Workers Issues in Canada
Quebec Federation of Labour’s Solidarity Fund sponsors speech by Conservative Party leader Scheer
By Laurent Lafrance, 15 October 2019
The QFL’s promotion of the Conservative Scheer attests to the trade union bureaucracy’s readiness to collaborate with the most right-wing forces.
Chilean railway workers walk out; strike vote by Vancouver BC transit workers
Workers Struggles: The Americas
15 October 2019
Workers at Ferroarriles del Pacífico struck eight cities in Chile over wages while 3,200 transit workers in Vancouver have voted to authorize strike action after months of futile negotiations.
CUPE torpedoes Ontario school support-staff strike, accepts Ford’s wage and budget cuts
By Roger Jordan, 8 October 2019
CUPE has agreed to a sell-out contract that strengthens the hand of the Ford government as it presses forward with savage cuts to education, including dramatic class-size increases.
Public employees union blocks strike by 55,000 Ontario education workers
Workers Struggles: The Americas
8 October 2019
A deal reached just before a midnight Sunday strike deadline by the Canadian Union of Public Employees ended the threat of a walkout by school support workers across the province that could have cancelled classes for up to 2 million students.
Canada: Five thousand public sector workers strike in Saskatchewan
By Carl Bronski, 7 October 2019
The strike, involving workers at SaskPower, SaskTel, SaskWater, SaskEnergy, the Water Security Agency and two SaskTel subsidiaries, is the largest in Saskatchewan for decades.
Quebec prosecuting nearly 100 crane operators for “illegal” 2018 strike
By Louis Girard, 3 October 2019
While the government is making an example of the crane operators with the aim of intimidating workers into bowing before the anti-strike laws, the unions are deafeningly silent.
BC municipal workers authorize strike
Workers Struggles: The Americas
1 October 2019
The threatened strike by municipal workers in Coldstream, British Columbia comes as 1,000 hotel workers are continuing their strike in Vancouver and 3,000 BC forestry workers remain on strike against Western Forest Products.
Half a million people join Montreal climate change protest
By our reporters, 30 September 2019
The scale of Friday’s protest attests to mounting popular anger at the failure of the world’s corporate-controlled governments to address this social and ecological crisis.
Argentine teachers set for national strike; Vancouver B.C. hotel workers walk out
Workers Struggles: The Americas
24 September 2019
Argentine teachers have set a September 25 date for a nationwide strike to press wage demands while 1,000 hospitality workers in Vancouver, British Columbia have launched an indefinite strike
Unifor shuts down Nemak auto parts strike in Windsor, Canada
By Carl Bronski, 19 September 2019
Bitterly opposed to mobilizing tens of thousands of Canadian and striking US autoworkers in support of Nemak workers, Unifor has handed the initiative back to the company and the state.
Canada’s media join Conservatives in pushing for RCMP to play key role in election outcome
By Roger Jordan, 16 September 2019
The Trudeau government is a pro-austerity, pro-war government that must be implacably opposed by the working class. But in doing so, it must lend no support to the reactionary intrigues of the Tories and their media allies.
Canada’s pseudo-left Fightback group covers for Steelworkers’ betrayal of ABI workers
By Félix Gauthier and Richard Dufour, 14 September 2019
Fightback’s miserable apologetics for the union bureaucracy goes hand in hand with its promotion of Quebec nationalism.
As union prepares sell-out of their struggle
Unifor President Jerry Dias addresses Nemak workers in Windsor
By Carl Bronski, 13 September 2019
A court ruling is expected as soon as Friday on an order demanding the taking down of picket lines at the parts plant where workers walked out last week in defence of jobs.
Ontario education unions disarm teachers, support staff facing attack on jobs and conditions
By Roger Jordan, 11 September 2019
The unions are seeking to block a teachers strike, because they fear it could trigger a broader working-class challenge to the Ford government and the agenda of austerity.
The struggle of autoworkers against GM, Ford, and Chrysler requires a global strategy
By Jerry White, 11 September 2019
Just days before 158,000 US autoworkers face a contract deadline, GM workers in Korea and Mexico have entered the battle, underscoring the need to unify autoworkers across national borders.
Court orders end to “unlawful” Windsor, Ontario auto parts strike
By Carl Bronski, 6 September 2019
Unifor President Jerry Dias is again ramping up his anti-Mexican demagogy in an effort to divert the struggle by workers at parts maker Nemak who have blockaded the plant in an effort to defend their jobs.
Quebec: New attack on crane operators provokes strong opposition
By Louis Girard, 5 September 2019
The government’s regressive regulatory “reform” poses a serious threat to the safety of both the public and construction workers.
Unifor tries to keep Canadian autoworkers in the dark about US contract battle
By Carl Bronski, 4 September 2019
The Unifor bureaucrats are terrified that the impending struggle of US Detroit Three workers could trigger a unified cross-border offensive by autoworkers.
Uruguayan health care workers strike, teachers poised to walk out in Washington state, British Columbia
Workers Struggles: The Americas
27 August 2019
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Unifor convention gives centre-stage to Trudeau, Freeland and the Liberal re-election campaign
By Roger Jordan and Carl Bronski, 24 August 2019
Unifor is spearheading a massive union drive to keep the big business, pro-austerity, pro-war Trudeau Liberal government in power.
Ontario teachers face threat of state repression, wage and job cuts in upcoming contract fight
By Carl Bronski, 23 August 2019
The role of the teacher unions has been to hand the initiative to the Ford government, allowing the Tories to unveil a sweeping assault on teachers’ wages and working conditions without their organizing any meaningful opposition.
“We are in a war with social injustice that cannot be reversed without an uprising”
Oshawa autoworker speaks on wildcat strikes, Unifor treachery
By Marcus Day, 9 August 2019
An autoworker at a supplier factory for GM’s Oshawa Assembly Plant in Canada, which is set to close later this year, spoke to the WSWS about last week’s wildcat strikes.
Canadian auto parts workers stage wildcat strike as Oshawa GM plant closure looms
By Carl Bronski, 7 August 2019
The short strike was organized by rank-and-file workers independently of the pro-company Unifor union, which spent the day telling workers to get back to work.
Quebec: A political balance sheet of the United Steelworkers’ betrayal of the ABI workers
By Laurent Lafrance, 5 August 2019
The United Steelworkers and Quebec Federation of Labour systematically isolated the ABI workers’ militant anti-concessions struggle after an 18-month lockout.
Two-day strike by Peruvian doctors
Workers Struggles: The Americas
23 July 2019
Doctors struck to press demands for increased funding for healthcare, salary increases and an end to supply shortages.
Ontario government writes off 2009 auto bailout loan to Chrysler
By Carl Bronski, 22 July 2019
The federal Conservative and Ontario Liberal governments handed $13.7 billion over to the auto bosses at General Motors and Chrysler, while extorting massive wage and benefit concessions from autoworkers.
British Columbia forestry workers strike enters third week
By Jean LaChance, 17 July 2019
The USW is determined to isolate the forest workers and reach a rotten compromise with WFP management.
Nurse shortages persist after UAW sellout of Mercy Health St. Vincent strike
By Shannon Jones, 17 July 2019
The fight by nursing staff in Toledo, Ohio has important lessons for the overall fight in defense of healthcare as well as for autoworkers facing demands for more health givebacks.
Argentine bus drivers carry out one-day strike, judge orders fines for American Airlines workers over protest actions
Workers Struggles: the Americas
16 July 2019
Bus drivers across Argentina carried out a one-day strike on July 11 to press wage demands.
Build rank-and-file committees to prepare a political general strike against Ontario's Doug Ford!
By the Socialist Equality Party (Canada), 15 July 2019
To prevail in this fight, workers must break free of the trade unions and NDP, and unify their struggles in a global working-class counter-offensive against capitalist austerity and war.
18-month lockout at aluminum plant ends
Quebec ABI workers’ struggle betrayed by United Steelworkers Union
By Laurent Lafrance, 11 July 2019
The unions isolated the workers at ABI and collaborated with the corporation to impose a defeat that will be used to attack working conditions throughout the industry.
Costa Rican public health workers strike over pay cut, government policies; truckers block highways
Workers Struggles: the Americas
9 July 2019
Three Costa Rican public health unions began strike action July 4 against government policies while Costa Rican truckers blockaded highways over imposition of a value added tax.
Quebec: Alcoa issues ultimatum to locked-out ABI workers
By Keith Jones, 2 July 2019
The United Steelworkers Union has refused to make any public comment on Alcoa’s ultimatum, let alone coupled an emphatic call for it to be rejected with an appeal for workers across North America to come to the ABI workers’ defence.
Ford announces 12,000 layoffs, five plant closures across Europe
By Will Morrow, 28 June 2019
A global restructuring is underway, with all the automakers relying on the trade unions to seek to suppress the seething and growing opposition of autoworkers.
Quebec: ABI lockout in its 18th month
By Laurent Lafrance, 27 June 2019
Having isolated the ABI workers and promoted the lie that Quebec’s right-wing premier would come to their aid, the union is now turning to Québec Solidaire to give it a “left” cover.
Whitewashing Canadian capitalism’s crimes:
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s inquiry issues final report
By Roger Jordan and Keith Jones, 21 June 2019
The MMIW report shifts the blame for the oppression of the native people from Canadian capitalism and its state to a racist “colonialist” mindset and “white society.”
Quebec premier denounces workers’ “high wages,” supports employer drive to extort concessions
By Laurent Lafrance, 12 June 2019
Quebec Premier François Legault and his right-wing populist Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government are on a collision course with the working class.
The global assault on jobs
By Jerry White, 5 June 2019
Job cuts by the Australian telecommunications company Telstra are part of a wave of international layoffs that urgently point to the need for a globally coordinated response by the working class.
Workers Struggles: The Americas
Mass demonstrations in defense of education in Brazil, Honduran educators and doctors strike
4 June 2019
Mass protests are continuing in Brazil against education cuts by the right-wing Bolsanaro administration while striking Honduran teachers and doctors held protests against privatization of healthcare and education.
Longshore union sabotages strike by 2,000 dockworkers in Vancouver, British Columbia
By Roger Jordan, 28 May 2019
Despite a 98 percent strike vote by dock workers, the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada called off the strike just hours before it was to begin.
Chilean professors call for strike, teachers in Honduras begin nationwide walkout
Workers Struggles: The Americas
28 May 2019
Members of Chile’s College of Professors have set a June 3 strike date, meanwhile Honduran teachers declared a nationwide walkout over threats to privatize education.
Three-day strike by Mexican teachers against “education reforms”
Workers Struggles: the Americas
21 May 2019
Last week teachers all across Mexico took part in strikes and protests to oppose continuing attacks on public education being overseen by the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Canada’s government uses bogus “foreign interference” claims to expand censorship ahead of federal election
By Penny Smith and Roger Jordan, 17 May 2019
The government’s reactionary campaign has the twin aims of legitimizing censorship of social media and whipping up hostility against Russia and China, which Canadian imperialism views as its most dangerous rivals.
How Québec Solidaire abetted the rise of anti-Muslim chauvinism
By Richard Dufour, 15 May 2019
Québec Solidaire’s volte-face on discriminatory measures is to try to cover its tracks under conditions where it is increasingly being discredited as an accomplice of the far right.
One-day general strike in Colombia
Workers Struggles: The Americas
30 April 2019
Workers mobilized in opposition to the National Development plan being proposed by President Ivan Duque that would mean significant attacks on workers.
GM continues tax avoidance schemes while it slashes thousands of jobs
By George Kirby, 26 April 2019
General Motors has received billions of dollars in government tax benefits over the past decade even as it continues to cut jobs and extract concessions from workers.
Ontario Tory government intensifies assault on workers’ rights
By Penny Smith, 26 April 2019
Ford’s thinly veiled threat to criminalize teachers’ strikes must be taken as a serious warning: emboldened by the unions’ complicity, the Tories are escalating their class-war assault.
Workers Struggles: The Americas
Argentine newspaper and casino workers strike
23 April 2019
Workers at Clarín and sports daily Olé walked off the job April 17 over the firing of 56 of their colleagues while workers struck all Buenos Aires-area casinos for 48 hours over threatened closures.
Mexican teachers protest while DHL and Amazon pilots protest stalled talks
Workers Struggles: The Americas
16 April 2019
Workers in a number of towns in Chiapas are protesting education “reforms” under the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador while air cargo pilots protested outside Amazon’s offices in Florence, Kentucky.
Quebec premier backs ABI in extorting massive concessions from locked-out workers
By Laurent Lafrance, 12 April 2019
Legault’s pro-company bullying underscores the utter bankruptcy of the strategy of the USW, which has isolated the ABI workers while urging them to put their faith in appeals to Quebec right-wing CAQ government.
US independent trucker group calls for shutdown, protests in Argentina against austerity
Workers Struggles: The Americas
9 April 2019
A group of US owner-operator truckers has set April 12 for a protest over rates and regulatory issues, while tens of thousands in Argentina marched to protest the Macri government’s anti-worker economic policies.
“We are the future. Give us what we need!”
Thousands of Ontario students walk out to protest school cuts
By our reporters, 6 April 2019
The student-led initiative saw thousands rally across the province against the right-wing government of Doug Ford.
Ontario workers need an international socialist program to defend public education and fight austerity
By the Socialist Equality Party (Canada), 6 April 2019
If public education from kindergarten to university is to be defended, workers and students must launch a political struggle independently of the unions and in opposition to the entire political establishment.
Prioritizing of profit at root of fire that killed seven Syrian refugee children in Nova Scotia
By Frédéric Charlebois, 5 April 2019
The mandatory installation of automated sprinklers would save lives, but capitalist governments are loathe to diminish the profits of the construction industry.
Infighting in Canada’s government deepens with release of surreptitious SNC-Lavalin recording
By Roger Jordan, 2 April 2019
Revelations that the former justice minister secretly recorded a discussion with the country’s senior civil servant have intensified the Liberal government’s crisis.
Mexican paper workers strike, demand ousting of company union
Workers Struggles: The Americas
2 April 2019
Paperworkers in the state of Tamaulipas struck March 29 to demand the expulsion of the Fasim union, which they accuse of siding with their employer, Absormex.
Quebec: USW proposes further rollbacks, after locked-out ABI workers reject derisory company offer
By Laurent Lafrance, 30 March 2019
It is the Steelworkers’ systematic isolation of the ABI aluminum workers’ anti-concessions struggle that has emboldened Alcoa to repeatedly escalate its demands.
FCA Canada to cut third shift at Windsor Assembly
By Shannon Jones, 30 March 2019
The global assault on auto jobs is continuing with the announcement by Fiat Chrysler that it is eliminating a full shift, 1,500 jobs, at its plant in Windsor, Ontario.
Unifor announces bogus ‘job saving’ plan as GM moves to close Oshawa plant
By Carl Bronski, 22 March 2019
Unifor will suspend its Save Oshawa GM publicity campaign on the basis of nothing more than the possibility of a slight adjustment in the plant’s closing schedule.
Canada: Train derailment kills three, exposes terrible working conditions
By Penny Smith, 16 March 2019
CP Rail is lobbying Transport Canada to abandon a new rule it introduced following last month’s derailment, calling it too "time-consuming."
Argentina: Patagonian teachers vote to strike
Workers Struggles: The Americas
26 February 2019
Workers in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz have voted to strike over pay increases and staffing shortages caused by the layoff of thousands of teachers.
Callous government policies lead to freezing death of homeless man in Edmonton, Alberta
By Riksen Stewart, 21 February 2019
The man’s death follows the city's decision to shut subway stations at night to prevent homeless people from sheltering inside during the cold.
Colombian teachers in 24-hour national strike over attacks on public education
Workers Struggles: The Americas
19 February 2019
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Series of regional strikes hit Argentina
Workers Struggles: The Americas
12 February 2019
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
As Unifor escalates racist anti-Mexico campaign
Canadian union leader postures as supporter of Matamoros strikers
By Roger Jordan, 6 February 2019
Unifor’s near-total silence about the courageous struggle of the Matamoras workers is of a piece with their reactionary campaign attacking Mexican workers for GM’s job massacre.
Brazil service workers on strike, Ford workers end job action
Workers Struggles: the Americas
29 January 2019
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Unifor launches anti-Mexican boycott as diversion from fight over Oshawa closure
By Carl Bronski, 26 January 2019
Unifor President Dias has announced an anti-Mexican consumer boycott over the Oshawa closure as workers in Matamoros, Mexico, expand their struggle against sweatshop conditions.
Teachers protest in Venezuela, contract talks begin with US oil refiners
Workers Struggles: The Americas
22 January 2019
Teachers in Venezuela participated in strikes and protests last week over pay, which is being decimated by hyperinflation; some 30,000 US oil refinery workers face a February 1 contract deadline.
The working class must come to the defence of the Canada Post workers
By Laurent Lafrance, 18 January 2019
Having outlawed postal workers’ campaign of rotating strikes, the ruling class views the imposition of further concessions as crucial to their agenda of austerity and militarism.
Six-hour strike by Honduran public health workers over wage demand
Workers Struggles: The Americas
15 January 2019
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Following Oshawa GM sitdown protest, autoworkers fed poison of Canadian nationalism at Windsor rally
By Shannon Jones, 12 January 2019
Autoworkers attending a rally called by Unifor in Windsor, Ontario who were looking for a way to fight GM plant closures were instead hit with a strong dose of Canadian nationalism by union officials.
Unite Canadian, US and Mexican autoworkers!
Build rank-and-file committees to fight GM’s plant shutdowns in Oshawa and the US
By the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter, 11 January 2019
Unifor cannot be pressured or reformed. Workers must take the struggle to stop the plant closures into their own hands.
Chilean port workers resume protests over firings
Workers Struggles: The Americas
8 January 2019
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
As one-year anniversary of lockout approaches
Alcoa intensifies attack on Quebec ABI workers
By Laurent Lafrance, 4 January 2019
The United Steelworkers’ systematic isolation of the ABI workers’ anti-concessions struggle has encouraged management to escalate its takeaway demands.
Workers Struggles: The Americas
Argentine teachers protest and strike over night school closures
3 January 2019
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Government-named arbitrator to dictate Canada Post workers’ contract
By Louis Girard, 29 December 2018
The criminalization of the postal workers’ strike campaign and the impending imposition of concessionary contracts constitute an attack on the entire working class.
UAW, Democrats seek to block struggle by workers against GM plant shutdowns
By Marcus Day, 28 December 2018
The UAW and the Democratic Party are seeking to whip up anti-Mexican sentiment and divert anger away from the auto corporations, which are attacking workers around the world.
Echoing Trump, Unifor pleads for GM to cut Mexican auto jobs
By Carl Bronski, 22 December 2018
For decades, Unifor and the UAW have pitted workers against each other, helping the automakers to whip-saw jobs, wages, pensions and benefits back and forth across borders in a never-ending race to the bottom.
Ontario Conservatives ban impending power workers’ strike
By Carl Bronski, 20 December 2018
The attack on the power workers comes just three weeks after the federal Liberal government outlawed a campaign of rotating strikes against Canada Post.
Ontario Tories to block power workers strike; Mexican teachers strike to demand bonus
Workers Struggles: The Americas
18 December 2018
Thousands of teachers in Baja California struck to demand payment of their year-end bonus last week while the Ontario Tory government has recalled the provincial legislature to illegalize a threatened strike by power workers.
Workers Struggles: The Americas
Chilean public workers and airline workers strike
11 December 2018
Public workers in Chile held a nationwide walkout December 6 to protest layoffs at the same time that airport workers for LATAM airline in Chile walked off the job in a pay dispute.
“A serious fightback will only develop through action initiated by the rank-and-file workers”
GM Oshawa workers speak out against plant closure
By A WSWS reporting team, 8 December 2018
WSWS reporters visited GM’s Oshawa plant in Ontario Wednesday to discuss the company’s plan to close the plant and how workers can fight back.
1937: When Canadian and US autoworkers fought together
By Roger Jordan, 6 December 2018
In the face of GM’s plans to shut down five plants in the US and Canada, we are reposting this article about the history of cross-border collaboration by workers originally published in October 2016.
GM, Ford, Bayer, Bombardier
Global investors demand escalation of class war on workers’ jobs and wages
By Jerry White, 5 December 2018
The plant closings and layoffs at GM are part of a broader assault on the working class throughout the world being directed by the most powerful corporate interests.
Police and courts enforce Trudeau’s law criminalizing Canada Post strike
By Roger Jordan, 4 December 2018
The further escalation of the state assault on postal workers underscores that to oppose precarious employment, unsafe working conditions and declining real wages they and the working class as a whole must mount a political struggle.
Locked-out ABI aluminum workers demonstrate in downtown Montreal
By our reporters, 1 December 2018
The steelworkers union has systematically isolated the struggle of the 1,030 locked-out ABI workers, while signaling its willingness to impose concessions and job cuts.
At ABI workers’ protest, USW officials accost and threaten WSWS supporters
By Laurent Lafrance, 1 December 2018
Flanked by other supporters of the Steelworker bureaucracy, Dominic Lemieux, the assistant to the Quebec USW director, accosted and slandered WSWS supporters.
Canadian and US autoworkers call for a united struggle against GM’s assault on jobs
By Will Morrow, 1 December 2018
The broad support for a united struggle by workers contrasts with the efforts by the UAW and Unifor to fan the flames of nationalism.
Greyhound axes bus service across Western Canada
By Penny Smith, 29 November 2018
Greyhound, North America’s largest transportation provider, has ceased services across Western Canada after operating there without interruption for nearly a century.
Trudeau government illegalizes Canada Post strike
By Roger Jordan and Keith Jones, 27 November 2018
The Liberal legislation illegalizing Canada Post workers’ campaign of rotating walkouts is only the latest in a battery of laws that have largely abolished the right-to-strike in Canada.
Chilean port workers strike over working conditions
Workers Struggles: The Americas
27 November 2018
Temporary port workers in Valparaíso, who are aptly called precarious, staged a November 22 walkout to press for better conditions including improvements in pay.
Canada Post workers need socialist strategy to defy and defeat Liberals’ back-to-work law
By Roger Jordan, 24 November 2018
Working people across Canada must come to the defence of the 50,000 Canada Post workers whose struggle is now being criminalized by the Liberal government.
Trudeau government introduces bill to outlaw Canada Post strike
By Keith Jones, 23 November 2018
If postal workers have been ambushed by the government, it is because CUPW has sought to blind them to the threat of a Liberal back-to-work law, while limiting and isolating their struggle.
Canada Post and Trudeau government conspire to break postal strike
By Keith Jones, 20 November 2018
While Canada Post mounts one provocation after another and the Liberals ready strikebreaking legislation, CUPW continues to straitjacket postal workers’ struggle.
Strike call in Dominican Republic over fuel price rise, crumbling infrastructure while nurses press demands
Workers Struggles: The Americas
20 November 2018
Social organizations in the Dominican Republic have called for a 24-hour strike November 27 over issues including fuel price increases and the decrepit state of infrastructure.
As Canada Post steps up provocations, union silent on back-to-work law threat
By Roger Jordan and Keith Jones, 17 November 2018
A government source told Canadian Press Friday evening that state intervention against postal workers could come as early as Sunday, adding, in a reference to Trudeau’s earlier threat, “‘all the options’ does include legislating.”
Canada Post union silent on Trudeau’s threat to outlaw strike
By Keith Jones, 14 November 2018
The CUPW’s silence must be taken as a warning that the union is preparing to bow before the government and torpedo the strike just as did it in 2011.
Quebec: Talks to resume in ABI lockout under threat of state-imposed concessions contract
By Laurent Lafrance, 13 November 2018
USW leaders have repeatedly proclaimed their readiness to make major concessions, and are now signaling they will collaborate with Alcoa in slashing jobs.
Workers Struggles: The Americas
13 November 2018
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature
Trudeau threatens to criminalize Canada Post strike
By Roger Jordan, 10 November 2018
The union leadership has done everything to limit postal workers’ job action, isolating it from the rest of the working class and allowing the government to go on the offensive.
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