I think what pushed me over the edge is the UN’s International Day of Happiness. When I saw it I hoped I’d been pranked and that it wasn’t real. Alas it is.
Continue readingTag: unions
Politics, Re-Spun: Because You’re Not As Dumb As They Think You Are!
Today is Friday. Let’s make it “think for ourselves Friday.” It’ll work: the government/corporations/1% won’t see it coming! Twitter / occupythemob: http://t.co/doHx1xWO4l. December 17, 2013 Fried Squirrels (0) December 20, 2013 Enbridge: What Now? We Escalate Our Fight (4) January 7, 2012 Day Two of Tragedy of the Market: From
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Collective Bargaining and Poverty Reduction: OECD Data
My union Unifor is currently undertaking an important “Rights at Work” campaign, which involves a national tour of meetings with our officers and local leaders and stewards, followed by a membership canvass and community outreach effort, all aimed at beating back the current attack on fundamental labour rights coming from
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: Where does Hudak Niagara Falls candidate Bart Maves stand on right to work?
We know Hudak has no tolerance for his own candidates standing up for local jobs in the face of his reckless right-to-work-for-less scheming and Bart Maves himself used to be opposed to the policy? So what does Bart Maves stand for now? It’s a question worth asking. In a debate this evening, Maves
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: BC Is Actually “Missing” More Than 94,000 Jobs #SpinAlert
It’s not unusual to see unemployment rates of around 6-8% these days. But if you have always had the feeling that more than one in sixteen people is unemployed, you’re right. The capitalist machine likes to use that low number to avoid the greater reality that almost 30% of British
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Cheap T-Shirts Keep Harper in Power
Whenever I read stories about corporations wanting to do the right thing, I never hold my breath. Clothing corporations, the sector where “sweatshops” originates, want us to believe they care. They don’t. Read what nonsense they are trying to peddle to get us off their back for exploiting people so
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: StatCan Debunks Small-Business Mythology
Canadian economic commentators often worship small business as the supposed source of economic dynamism and growth. This cult of small business has greatly influenced public policy, with federal and provincial governments giving huge tax preferences to small corporations. But new Statistics Canada research finds: “The gap between the levels of
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Come On, Let’s Really Increase Taxes on the Rich
Well, here’s something you don’t see [ever] in corporate media: a review of tax measures in the USA since the crash in 2008 that have succeeded in increasing taxes on the rich. And it turns out, tax increases that are regressive [sales taxes, etc.] or include the non-rich, seemed to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: A Key Union Priority for 2014
Naomi Klein urges unions to join climate change fight Many groups are calling for significant and sufficient action to address climate change, which is fantastic. But unions have not been loud enough. This is significant because they often have more money than many other progressive groups to fight for the
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Precarious workers or satisfied customers: a fine line for giant retailers
This post is an appendix of sorts to my article, “Fired by Walmart for Christmas”, to be published this weekend by Common Dreams. In the article, I describe the stresses and difficulties faced by Walmart workers during the holidays. Overwork, a climate of fear and barely-organized chaos make for taxing
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Enbridge: What Now? We Escalate Our Fight
Some breaking news occurred yesterday, the Joint Review Panel of the National Energy Board approved the Enbridge pipeline, but with 209 conditions. To quote a teenager from 1994: “Big whoop.” Also, big whoop goes out to the awesome pictures of soon to be decimated pristine wilderness on the report cover.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: ACTION: Illegal Israeli Settlement Goods Sold at London Drugs
SodaStream boycott informational picket Saturday, Dec. 21, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. London Drugs, Broadway @ Cambie, Vancouver Below is a notice of an important event happening on Saturday in Vancouver. If something is labelled as “Made in Israel” but is really made in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fried Squirrels
It’s a crisp, foggy November Saturday morning in the south side of the city. Seventeen people sit in the large open area at the back end of an organic fair trade coffee shop run by a workers’ co-op inspired by the Mondragon movement in Spain. Meet-ups like this are quite
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Does Violence at Home Affect Workplaces in Canada?
Worksafe BC at least isn’t keeping itself in the dark Here is yet another stigma-laden, denial-inducing taboo topic in society and workplaces: domestic violence. And when we connect violence at home to effects on people as workers in the workplace, we get lots of crickets. So I’m happy to report
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Canada Post: A Billion-Dollar Boondoggle?
One of the most frequently repeated claims in coverage of yesterday’s Canada Post announcement is that the Crown corporation is on track to lose a billion dollars annually by the decade’s end. This apprehended threat to taxpayers supposedly justifies the complete elimination of door-to-door mail delivery. The Conference Board made
Continue readingcmkl: Canada Post phasing out door to door delivery, phasing in nose removal for face spite
Canada Post grand plan pronouncements (especially when there’s bargaining to be done) have a habit of not coming true or being counter-factual, but this latest, about the crown corporation phasing out urban door to door delivery warrants a response.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Practice CrimeStop: You Are the New Terrorist
Balloons are a threat to civil order. The police must protect themselves from you with riot gear. You are a bad person. You. You enemy of the state. You radical environmentalist. Or worker rights advocate. Or whatever cause you are promoting. You. You are a threat to order. When you
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: IKEA: Swedish for Discrimination Against Workers
Values, discrimination, the Swedish way: all these ideas are in the mix as stakeholders of IKEA’s treatment of workers express how they feel about IKEA’s plan to break its union in Richmond, BC. We’ve been writing about this new front line in Canada’s war against workers for months now. But
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why the Rich Want You to Hate Your Union
Greed is a powerful thing. It motivates the greedy to convince workers that they should hate any efforts to make their work better and reduce the level of abuse and oppression they suffer. If you’d like a list of why they want us to hate our unions, click through to
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: Spanish Syndicalism (1) CGT Strike in Unipost
CGT DECLARES UNLIMITED STRIKE IN SPANISH ‘UNIPOST’ OVER HOLIDAYS The following is a translation from a Spanish language article at Rojo y Negro, the organ of the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union the CGT. I have had to rat…
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