Adam D. K. King is an assistant professor in labor studies at the University of Manitoba. He writes the weekly labor newsletter “Class Struggle” at the Maple.
Canada Post once set the standard for secure, middle-class work. Now, as government moves to gut it, postal workers are fighting against a future of gigified delivery jobs, vanishing benefits, and race-to-the-bottom wages.
Earlier this month, flight attendants at Air Canada rejected a proposed tentative agreement by a resounding 99.1%. It was the latest act of defiance by the 10,000 flight attendants at the airline, who illegally struck in August.
The flying experience is increasingly miserable, for both passengers and the people working the cabin. While Air Canada executives rake in millions, flight attendants are unpaid for large parts of their job and ready to strike.
Amazon may be closing its warehouses in Quebec to send a warning to unions, but it still has to get packages to customers. For a company that thrives on controlling warehouses, this retreat may be more costly than it seems.
With 95% backing for strike action, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is taking on Canada Post over wages, pensions, and a fight for the future of public services.
After months of tense negotiations, Canadian rail companies enlisted the government to block a strike, shutting down railworkers’ fight for safer conditions and better hours. The federal intervention sets a troubling precedent for future union talks.
Striking Ontario public alcohol store workers won a new contract with job protections and modest wage increases. However, their future remains uncertain as privatization plans threaten their jobs and public revenue.
Quebec’s public sector witnessed an unprecedented winter of discontent as the Common Front coalition, uniting four major unions, took to the streets. Separate unions brought the total number of workers involved in these historic strikes to well over a million.
In recent autoworker bargaining, the UAW and the Canadian union, Unifor, won groundbreaking deals. But Unifor should seek to match the UAW’s level of rank-and-file engagement going forward.
Workers in Manitoba, Canada, the home of the historic Winnipeg General Strike, are striking to fight against wage repression. This resurgence of working-class strength will impact the province’s upcoming election.
After launching a monthlong strike this summer, union grocery workers in Toronto have ratified a contract that improves wages, enhances benefits, and sets a major precedent for the sector.
Interest rate hikes have brought Canada’s cost-of-living crisis to a fever pitch. And while workers are feeling the squeeze, energy corporations are reaping superprofits.
While the past two years have posed challenges for Canadian union members amid soaring inflation, unions in Ontario have secured remarkable wage gains that have largely gone unnoticed.
Card-check unionization, reinstated by British Columbia last year, proved highly effective, with a 59% surge in union certification applications and a vast majority resulting in new bargaining units. It’s indisputable: card check is a huge boon to labor.
In several Canadian provinces, burned-out health care workers are leaving in droves, a result of wage suppression and attacks on workers. The fight for labor rights is key to fixing Canada’s health care crisis.
Canada’s Liberals are promising to introduce anti-scab legislation next year as part of an olive branch to the New Democratic Party. Unions and the Left will need to hold the Liberals’ feet to the fire to ensure that the legislation has teeth.
Strangers in Their Own Land elicits sympathy for white workers but fails to identify the class forces responsible for their plight.