Around 30 people walked the picket lines at Sir John A. McDonald highschool in Hamilton Wednesday morning. Rather than representing an official union on strike, the picket was organized by an assortment of community members acting autonomously. Cars were held for 2 minutes each, snarling morning rush hour traffic on Cannon Street, and created a line up which lasted into first period that day. The action served to demonstrate the potential for acting outside of official bodies meant to represent workers, and the laws that inhibit them.

By: Bruce Darden

It is the fall, and the beginning of the hockey season for many of us in Ontario. All of the attention is squarely focused on the NHL and its once per decade work stoppage. All across the province, people can be heard talking about how greedy the owners are or why can’t the players be happy to get an average-Joe’s wage. The problem is that the NHL lockout should not be what we, hockey fans, should be talking about.

Translated from: UCL

By: Bruno Cormier

It was under the pretext of a $14.8 billion deficit that Dalton McGuinty’s minority Liberal government, with the support of the Conservative Party passed the special law Bill 115 – ironically entitled the "Putting Students First Act". Not only does it enforce a 2 years strike ban on teachers (while there was actually no threat of strike), but also cuts their sick days in half, abolishes remuneration of 3 off-days and imposes a 2 years wage freeze. This attack on collective bargaining of the working conditions of teachers present great similarities with such union-busting legislation in several states of USA.
 

By Devin K

The Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre or Barton Jail as it is more commonly known, has been on lock-down for over week now due to a ''labour dispute" between guards and upper management. The guards, members of OPSEU local 248, are alleging health and safety concerns, and have refused to search cells after a piece of metal fixture went missing in the jail on Monday August 13th. The guard’s refusal to work has lead to a lock-down situation with management taking over operations of the jail.

This article was originally published on Recomposition Blog and was made into a pamphlet and distributed on the picket lines in Toronto during the recent lockout of workers by Canada Post.

To download a copy in pdf format suitable for printing please click here

Postal Worker Solidarity Defeats Compulsory Overtime
By Rachel Stafford

For those of us who get excited about workers sticking up for themselves and fighting the bosses, I have been pretty lucky to have been able to participate in what has turned out to be a really inspiring wave of struggle over the past few months. My national union has been in negotiations for a new collective agreement over the past seven months, but what people are agitated about on the floor isn’t up for negotiation.

By Cindy McCallum Miller
Republished from New Socialist

Canadians embrace the urban myth that postal workers strike regularly, usually at Christmas and always over money. That's as far from the truth as believing Stephen Harper is a feminist. The last pan-Canadian strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) was in 1997 but that will soon change.

By Greg Macdougall
Originally published at rabble.ca | May 19, 2011

Postal service in Canadian cities is in jeopardy from next week if last-minute negotiations between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) do not succeed in coming to an agreement. The possibility of a strike by the union or lockout by management comes into effect on midnight May 24, with a 72-hours notice being given before any such action is taken.

By Ajamu Nangwaya

Madison, Wisconsin, may have given organized labour - or the labouring classes - a hint at the possibility of resistance in the streets of America. Or should the credit go to the children of Caliban [1] in the streets and squares of Egypt? Can you imagine the role reversal implied by the prospect of the children of Caliban’s teaching those of Prospero, the great civilizer, the art of being human or striving for moral autonomy…collective personhood?

On Saturday January 29th several thousand people took to the streets of Hamilton in support of United Steelworkers 1005 locked out of US Steel Hamilton and against Stephen Harper's attacks on working people across the country. Dubbed “The People VS US Steel” the demonstration organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL)was the largest in Hamilton in a decade and promised to be “the Largest Anti-Harper Protest Ever.”

In the lead up to the 29th Common Cause Hamilton worked with anarchists both in Ontario and Pittsburgh to stand with USW 1005. Anarchists in Pittsburgh staged a solidarity rally outside of US Steel’s head office simultaneously with the events in Hamilton. Hamilton anarchists coordinated an Anti-Capitalist Contingent within the “The People VS US Steel” as a way to show support for 1005.

Thousands Gather in Hamilton for Largest Anti-Harper Protest Ever: “The People vs U.S. Steel” Rally at 1 p.m., Sat., Jan. 29, Hamilton City Hall

(TORONTO) -- On the eve of a federal election, more than 10,000 angry Canadians will gather in Hamilton, Ontario for the largest anti-Harper demonstration to take place. The protest will send a message to Harper as he shops for votes in Canada’s manufacturing heartland.

http://ofl.ca/index.php/news/index_in/thousands_gather_in_hamilton_for_largest_anti_harper_protest_ever_the_peopl/