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December 24, 2019
2019 Photo Review
Speaking and Acting in Our Own
Name
to Uphold the Rights of All and
Make Canada a Zone for Peace
July
 With this
issue of TML Daily, CPC(M-L)
continues its month-by-month photo review of
2019 with actions in the month of July.
As the month began
forestry workers, organized in USW Local 1-1937,
began strike action against Western Forest
Products facilities on the BC coast and
Vancouver Island, vigorously rejecting massive
concessions being demanded by the company
regarding their pensions, benefits and job
security. The strike continues to date. From the
get-go, their strike received support of workers
in many sectors -- in hospitals, food production
as well as longshore workers -- while the BC
Federation of Labour issued a "hot edict,"
meaning all affiliated unions are refusing to
handle the company's products.
As forestry workers
began their strike struggle, the ABI smelter
workers in Bécancour, Quebec prepared to go back
to work after agreeing to a new collective
agreement. They returned with their heads held
high, their determined resistance in defence of
their rights having made a valuable contribution
to the dignity of all workers across Quebec and
Canada. Their collective actions exposed those
in control of the Alcoa/Rio Tinto cartel as
modern day robber barons who abscond with
increasing amounts of the social wealth ABI
workers produce, and revealed the disgraceful
role of the Quebec government as an ally and
representative of the global oligarchs, in
opposition to the collective interests of the
Quebec people and their natural resources. The
ABI workers' contract was not achieved through
negotiations at the bargaining table but as a
result of the workers' steadfast and united
resistance to the impunity of those in control
of their workplace and their tireless
mobilization of organized support from workers
in Quebec and Canada, and other countries.
Throughout July,
public sector workers in Alberta continued to
organize militant pickets at hospitals and other
workplaces across the province to mobilize their
fellow workers against Bill 9, the Public
Sector Wage Arbitration Deferral Act. The
act allows the government to breach provisions
of the collective agreements of Alberta's
nurses, teachers, health care workers,
provincial government employees, and others,
violating their right to negotiate collectively
their terms of employment. On July 30, the
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees was
successful in getting an injunction to stop the
provisions of the bill from taking effect, which
the Alberta government immediately appealed.
During the month of
July, the Canadian and Quebec people stepped up
their solidarity with revolutionary Cuba.
Pickets were organized demanding the re-opening
of the Canadian government's full consular
services at its Havana Embassy. The monthly
pickets demanding the end of the criminal U.S.
blockade of Cuba, the return of Guantánamo to
Cuba and the abrogation of Title III of the Helms-Burton
Act also continued. On July 26, events
were held in a number of cities across Canada in
celebration of Cuba's national day of rebellion,
Moncada Day. All these activities reflected the
strong and longstanding ties between Cuba and
Canada, and Canadians' admiration for the
courageous and rebellious spirit that Cuba
embodies and its principled stands that uphold
peace, human rights and the sovereignty of all
countries for the benefit of all humanity.
As the month
closed, injured workers and other activists
organized a July 30 day of action against the
Ontario government's cuts to funding for legal
aid service. These cuts target specialty clinics
advocating for injured workers, and some
community clinics in the Toronto area, which
appear to have been singled out because of
advocacy work and political support for injured
workers dealing with the Workplace Safety and
Insurance Board and for other people dealing
with the anti-social cuts to public services.
The legal clinics' advocacy has been critical in
backing up injured workers in speaking out and
organizing to defend their rights.
July 1
Forestry workers in
BC reject massive concessions being demanded to
their pensions, benefits and job security and
begin strike against Western Forest Products'
operations on the coast and Vancouver Island.
Photo below shows the Kelsey Bay Log Sort
facility.
(Photo: USW 1-1937)
July 2
Workers at the the
ABI smelter in Bécancour, hold a general
membership meeting to discuss whether to sign a
new collective agreement with Alcoa/Rio Tinto.
Workers at the plant vote to accept the offer,
ending the company's unjust eighteen-month
lockout.
https://cpcml.ca/WF2019/WO0625.HTM (Photo: Metallos)
July 3
Picket in Calgary
opposes the Alberta government's Bill 9, and
workers organize actions across the province to
express their resounding No! to the
attacks on their rights contained
in the Public
Sector Wage Arbitration Deferral Act.
  
https://cpcml.ca/WF2019/WO0625.HTM#5
July 5
Picket in
Vancouver, on the occasion of Venezuela's
independence day, demands the Canadian
government stop its dirty role, alongside the
U.S., in attempting to overthrow the
legitimately elected President of Venezuela
Nicolás Maduro.
(Photos: Vancouver Communities in
Solidarity with Cuba)
July 7
Hospital workers
join striking forestry workers on their picket
line at Western Forest Products Cowichan Bay
location.
(Photo: USW 1-1937)
July 7
Vancouver picket
calls on the Canadian government to reopen visa
services at its Embassy in Havana.
 
(Photos: Vancouver Communities in
Solidarity with Cuba)
July 9
Public sector
workers in Alberta hold information pickets in
Leduc against the
government's Bill 9.
  
https://cpcml.ca/WF2019/WO0625.HTM#5 (Photo:
TML, AUPE)
July 9
Parkdale Legal
Clinic in Toronto organizes opposition to Ford
government's funding cuts to community legal
clinics outside Ministry of the Attorney
General. 
(Photo: Parkdale Legal Clinic)
July 11
Injured workers are
front and centre in rally outside the new
Attorney General's Barrie constituency office,
demanding the cuts to legal aid, which target
clinics advocating for injured workers in
particular, be reversed.
   (Photos:
Peel Injured Workers, OFL)
July 14
Striking forestry
workers are joined on their picket lines by
hospital and food processing workers in Port
Alberni (top), and longshore workers.
(Photo: USW 1-1937)
July 17
Monthly pickets
against the U.S. blockade of Cuba are held in
Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver.
Montreal
Ottawa
 (Photos: Ottawa-Cuba Connections,
Table de concertation de solidarité
Québec-Cuba )
July 19
Pickets
continue against the Alberta government's Bill
9, with actions in Edmonton and Lethbridge.
Edmonton
  
Lethbridge
  (Photos:
AUPE, TML)
July 23-24
Striking
forestry workers in Campbell River are joined by
health care workers, a contingent from the
District Labour Council and community members.
(Photo: USW 1-1937)
July 26
The 66th
anniversary of Moncada day, a day commemorated
all over Cuba as the beginning of the movement
and struggle that laid the foundation of the
Cuban Revolution, is celebrated across Canada.
Ottawa
Toronto
Edmonton
Calgary
Vancouver (Photos:
CNC)
July 29-31
Information
pickets against Bill 9 continue in a number of
Alberta cities and towns. The bill
unilaterally tears up provisions in the
collective agreements of 180,000 public sector
workers.
Red Deer
Calgary
  
Fort Saskatchewan
 (Photos: TML, UNA,
AUPE)
July 30
A day of action
is organized in cities and towns across Ontario
against the cuts to legal aid funding, which
particularly targets clinics advocating for the
rights of injured workers and precariously
employed workers.
Toronto
 
Peel
Hamilton
Muskokas
 (Photos:
OPSEU, OFL, Sang Hun, N. Watson, Stop Legal
Aid Cuts)
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