Labour - Unions

Surrounded by about 100 police officers in riot gear and a helicopter circling above, more than 50 Walmart workers and supporters were arrested in downtown Los Angeles Thursday night as they sat in the street protesting what they called the retailer's "poverty wages." Organizers said it was the largest single act of civil disobedience in Walmart's 50-year history. The 54 arrestees, with about 500 protesting Walmart workers, clergy and supporters, demonstrated outside LA's Chinatown Walmart.

Dear Ms. Stewart and supporters of the Communities and Coal Coalition,

The BC Nurses’ Union, which represents over 40,000 licensed, regulated nurses across the province, supports your campaign to stop the proposed expansion of a coal-export terminal at the Fraser Surrey Docks. It is our understanding that local governments and health authorities have not been properly consulted, which is a cause for concern.

As President Obama weighs whether to give the Keystone XL pipeline his approval, climate scientists have warned that the volume of greenhouse gases released by the pipeline could push the planet over a climate tipping point. Proponents of the pipeline — which would pump 900,0000 barrels a day of bitumen crude from Alberta's boreal forests to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico — promise that the economic benefits far out weigh whatever environmental damage ensues.

Dear AFL-CIO President Trumka and Our Sisters & Brothers in the Labor Movement:
There is a movement growing across the country and around the world–a movement to fight climate change and build a sustainable future for the planet and its people. This movement will define the 21st Century in the same way that seven great social movements defined the best of the 20th Century: labor, civil rights, environment, LGBTQ equality, women’s, migrant rights, and peace & freedom.

Speech to the founding convention of the Unifor union in Canada

We are living in a time of dis-ease when the millions who are consistently working long hours pass by the millions of unemployed as ships in the night. The former, physically exhausted from overwork, share with the “chronically unemployed,” themselves psychically drained from months of fruitless search for work, the continuum of employment as the extremities – from none to too much. The most obvious solution – to share the work – never enters the popular discourse.

Nora Loreto has released a new book From Demonized to Organized: Building the New Union Movement with support from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives that serves as a call to incite union activists and supporter, debunk anti-union rhetoric and start the conversation around building a strong, community-focus union movement in Canada...video

There's a new interview with Unifor president Jerry Dias, "Young people have been betrayed by Canada" over at rabble. I'm not going to argue with that statement, it's a fact. Young people have few job options, and huge student debts. In the major cities, they will never be able to buy a house. They expect to need dual paycheques to raise a family with no public childcare in most provinces. But let's not kid ourselves.

http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/2013/10/07/canadian-employees-replaced-...

It was unlike any Labour Day Ryan Louis had experienced.

As hundreds of pipefitters and welders arrived at Husky Energy’s Sunrise project for their weeks-long shifts, a company spokesperson told the crew of approximately 270 this would be their last.

Their replacements?

I’m so very happy and honored to be able to share this historic day with you. The energy in this room — and the hope the founding of this new union has inspired across the country – is contagious. It feels like this could be the beginning of the fight back we have all been waiting for, the one that will chase Harper from power and restore the power of working people in Canada. So welcome to the world UNIFOR. A lot of your media coverage so far has focused on how big UNIFOR is — the biggest private sector union in Canada.