Audio from panel discussion on economic justice in Ontario, recorded at the Toronto vs. the G20 teach-in, Saturday, 5 June 2010

Speakers:
Rekha Sharma, Unite Here Local 75;
Ajamu Nangwaya, CUPE Ontario;
AJ Withers, DAMN/OCAP

Recorded by Anabel, and edited by Candace, CHRY 105.5 FM

Submitted by taxikipali on http://libcom.org
Dec 29 2008

K. Kouneva, a militant syndicalist of the cleaner's union in Athens was attacked with sulphuric acid and is in intensive care. The attack has led to the occupation of the Electric Railway HQs in Athens and a protest march to the hospital where she lies in coma. On Monday protesters clashed with and routed riot police guarding the company's offices in Piraeus.

By,Bruce Allen is the Vice-President of CAW Local 199 ,
St. Catharines, Ontario.

The decline in overall union density, particularly in the private sector, has been a defining characteristic of the crisis of organized labour in this country for many years along with the debilitating effects of contract concessions. The union bureaucracy's predominant response has been to barely acknowledge there was a problem never mind seriously attempt to address it. That is until now.

The following interview with a long-time labor activist is meant to spark dialogue and debate about the role staff unions play inside unions.

Guillermo Perez: Let’s start by talking about the very idea of union staff having a union. The attitude from many progressive labor activists, including some active with Labor Notes, is that union work is a form of social/economic justice activism and therefore a staff union would be inappropriate for people engaged in such work. How do you respond to that?

Paul Krehbiel: First, let’s be clear: a worker is a worker. If you are a worker and are subject to the authority of an employer, or his or her agent, and you are given work assignments, can be disciplined and fired, you should be in a union....read on

Via Libcom I came across this article from the San Francisco Chronicle on an organisation called Young Workers United, and its founder called Flocks - as the title suggest the group enters terrains of employment where traditional unions have had little luck, concious of shifting patterns in employment the organisation aims to develop a working methodology suited to the conditions its members find themselves in. For them this strategy is the workers centre,something I'd always assumed was had more of an expression among migrant communities.. Damn nice website they have too.

[i]Changes in the economy, decline of union representation and turmoil within organized labor have allowed new groups with radical organizing strategies to develop and take the place of traditional labor organizing in some areas.