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A first post-pandemic political victory—hardly a ‘general strike that could have been’
Moments of struggle always provide openings to build and move forward, and for workers who are participating, to learn key lessons and develop deeper consciousness and understanding. But every struggle and every moment aren’t necessarily similar. As a socialist, one has to look at the particularities of the experience and the potentials, and build on them.
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The general strike that could have been
When the OSBCU strike started, thousands of labour activists across the province were filled with a sense of hope; something all too rare in the labour movement these days. Not only was a union finally defying back-to-work legislation, but they were being joined by other unions, tacitly defying both the bans on solidarity strikes and wildcat strikes. What went wrong?
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Blink! Ford backs off
The Tories set off a bomb. But they were really just following the neoliberal agenda they brought with them to Queen’s Park in 2018: privatizing or diminishing everything that supports the public good—not building it up or making it last. Good neoliberals don’t want to pay proper wages, or ensure that governments meet basic needs like health care, food security, housing and education.
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Ford, CUPE, class struggle and the Charter
Doug Ford’s use of notwithstanding thus becomes a declaration that he is engaged in class war. The legal niceties do not matter. He has unleashed a weapon of mass destruction. The right response is for CUPE, and all those who want to support them, to fight the fight in the same spirit. It is time to show the dominant class that without workers, they would not have anything.
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Ontario government greets education workers with an iron fist
Not content simply to suppress the wages of public workers across the province, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government of Doug Ford has fired a fresh barrage in its ongoing war: it aims to curb the right of education workers to strike. The new front the Conservative Party has opened against Ontario workers occurs at a moment of impasse in a specific contract negotiation.
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The time is now for real resistance to Ford’s austerity agenda
The time has come for real political resistance to Ford and his austerity agenda, writes doctoral student Ryan Kelpin. At the heart of this specific union contract are the foundations of decades of anti-worker politics that must be confronted head-on. These are battles that are won in the streets by rank-and-file unionists and their allies. We must support them.
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Why social workers should support the CUPE 3912 labour strike
The CUPE 3912 labour dispute is the fallout from an inequitable distribution of resources within a two-tiered academic system. It is also an indictment of a two-tiered university professoriate which employs highly paid permanent faculty members while failing to increase pay for precariously employed sessional and temporary assistants and instructors.
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Canada’s militant working class history
Returning to the graveside of trade unionist and a coal miner Joseph Mairs in Ladysmith, British Columbia, we are reminded of a powerful and inspiring history of working class people refusing to submit to exploitation and repression or give in to despair. Not only can we can learn from this history, but we can build on it at this challenging juncture.
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CUPW’s difficult choice
Over the past few weeks, CUPW members across Canada and Québec have been debating whether or not to accept the extension of their collective agreement as proposed by the union’s National Executive Board (NEB). They will have to reach a decision by September 3. Whatever the outcome, writes André Frappier, the decision belongs to the members, and the struggle must continue.
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Nestlé workers demand equal pay for equal work
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, workers at the Nestlé manufacturing plant in Toronto’s west end are facing unfair conditions including part-time pay, pension cuts and precarious employment, and management is unwilling to negotiate a reasonable contract with its employees. As of May 19, more than 470 workers are on indefinite strike after talks between Unifor Local 252 and the chocolate company broke down.