At Rio Tinto Alcan in Saguenay and at Caterpillar’s Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London, workers have been locked-out facing obscene concessions. Approximately 30,000 City of Toronto workers are facing a lockout in early February. This is just the start of a cross-Canada bosses’ offensive against workers in 2012. This is no longer the normal back-and-forward of union negotiations — it is the beginning of naked class war by management against labour. This offensive can be defeated, but only with concerted solidarity action by every sector of the working class.

The past year has been particularly difficult for thousands of workers across Quebec and the rest of Canada.  Workers have had to deal with back-to-work legislation, the closing down of various factories, and defeats at the negotiating table. On New Year’s Eve, Rio Tinto Alcan managers met to discuss the rejection of the proposed collective agreement of the three union units at the plant in Alma, Quebec.  Overnight, the bosses sent security guards into the factory to remove the workers there — a lockout was declared.  The plant employs close to 800 workers and is one of the largest aluminum producers in North America.

465 members of the Canadian Auto Workers are currently locked-out at Caterpillar's Electro-Motive Diesel Plant in London.  Shamefully, the company is demanding a 50% pay cut from its employees.  This lockout cannot be seen in isolation; it is part of a broad assault by the ruling class, who are attacking workers and pushing down wages around the world.  This struggle could be precedent-setting and have wide implications for workers across Canada.  The entire labour movement must respond.

Over 600 transit workers in the York Region area have been on strike, affecting 85 bus routes. For nine weeks, these workers have been fighting with a host of private contractors operating the York Region Transit (YRT) services, to get better wages and working conditions. Throughout the labour dispute, these transit workers, organized in the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) locals 113 and 1587, have pointed to the fact that they are far underpaid compared to their counterparts in neighbouring jurisdictions.

It has been nearly a year since the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA) began negotiations with the university administration for a new contract.  By November 2011, MUNACA workers will have been on strike for two months, and the only movement from McGill so far has been to increasingly restrict the freedoms of its own employees as they attempt to get their voices heard and negotiate a fair contract.  Most recently, MUNACA and McGill broke off talks as the union's key demands received no recognition from the university.  The situation is rapidly coming to a head.

Fightback, the Marxists in Canada, wholeheartedly support the #occupy movement, and will do whatever we can to promote and spread it. Our comrades in the United States, organized in the Workers International League, are already active participants in New York and other major cities where the movement has spread. In Canada, we are doing our part in Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, and especially Toronto -- the heart of Canadian finance capital. The key step for this movement is to take it from the street to the wider working class and labour movement. Not a light shines, not a wheel turns, without the permission of the working class; if we can mobilize working people we will win the power to overcome the corporations.

The recent labour dispute between flight attendants and Air Canada management, ending under threat of “back-to-work” legislation, highlights that the democratic right to strike is under serious threat. The right to withdraw one’s labour is an essential component of the right of freedom of association for workers; without this right, workers and their unions have little ability to negotiate decent working conditions. The use of back-to-work legislation effectively means that no workers have the right to strike without government approval. Especially with a Harper majority government, this tool can be pulled out haphazardly as the Conservatives fight to protect the interests of big business in Canada at the expense of workers.

For decades, the workers of Couche-Tard had been a raw material for exploitation because they did not have a union. Minimum wage, non-existent job security, belligerent management, very little benefits and vacation time - these are the conditions faced by Couche-Tard workers, the majority of whom depend on this job as their sole income. But enough is enough. Couche-Tard workers are now taking a bold decision to organize, and because of this they are being punished by their employer.

The austerity has begun, and workers are the main target. The new Conservative majority government is showing us that all democratic rights and freedoms will be trampled if corporate profits are threatened. Conservative Labour minister Lisa Raitt has stated that she is prepared to put an end to workers’ democratic right to negotiate a new contract and better working conditions by legislating Air Canada and Canada Post workers back to work.

As of Tuesday morning, nearly 4,000 customer service workers at Air Canada went on strike.  Unionized under the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW), the Air Canada workers are one of four unions currently fighting for better wages and to defend their pension rights from the company.  Since 2004, workers at Air Canada have had their wages frozen (an effective 10% wage cut) while the airline and its executive collect massive profits.