Workers have voted to reject the offer. Is this a surprise? Not really.
January 2009 marks the 10th year that Fightback’s ideas have been present in the Canadian labour movement. Back in 1999, a small group of young activists, largely members of the NDP youth in Vancouver and Edmonton, launched the paper L’Humanité to defend Marxist ideas and promote working class unity (especially between Anglophone and Francophone workers – hence the name). Since then, we have gone from strength to strength. To resonate better with workers in struggle, we changed the name to Fightback, which now has a regular readership from Victoria, to Calgary, from Toronto to Montreal and Halifax. To commemorate our 10th anniversary, we are revisiting a subject that was addressed in our very first issue.
The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario have just rejected the last proposal put forth by the Ministry of Education. The rejection of this proposal sets the stage for further labour unrest in the province.
Workers at York University in Toronto have been on strike since November 6th. The political impact of this strike is in many ways far more important than the actual bargaining issues. York University workers, represented by CUPE local 3903, have traditionally been amongst the most militant in Canada. The York contract is a model for all university workers. Many of these workers are also students and therefore the victory of this strike is a victory in the fight for free accessible education for working class students. Thousands of students recently demonstrated for lower fees in numbers not seen in a decade and many other campus workers are heading into possible strikes. Therefore this strike has the potential of becoming the spark that ignites a generalized movement.
Sign on to Fightback's solidarity campaign to ensure a victory at York!
Workers at Viva Transit North of Toronto have been on strike since October 2nd. 160 workers are fighting a multinational corporation for better working conditions and sick pay. Fightback has been supporting these workers on the line. Now more than ever we need increased workers' solidarity against the bosses.
Sunday, the 27th of July, marks the 90th anniversary of the day that Ginger Goodwin was shot. In commemoration, we are publishing this report of Fightback's participation at this year's Miner's Memorial Day, held in Cumberland, BC.
The past few weeks at GM Oshawa have shown that workers cannot trust the bosses to provide well-paying jobs. At the same time, we have seen that workers are prepared to fight to protect their jobs. The only things lacking are a leadership that has the same militancy as the rank-and-file, and the ideas to take this militancy forward.
Yesterday, the Canadian Auto Workers local 222 held a solidarity rally outside the gates of the Oshawa GM truck plant. There was a real sense of anger amongst the workers present, most of whom were from union families, but this was not the normal crowd that attends demonstrations. These are people who either directly or indirectly will be hit hard by the lay offs.
The mood of the workers was very militant and it is quite clear that they are willing to remain on the picket lines for as long as it takes to win. Terry McDonald, a member of the Oshawa Local's bargaining committee, told Fightback, "We're right. We're going to stay as long as it takes for them to realise that."
The Tuesday announcement of the closure of GM’s Oshawa plant is a slap in the face to auto workers everywhere. The ink is barely dry on the CAW’s new contract with General Motors, a contract that contained many concessions that were supposed to keep this plant, and others like it, open. But General Motors has shown that they never had any intention of living up to their end of the bargain. They held plant closures over the heads of the bargaining committee to get concessions and when they finally got them, they announced they’re closing the plants anyways. 2,600 jobs will be lost. GM and the other auto-giants have shown that they are incapable of running this industry without attacking workers.
After succeeding in unloading the burden of the under-funded education system onto the shoulders of students through a $500 increase in tuition fees over 5 years, the McGill and Concordia University administrations have turned their attacks towards the university workers. Their focus is on the workers who are in a more vulnerable position, namely part-time faculty at Concordia and teaching assistants at McGill.
The 9000 drivers, maintenance workers, ticket collectors, cleaning and other Toronto Transit Commission staff are set to strike Monday April 21st. We call on Mayor Miller and the City of Toronto to come to a fair settlement with the workers of ATU 113 to end the strike. The Provincial and Federal Governments must provide the money to fund our public services, rather than wasting cash on corporate tax cuts and increased military spending.
Ontario can now be considered to be in the middle of a manufacturing crisis. Over 300,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in just a few short years; decent jobs that people can build lives, families and communities on. Those living in the Ottawa valley and Thousand Islands area felt the harsh impact of the so called Free Trade Agreement, with huge plant closures and job losses in the early 90's. Now round two is upon us.
Workers at Canada Post are facing an uncertain future. A quick glance at the publicly owned corporation shows that we’re sailing in troubled waters. We have a CEO who is hell-bent on pushing down wages and working conditions and privatizing the company. The Conservative government would certainly not put a stop to this. Canada Post itself has a massive bureaucracy that is incapable of doing anything quickly or efficiently. All the while, workers are being forced to sort and deliver more mail in less time. It is becoming abundantly clear that this model for a publicly owned company is a failure, but what is the alternative?
Over a dozen people attended a meeting on the recent fraudulent elections in Pakistan on a cold blustery Toronto evening. The meeting was hosted by Canadian supporters of the Pakistani Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC), the first such meeting to date in Canada.
Workers at Loomis Art Store in Vancouver recently won an important victory by organizing a union in the service sector. Some in the labour movement believe that service sector workers cannot be organized or that it is not worth the effort. Typically, the most oppressed, young, immigrant and women workers are concentrated in the service sector. Worker-organizer Kevin Bell details his experiences and shows that only a militant approach can win victory for retail workers.
On Monday August 20th, workers at the Richmond BC Ikea store hit the picket lines in their first ever strike. Teamsters local 213 members are on the picket line in what is turning out to be a very important strike. This struggle carries with it the possibility, not only to raise the living standards of workers at Ikea’s flagship store in Canada, but also to spread the union to other stores. It has the potential to deal a decisive blow to the two-tiered wage system that has been plaguing unionized retail workers for years. This battle must be won.
Vancouver is in the midst of a widespread strike of civic workers. CUPE Locals 15 (inside workers), 1004 (outside workers) and 391 (library workers) have been on strike for approximately four weeks, since talks broke down and the City bosses walked away from the table. For the library workers in Local 391, this is their very first job action. The city’s unwillingness to bargain, coupled with their flagrant hypocrisy around wages and benefits and painfully transparent spin leads us to believe that this will be a very long strike.
Today the major industrialized country with the highest proportion of working days not worked due to strikes or lockouts is Canada, the only OECD country with a higher rate is crisis-ridden Iceland. The high strike rate in Canada is now leading to further radicalisation as workers in the manufacturing sector begin factory occupations against plant closures. Canadian workers are setting the pace; the world will follow.
Over the last 5 years, the Big Three automakers have laid off tens of thousands of autoworkers to protect their profits. On 31st March, workers at the Collins & Aikman (C&A) parts plant in Scarborough occupied their plant when the employer refused to pay their severance package. This occupation can be seen as a tremendous step forward for the labour movement in Ontario and Canada and a sign of things to come.
Daimler-Chrysler announced in mid-February that they were eliminating 2,000 jobs at their plants in Windsor and Brampton. This is just the latest assault against beleaguered Ontario workers. Not that long ago, many workers in Ontario enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in North America, gained from years of struggle and living in Canada’s financial and industrial heartland. Now, in capitalism’s period of decay, those gains have nearly disappeared and the situation looks to be getting even bleaker.
The management of Hershey have released plans that they intend to cut around 1,500 jobs from Canada and the United States in order to shift production to Mexico. This means the closing down of the Hershey plant in Smith Falls, ON in the near future, where the plant is a major employer and is the lifeblood of the community. As many as six hundred workers will lose their jobs so that the company, which is recording a profit, can become even more profitable later.
Written by Mike Palecek, Shop Steward, Vancouver local (in personal capacity)
Monday, 05 March 2007
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has long been known for its strength and militancy in the labour movement. When CUPW was formed in 1965, they led an illegal strike of postal workers across the country that won the right to strike for the entire public sector. Since then, CUPW has led the public sector in the struggle for better wages, working conditions, and rights. But many rank and file activists are today wondering what has become of our union.
The federal minister of labour, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, has threatened to introduce back-to-work legislation in order to end the 10-day old strike by CN workers. On Monday evening, management at CN failed to get the Canada Industrial Relations Board to rule the strike illegal. Now, they have turned to the Conservative government in the hope that the strike can be broken.
Last summer Willie Lambert, a rank and file transit worker from Oakville, Ontario, challenged Buzz Hargrove for the leadership of the Canadian Auto Workers. Lambert campaigned on a program of rank and file driven action against concessions. He argued that the leadership had been moving closer and closer to management and were relying more on backroom deals than militant action. Brother Lambert also strongly criticized the CAW leadership for backing the Liberals in several ridings in the last federal election. The CAW bureaucracy came down hard on him. It was clear leading up to the convention that they were not satisfied by simply winning, but were intent on crushing Willie Lambert.
Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local 175 have given a 95% strike mandate to the union leaders representing workers for Loblaws, Zehrs and Real Canadian Superstore. After a vicious period of attacks on wages and benefits in collective agreements in the food retail sector in Ontario, workers have had enough. The company has declared war against the union and brought in Allan Leighton, a man described as a “veteran of UK labour wars” by the Globe and Mail. This movement of 27,000 workers potentially ushers in a new era of class struggle and possibly a shift to the left in UFCW's largest local on the continent.
Since the betrayal of the Ontario Days of Action in 1996-97, the movement in Ontario has been at one of its lowest levels. This is in contrast to the rest of Canada where most provinces are seeing some of the most militant labour actions since the 1970s. In both British Columbia and Québec, we have seen a burgeoning general strike movement while Newfoundland recently saw the largest strike in the province’s history.
On 16 August, at the constitutional convention of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, delegates voted to officially sever ties with the New Democratic Party and declare “political independence”. The convention’s decision merely formalizes the political line the union leadership adopted in February after the Ontario NDP executive voted to suspend CAW president Buzz Hargrove’s membership. The break between the CAW and the NDP weakens the political position of the working class and must be opposed by all who fight for socialism.
For the past year and a half I have worked at Horizon Distributors, the leading distributor of organic and natural foods in Canada. Having its origins as a workers' co-operative, management has typically made it a point to provide good benefits and take a more relaxed attitude towards work. But, things change. Explosive double digit growth rates have meant an ever increasing workload for the same token wages. In response, we have granted ourselves the right to have a voice and a vote on what we work for.
Written by Maarten Vanheuverswyn -- www.marxist.com
Friday, 11 August 2006
British airports were in a state of chaos yesterday after it was revealed that a terrorist plot had been foiled. Twenty-four people have been arrested on allegations of planning to blow up ten aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean using liquid explosives carried in soft-drink bottles, and detonators disguised as electronic equipment. The gutter press was keen to pick up on the British police's declaration that the explosions could have caused "mass murder on an unimaginable scale".
Fightback's Julian Benson recently spoke with the CAW's Willie Lambert. Lambert is a rank-and-file transit worker from Oakville, Ontario. He is running against Buzz Hargrove for the leadership of the Canadian Auto Workers, Canada’s largest private sector union. In recent years, Buzz Hargrove’s leadership has become synonymous with the idea of “strategic voting” and “lesser evil politics”. Many CAW members feel that the direction that the Hargrove administration is taking the union is one that leads further down the road of defeatism and concessions to the bosses.
The situation in Mexico is approaching a critical point. As hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets to protest the results of the recent election, leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has now laid formal charges of electoral fraud against the Mexican state. While the bourgeois media, both in Mexico and internationally, tries to denounce the claims of fraud, the evidence against the State continues to pile up.
In the past year we have seen the beginning of a mass mobilization of workers and youth against imperialist intervention in Venezuela, and now, Bolivia. In the United States, over 400 people gathered to create the Venezuela Solidarity Network and here in Canada, nearly a dozen labour councils and labour federations, including the Ontario Federation of Labour, have endorsed the Hands Off Venezuela campaign. Much of the mobilization has been with the US in mind, but we must be prepared for the real possibility of Canada playing a lead role in an intervention in Latin America.
On 31 May, high school students took to the streets in Chile to peacefully protest the public education system. 500,000 students marched through the streets of Santiago to demand safer and cleaner schools, free bus fare, an end to university entrance examination fees, and a new curriculum. Students were also upset about a law passed by Augusto Pinochet that put municipalities in charge of education and therefore led to a widening gap between the quality of education of rich and poor areas of Chile.
Stop Press! As we go to print the BC Teachers’ Federation has just reached a settlement with the government. The deal appears to be a compromise with the teachers receiving a 16% wage increase over five years. Such a lengthy contract may not be the best deal for teachers, but whether or not it is ratified by the membership remains to be seen. The vote is not until September, so BCTF members will have an entire summer to consider it. Despite the recent developments, we think it is appropriate to print the original article as the general perspectives remain the same.
Calls for boycotting Israeli academics and universities that do not disassociate themselves from the oppression of the Palestinian people have been growing in several unions internationally, including CUPE Ontario's decision to boycott Israeli goods. How does this connect with the class struggle in Israel? Yossi Schwartz in Israel comments.
In the early morning of 21st April, officers from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) attacked a housing development that had been taken over by Mohawk protestors, arresting at least 16. This is just the latest in a long series of attacks by the Canadian state against Native peoples who are tired of nearly five centuries of brutal oppression.
Throughout our school careers, young people are told repeatedly that we are not to expect the same job security, lifestyle, or even the same living conditions that our parents’ generation enjoyed – as if this constant reminder vindicates the last generation of all wrong doing and justifies worsening conditions. What lessons can Canadian students and youth take from the victory of the French student movement?
No longer afraid of "la migra" (the INS), and feeling the strength and solidarity of their numbers, the sleeping giant of the immigrants' rights movement has begun to stir on a grand scale. Over the course of the last few weeks, this has become the most important debate in the United States.
Led by former Québec premier Lucien Bouchard, a group of “prominent personalities” in Québec issued a manifesto titled Pour un Québec lucide (in English, For a clear-eyed vision of Québec). The document is a crude attempt on the part of the authors to insert themselves into the intellectual history of Québec. Attempting to draw upon Québec’s history and using some of the strongest symbols from its past, it is nothing more than a manifesto of the bourgeoisie for the 21st century. More than that, Pour un Québec lucide is a stark warning to the working class that things are about to change. (by Rob Lyon)
As the dust settles around the British Columbia teachers' strike there is an uneasy calm hanging over the province. Two facts are immediately apparent - first, neither the government nor the labour movement were decisively defeated; and second, this was only a dress rehearsal for the bigger battle to come in the spring.
In the last five years, gas prices in Canada have soared from about 65-cents per litre to over $1.10. This price hike hits the working class hardest. While the right wing are trying to blame taxes for the increase, the majority of Canadians see that corporate super-profits are the real culprit. In a recent poll, 49% of Canadians (and 67% of Quebecers) support nationalizing the oil industry. As Marxists have contended, support for radical policies is far higher than generally realized. This issue could mobilize millions given the correct lead. (by Alex Grant)
Yet again, the BC Liberal Government has removed the democratic right of employees to strike. From the UBC TA's, to the ferry workers and hospital employees, workers rights and public programs are coming under constant attack. Now the Liberals plan to use BC's teachers as their next layer of cannon fodder. On, October 7th, 42 000 public school teachers will illegally walk the line in defence of their right to collectively bargain, to go on strike and to save education for BC's youth.
In a matter of days, all of the contradictions that have been building over the last four years in British Columbia have come to the fore. Gordon Campbell's mis-named Liberals have spent their time in power attacking the working class - slashing social programs, closing schools and hospitals, ripping up collective agreements and sending tuition sky-rocketing. This has been met with several waves of unrest. The movement has passed through many different stages; the working class has learned from bitter experience. Now this battle is reaching new heights. The province stands on the brink of an all-out general strike.
Public broadcasting is one of many sectors whose funding has been slashed by the stooges of big business in government. As a result, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has taken the same approach to cost cutting as used in all sectors; they have chosen to attack the benefits and security of the workers. Management is trying to force through a new contract on their employees - a contract eliminating restrictions on the broadcaster's ability to contract out work instead of hiring full-time employees. (September, 2005)
For about a month, the Truckers' strike at the Port of Vancouver was front and centre in Canada's mainstream media - 'costing British Columbia's economy $75 million a day' ... 'guns fired on the line' ... 'government pressured to intervene' ... It should be no surprise that the story was dropped abruptly when it became clear that the truckers were going to win. The ruling class is correct to be afraid of the repercussions of word getting out about the truckers' victory. (September, 2005)
It's that time again. Time for university and college students to head back to school for yet another year. And for yet another year, students will have to suffer record high tuition fees that restrict post-secondary education for more and more young people. This brutal affair has been going on for nearly a decade now; tuition is double what it was in 1995 and it's only getting worse. (September, 2005)
In spite of the bright lights and cheerful façade that traditionally has come to characterise the fair-going experience, there lies something far more sinister than the poly-saturated fats found in most carnival foods. What emerges is a reality of wide-spread labour violations whose magnitude would seem almost as ridiculous as the clowns, if they weren't so heinous and shameless. (September, 2005)
Telus workers across BC and Alberta have been on the picket lines since Thursday July 21st, making it clear that they will not roll over and take the offer that the company is trying to impose. In five years without a contract, the members of the Telecommunications Workers Union have put up with Telus stalling, conniving, and repeatedly bargaining in bad faith, in a blatant attempt to break the union. (July, 2005)
Fightback calls for the nationalization of telecommunications under democratic workers’ control, as the only solution to the problems of poor management at Telus. (July, 2005)
For the past few weeks in Ontario, all focus has been directed towards the provincial government’s decision to overturn mandatory retirement, and replace it with voluntary retirement. The provincial government claims that it no longer wants to force people to retire at the age of sixty-five, but rather wants to allow people to choose their retirement age. On the surface, this retirement policy seems like an excellent step for the McGuinty Liberals to take: the provincial government is providing people with more “lifestyle choices”. However, voluntary retirement impacts the working class in a negative way, and only masks the crisis of capitalism. (July, 2005)
In the past two years, we have seen an incredible mobilization of the Canadian working class as the contradictions of capitalism have become even more evident. Ontario, however, has been the exception, even though the capitalist attacks on workers are probably the most severe in Canada . Which way forward for Ontario workers? (June, 2005)
Québec is in crisis and has just witnessed the largest student strike in 30 years. What is needed now is an honest appraisal of the objective failures and successes of the strike, and a sober discussion of how to build from the current situation in preparation for future battles. (May, 2005)
Les cégépiens de partout au Québec ont quitté leurs salles de classe le Jeudi 24 Février 2005 pour amorcer une grève illimitée protestant les coupures de 103$ millions en matières de prêts et bourses de la part d'Uncle Scrooge, mieux connu sous le nom de Monsieur Charest. (March, 2005) >>>Also available in English
Once again the workers of Québec are pointing the way forward for the rest of Canada. From over 100,000 taking to the streets of Montréal on May Day to the occupation of an Alcan smelting plant north of Montréal, now Québec has become the first place in North America in which a Wal-Mart store has unionized. Wal-Mart is the 4th largest retailer in the world, and is renowned for its anti-union policies. Without the correct tactics, the fate of almost 200 organized Wal-Mart employees and the fate of another store that has won union recognition, hang in the balance. (March, 2005)
Mainstream feminism has attempted to reduce March 8th to a vague and depoliticized celebration of the female sex as a homogenous group, but to socialists and working class women the world over, it as a day for mobilizing. International Working Women’s Day was instituted on the proposal of comrade Clara Zetkin at the second International Conference of Women Socialists, held in Copenhagen in 1910, with the aim of mobilizing women for the struggle against bourgeois domination. Much to the chagrin of liberals and moderates alike, this is exactly the role that International Working Women’s Day has played – most notably in 1917. (March, 2005)
A year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a financial avalanche, the US economy remains in a mess. Official unemployment is steadily creeping toward 10%. The total number of job losses since the recession began two years ago is now nearly 7 million. Health care remains the number one issue facing working Americans, as the average premium for family health insurance offered through an employer surpassed the $13,000 mark this year, far outpacing increases in wages and inflation. It is against this volatile background that Michael Moore premieres his latest film,