The word “hero” is in vogue these days. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the importance in our society of nurses, cleaners, and grocery store workers to millions. Most Canadians are rightly grateful for the labour of these workers, who are doing their best to contain the pandemic and keep the country fed, often at great […]
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In 1983, The Police, recorded a song called “Synchronicity.” Some of the lyrics: We know you, they know meExtrasensorySynchronicityA star fall, a phone call,It joins all,Synchronicity The word synchronicity generally has positive connotations and is briefly defined as a “meaningful coincidence.” Could it be a coincidence, meaningful or otherwise, that the Ontario Minister of Education […]
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The path to remote teaching starts with cautious curiosity, goes through enraging frustration and ends with a tired, tenacious and uninspired slog. The Cautious Curiosity COVID-19 has shutdown physical K-12 classrooms across Canada. In BC spring break ended on March 30, not with a return to school but with teachers logging onto their computers to […]
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One of the most blatant examples of capitalism’s relentless pursuit of profits at all costs is being played out in High River, Alberta. Cargill’s meatpacking plant in High River has had the largest single-site outbreak of COVID-19 in Canada. With links to more than 1,200 COVID-19 cases as of April 29, 821 workers have tested […]
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Foodora Food delivery company that worked with 3,000 restaurants in 10 cities across Canada has announced the closure of its operations, effective mid-May. Foodora said it was unable to keep operating “without having to continually absorb losses.” It further said that it has not been able to reach a level of profitability in Canada that’s […]
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The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing all the more clearly the fundamental failings of the capitalist economic system that we live under. Even before the pandemic, capitalist states have allowed for growing inequality, mass poverty, environmental destruction, and oppression of poor and working-class people both at home and even more so in places subject to colonialism […]
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On April 3, the Canadian government awarded Amazon the contract to distribute personal protective equipment and supplies during the COVID-19 disaster.A couple of days earlier Amazon had fired a New York worker, Chris Smalls, for helping to organize a strike over the lack of safety provision in Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse. On April 14, Amazon […]
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translated from Alterative Socialiste, Québec The Québec government and various unions have engaged during the last week in accelerated negotiations to renew the contracts of public and para-public sector employees. The COVID-19 health crisis gives health sector unions increased leverage, which was hard to imagine only six months ago. Let’s use this strength to make […]
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1,200 hotel workers in UNITE HERE Local 40 won dignity and job security in a battle against global corporations that rule the most luxurious hotels in downtown Vancouver. The two-month strike, the longest in the city’s hotel industry, demonstrated the power of unions when they have determination to win and a fighting strategy. The workers, […]
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Tim Heffernan is a retired Ontario Teacher. Friday, February 21, saw the biggest show of united action by Ontario teachers since 1997. All 4 unions (elementary, secondary, Catholic and French) representing 160,000 teachers, in a one day strike closed down schools that affected 2 million students. In Toronto, an estimated 30,000 teachers, education workers, parents […]
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