France on strike

Weeks of strikes, protests and demonstrations have brought much of France to a standstill as workers, students and others voice their strong opposition to a government proposal to raise the age for a minimum pension from 60 to 62.
There are some very good images at The Big Picture.

A man holds a placard which reads "Listen to the public's rage" during a demonstration in front of the French Senate in Paris October 20, 2010. French trade unions kept up their resistance on Wednesday to an unpopular pension reform due for a final vote in the Senate this week. (REUTERS/Charles Platiau)

French high school students kiss on the road in front of the police at the end of a demonstration over pension reform in Paris October 21, 2010. (REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes)

A nurse denounces the anticipated 67-year-old age for retirement during a workers and students demonstration ending at Place de la Bastille on October 12, 2010 in Paris, as part of a nationwide action to protest against the government reform bill on pensions. (JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman holds a sign as she demonstrates during a National Union-Led protest against retirement reform on October 16, 2010 in Paris, France. On the sign, an old woman says "When I was your age, I was already working", and a girl replies "When I am your age I'll still be working." (Julien M. Hekimian/Getty Images)

Right on Brother Young!

Neil Young Pulls Show In Support Of Strikers:

After his annual Bridge School Benefit Concert over the weekend outside San Francisco, Young was advised that the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) union, Local 33, planned to picket his show at the Forum. Striking workers at the indoor arena are engaged in a contract dispute with the venue's owner, Faithful Central Bible Church.

Young elected to cancel the performance rather than cross what IATSE told his representatives would be a picket line at his show. Young and his wife are honorary lifetime members of the IATSE.

Via

Labour Day Niagara Falls 2008

Here's a budding union goon. I survived the Labour Day March with only a farmer tan to complain about. I took some photos if you're interested.

A History of Labour Day

I'm off to the Niagara Falls Labour Day March today.


Via Miss Cellania

Labour Day

An Illustrated History of American Labor:

Five policemen remove a wounded man from the South Chicago plant of Republic
Steel; scene of a vicious battle between workers (four killed; nearly one hundred
injured), local police and hired vigilantes (1937)


More labour links here

The Nag reiterates her hatred of Wal-Mart

Gatineau Wal-Mart workers awarded contract:

A Gatineau Wal-Mart became the first in North America with a union contract yesterday when a collective agreement was put into place between the retailer and eight employees of the store's auto shop.
After a three-year process that ended with a ruling by an arbitrator, the eights employees at the Tire & Lube Express centre, represented by local 486 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada should see their wages rise to a minimum of $11.54 an hour from the current $8.50 an hour.
In 2005, Wal-Mart shut down its Jonquière store, northwest of Quebec City, days before an arbitrator was to impose a contract. The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear the union's case that Wal-Mart violated Quebec labour laws, as well as the Charter of Rights, when it closed the store.
Arbitrator Alain Corriveau, who imposed the Gatineau agreement is expected to make a decision soon regarding a a first contract at a Wal-Mart in St-Hyacinthe, 60 kilometres southeast of Montreal, covering 200 associates and 10 technicians, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, are awaiting their first collective agreement.

Wal-Mart must recognize that Canadian workers won't tolerate being paid minimum wage so that consumers can pay rock bottom prices for foreign-made inferior goods and Wal-Mart can make huge profits. They can close all their Canadian stores, I'd be happier.

Can anyone help me?

The previous post got me thinking about a poster that the Ontario Ministry of Labour put out in the early 90's. It was a circa 1930 photo of an elderly striking worker wearing a sandwich board calling for a 6 day working week. It hung in my office for years but I misplaced it and I'd like to get another one. I've done an exhaustive search of the web but came up with bupkes.
Does anyone out there know where I can find one?

Prevent It

I found this at, of all places, Canadian Design Resource. Warning: these clips about workplace safety are disturbing.

As a political assistant to my party's labour critic I spent a good part of my working career helping injured workers negotiate the maze that is Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. I saw many of these nightmare scenarios over the course of my career.

The Working Wounded

The OSHA was put in place to protect workers but is staggeringly ineffective. These 341,000 workers who died on the job were someone's son, daughter, mother, father, husband, wife, relative or friend. I found this article very disturbing.

In the 38 years since Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act, only 68 criminal cases have been prosecuted, or less than two per year, with defendants serving a total of just 42 months in jail. During that same time, approximately 341,000 people have died at work, according to data compiled from the National Safety Council and the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Read more...

May 15, 1919

Remembering the Winnipeg General Strike
On May 15, 1919, 24,000 organized and unorganized workers in Winnipeg walked off the job. Another 6,000 would soon join them. It was the start of the largest strike in Canadian history, and political leaders at all levels were quick to act. Parliament amended the Immigration Act so British-born immigrants could be deported, and expanded the definition of sedition. In a 1969 CBC Radio documentary commemorating the strike, lawyer Jim Walker talks about Ottawa's new laws.

On this day

On May 1,1983, Shirley Carr became the first woman president of the Canadian Labour Congress. Carr, a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, was also the first candidate with a public-service background to hold the top job. She served two terms. She has always been a leading advocate of women's rights in the workplace and a role model for women in the labour movement.
Carr lives in Niagara Falls so I have been fortunate over the years to have had the opportunity to meet her and to hear her speak about the considerable challenges she faced as Canada's highest ranking female union leader and I was always inspired.

International Workers' Day

In most countries May 1st is a day to celebrate the accomplishments of unions. It is not celebrated in Canada or the U.S. although it originated in the United States. On May 1st 1886 more than 300,000 American workers took to the streets of their cities to demand an eight- hour work day. As the first national action for the eight-hour day, the 1886 strike was closely watched by the rest of the world. The walkout brought much of the nation's work to a halt. Acting on behalf of employers Chicago police killed strikers on May 3 and again in the Haymarket affair on May 4. Leftist labour leaders were rounded up and put on trial; four were executed and a fifth killed himself before execution. At the request of the AFL in 1889, the international labor movement adopted May Day as its international holiday. It is a day of struggle and of pride.
Here's a video I may have posted before but it's a reminder of what unions have done for workers.

Day of Mourning

Plus ça change...

Action urged on unpaid wages
Mike Harris and his slash and burn gang gutted the Ontario Ministry of Labour when they were in power. Unpaid wages were a major issue when I worked for an MPP and it seems that nothing has changed. McGuinty tore into the Conservatives when he was in opposition but it looks like this is another instance of him failing to do anything to rectify an unfair situation when he has the power to do so. These workers earned their wages; they deserve to be paid.

American Industry Upskills to Knowledge Economy

A very clever parody.

Via BB-Blog

Calling Rob Nicholson. Do you hear me? Come in, Rob

It’s the only tender fruit-canning operation in Canada east of the Rocky mountains. It's down the road from me and it's closing, throwing 149 plant employees out of work.
Why? Because canned fruit from countries like China with lax environmental standards and non-existent labour laws is cheaper. We don't want our kids playing with lead-laced toys or our dogs and cats eating lethal pet food made in China. I don't want to eat their toxic pear halves either. Would you trust products from a country where lax regulation and a weak legal system have allowed unscrupulous manufacturers to blend industrial fluids into alcoholic beverages and to sell fake baby formula?
Bear in mind that this closure is taking place in one of the best growing zones in Canada.
What is the federal government prepared to do? The St. Catharines Standard reports that Rob Nicholson, MP for the area, has been incommunicado on the issue.

Sorry internet, we're on strike

Hollywood celebs in solidarity with striking writers

Via Uncorrected Proofs

Niagara hotel workers have an advocate

Danny Glover and Niagara Hotel Workers Headed to Court


Danny Glover, the son of union organizers, does not forget where he comes from. In September 2006, during a rally, Glover and a couple of union folks entered the Sheraton on the Falls Hotel and asked for a meeting with the owner. The owner called police who refused to arrest the three and they left peacefully. Despite this, the hotel decided to pursue a private prosecution. They will appear in court in St. Catharines on October 30.

I know he's an actor but I thought he gave a pretty good speech.

Via Uncorrected Proofs (he's the head on the far left in front of the purple flag)

Sewing Seeds

A history of the textile unions in Canada

It was known as the rag trade: a vibrant 'patchwork' of textile shops in downtown Montreal and Toronto in the 1930s. But as the Depression wore on, clothing manufacturers began to exploit workers in what were already deplorable conditions. Female immigrants sweated in dimly lit factories, working up to 70 hours a week. A large group of textile workers decided to speak out. Their courage helped improve conditions in post-Second World War garment shops, until the introduction of Free Trade and a recession decades later.