Canada

  • Quebec Steelworkers Face Mining Pariah
    Jocelyn Desjardins
    May 24 2012 - 1:10pm
    ** Print only

    In a town of 30,000, when 8,000 demonstrate, it does not go unnoticed.

    In the small community of Alma in southern Quebec, unions gathered on March 31 for a solidarity march to denounce the lockout of 780 aluminum workers. They came from from all over Quebec and Canada and from a dozen countries where the multinational mining giant Rio Tinto has installations.

  • Ontario Caterpillar Workers Locked Out for Refusing Half Pay
    Jane Slaughter
    Jan 30 2012 - 1:00pm

    “They issued an ultimatum, I wouldn’t call it bargaining,” said union negotiator Bob Orr. Caterpillar, despite $4.9 billion in profits, is trying to force 50 percent wage cuts by locking out 465 skilled locomotive builders.

  • Toronto Mayor Set to Lock Out City Workers
    Jane Slaughter
    Jan 24 2012 - 12:30pm

    Toronto’s mayor wants to privatize a raft of city services and to clear the way, he's taking on the largest public sector locals in Canada. Counting down to what looks like a lockout February 5, unions are scrambling to make their case to city residents.

  • Winning the P.R. War in a Contract Campaign
    Randy Robinson
    Dec 14 2011 - 3:47pm

    How does a union win a public relations war in the mainstream media? An Ontario union trained members, emphasized internal mobilizing, and communicated directly with the public to spread a campaign that communities need good jobs.

  • Toronto-Area Transit Workers Strike against Privatization
    Mischa Gaus
    Dec 1 2011 - 12:11pm

    “The problem is privatization,” says Toronto-area transit union leader Bob Kinnear, so bus drivers are on strike to bring the problem to the public. Passengers north of Toronto pay the highest fares in the area, but workers get the lowest wages.

  • Relearning Solidarity in the Air Canada Strike
    Sean Smith
    Jun 27 2011 - 4:23pm

    Air Canada's customer reps survived the airlines' decade of crisis by sacrificing hard-won gains. But when they were faced with a crush of concession demands this month, they struck, and built an activist corps in the process.

  • Canadian Government Pulls a Wisconsin on Postal Workers
    Howard Ryan
    Jun 21 2011 - 4:07pm

    After 48,000 Canadian postal workers launched a rolling strike in response to unproductive contract negotiations, the country’s Conservative government is pushing back hard. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has introduced back-to-work legislation that bears the smell of Wisconsin and Ohio.

  • Unions Cross Borders to Organize Guestworkers
    Jenny Brown
    Jun 13 2011 - 10:23am

    Faced with a surge in guestworkers laboring in the fields, farmworker unions in the U.S. and Canada are crossing borders to organize them and to hold governments to account for programs that exploit workers.

  • Ontario's 'Days of Action' - A Citywide Political Strike Offers A Potential Example for Madison
    Dan La Botz
    Mar 9 2011 - 9:58pm

    With events in Madison unfolding by the hour, we are reposting the story of the Ontario "Days of Action" to offer practical advice for mounting huge strikes and demonstrations. In the late '90s, unions in Ontario, Canada, conducted 11 citywide strikes against the Conservative government's policies. The strikes featured cross-picketing in each other's workplaces and broad labor-community coalitions.

  • Canadian Postal Workers Fight Closures, Speedup, Two-Tier
    George Floresco
    Jan 5 2011 - 10:07am

    The Canadian Union of Postal Workers aims to stop cuts despite hard times, less mail, and their boss’s love affair with machines. CUPW is reaching out to the public, proposing expanded services.