Supplement

Photo Review

Achievements of Workers' Movement Over the Past Year

Manufacturing Yes! Nation Wrecking No!

Steelworkers' May Day 2018 solidarity picket at the MANA lock-out site in Hamilton.

Steelworkers' May Day rally and march in Hamilton.

 

Locked-out workers at Max Aicher North America in Hamilton and their supporters picket the company gates, June 29, 2018, to mark the fifth anniversary of the lockout by the German company. They reiterate the demand that the company stop running the plant with scabs
and end its lockout.

Unifor Local 222 holds a press conference on November 26, 2018 demanding GM reverse its decision to close its plant in Oshawa. Earlier in the day, prior to GM's in-plant announcement of the closing, workers walked out and picketed at plant gates.

Windsor rally on December 19, 2018 condemns decision by GM to close Oshawa plant.

Workers shut down lines at Oshawa plant on January 8, 2019 after GM confirms its decision to close the plant in a meeting with union representatives in Detroit.

Autoworkers rally in Windsor on January 11, 2019 across the river from GM's Detroit headquarters, against closing of GM plant in Oshawa.

Workers rally outside Erwin Hymer plant in Cambridge demanding answers, February 19, 2019, after plant was closed throwing 900 workers out of work without notice or severence pay. The plant produced recreational vehicles.

Mining and Metallurgy

Aluminerie de Bécancour Inc. ( ABI) workers at May Day parade in Montreal.

Compass mineral workers in Goderich, Ontario strike on May 8, 2018 against anti-worker concessions demanded by the company.

Locked-out aluminum workers from the Bécancour smelter demonstrate outside the ABI shareholders' meeting in Pittsburgh on May 9, 2018 demanding the company negotiate.

Striking salt miners in Goderich, with the support of the community, take action to block

Compass Minerals from running the facility with scabs, July 4, 2018. Barricades of skids are

erected and, when an injunction orders them removed, a cavalcade of farm tractors arrives to take over. Following these actions, Goderich miners are able to ratify a tentative agreement on July 14, 2018 ending their strike. Miners return to work with heads held high, united with their community.

The workers at ABI continue to track the damage being done to the Quebec economy during the lockout through the company reneging on payments for the
block of electricity allotted to it by Hydro-Québec.

Workers from across Canada help locked-out D-J Composites workers in Gander, Newfoundland block scabs from entering the plant from September 26 to 29, 2018. Hundreds of workers and 1,000 feet of fencing, erected by the union, surround the plant.

United Steelworkers Local 9700, representing the aluminum workers in Bécancour, Quebec, locked out by ABI, holds a general membership meeting on October 9, 2018 following the mediator's announcement that negotiations between the union and ABI have been suspended. The union reports that ABI has made additional demands for concessions on the pension plan, short-term health insurance and union leave.

Workers protest outside Hydro-Québec's offices in Montreal on November 28, 2018 in support of ABI workers locked out by the Alcoa/Rio Tinto cartel for close to 11 months.

Workers hold mass picket at Bécancour aluminum smelter on January 11, 2019 marking one year of the company's lockout of the smelter workers. They also rally outside the constituency  office of the National Assembly member for Nicolet-Bécancour. 

At a general membership meeting on February 23, 2019, workers at the ABI smelter in Bécancour, Quebec launch the call for binding arbitration. USW Local 9700 announces the membership's demand for expedited arbitration at a press conference on their picket line.

Workers protest outside Premier Legault's office on March 1, 2019 (top) demanding the Quebec government take action to make Alcoa/Rio Tinto meet its commitments on its energy contract. Workers also visit local MNA Donald Martel's office.

Locked-out Bécancour aluminum workers hold a general assembly on March 11, 2019 and forcefully reject Alcoa's attempt to dictate unacceptable contract terms and back-to-work protocol.

   Locked-out Bécancour aluminum smelter workers organize an Energy March in Trois-Rivières and Quebec City (above), March 26-27, 2019, calling on the Legault government to intervene so that the Alcoa/Rio Tinto cartel ends the lockout in a manner acceptable to the workers, and to demand that the energy contract between Alcoa, the government and Hydro-Québec be re-opened so that Alcoa pays for its reserved preferential rate energy block.

Steelworkers launch Global campaign at United Steelworkers policy convention in Vancouver
on April 4, 2019 to force Alcoa to negotiate a collective agreement acceptable to the workers. The global campaign will focus on exposing the anti-worker practices of Alcoa, which owns 75 per cent of ABI.

Forestry

Northern BC sawmill workers begin rotating strikes, with a picket line at Tolko's Lakeview Lumber in Williams Lake on October 16, 2018 (top), to force the Council on Northern Interior Forest Employment Relations to withdraw its demands for concessions. Workers at Canfor's Prince George sawmill and chip plant strike on October 25, 2018.

Construction

Crane operators drive their rigs through the streets of Montreal to protest new training regulations that undermine the safety of workers and the public, May 5, 2018.

More than 300 crane operators demonstrate outside the head office of the Quebec Construction Commission in Montreal on June 21, 2018 to denounce the deregulation of the trade and the consequent downgrading of health and safety standards which impacts not only crane operators but all construction workers and the public. 

Workers' Forum, June 26, 2018.

Dump truck drivers surround the Quebec National Assembly and hold actions across Quebec on May 14, 2018 in defence of their livelihood. They face a situation where the brokerage system that keeps false invoicing, corruption and under-the-table work in check, is increasingly bypassed by construction companies, and more and more truckers without accreditation are being hired. Photos from Quebec City (top) and Gaspé.

Construction workers' unions march in Toronto Labour Day parade.

Concrete mixer drivers in Montreal hold a special general assembly on October 8, 2018 where they reject the measures proposed by their employer Demix Béton to deal with problems stemming from a new computerized dispatch system, introduced without consultation.

Building trades workers hold a spirited rally at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton on October 29, 2018 denouncing the current anti-worker labour laws that deprive building trades workers and their unions of the right to organize and take job actions to win terms of employment acceptable to themselves.

Transportation

Transportation workers at May Day parade in Montreal.

On May 3, 2018, Montreal public transit workers, members of CUPE Local 1983, vote 99 per cent in favour of giving their union a strike mandate. The workers oppose the conversion of day shifts to evening and night shifts, mandatory overtime, the use of temp agencies instead of directly hiring workers, and privatization of services and increased outsourcing of work.

Transit workers rally at Queen's Park on May 8, 2018 to ensure that the demand of working people that transit remains publicly owned is put on the agenda of the Ontario election.

CP Rail Workers end May 30, 2018 one-day strike action to vote on and accept a tentative collective agreement. Shown here is the picket line in Revelstoke, BC. CP workers went on strike after a forced vote in which they overwhelmingly rejected the company's previous offer, which did not deal with their concerns about unsafe hours and working conditions. 

A ceremony marks the fifth anniversary of the rail disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, July 6, 2018.

Calgarians hold picket and lively discussion on Labour Day to oppose the impending shutdown of Greyhound bus routes in western Canada and Northern Ontario and to discuss solutions. These cuts to service amount to nation-wrecking as they eliminate a vital transportation link for many Canadians in rural areas.

Demonstration in Montreal on September 13, 2018 by Société de transport de Montréal maintenance workers opposes demands for major contract concessions, such as the conversion of day shifts into evening and night shifts, the imposition of overtime and privatization of services. 

Workers' Forum, October 18, 2018.

Airport workers and allies demonstrate in front of Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport on December 16, 2018, rejecting the demand from the administration that the workers accept a nearly one-third reduction in salary and benefits to match a sub-contracting tender.

Train derailment that kills three workers near Alberta-BC border on February 4, 2019 highlights
the urgent need for a rail safety regime that serves workers and the public. The men killed
were: Dylan Paradis, Andrew Dockrell and Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer.

Postal Service

Postal workers at Tecumseh depot in Windsor hold information picket on July 16, 2018 as Canada Post implements restructuring measures for the fifth time in seven years while in contract negotiations with the union.

From October 21 to November 26, 2018, postal workers carry out rotating strikes in cities, small towns and rural areas across the country after negotiations to address major concerns of the workers -- in particular on health and safety, overtime and pay equity -- break down due to Canada Post's intransigence. Shown here: St. John's; Chanel-Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland.

Federal public sector workers and supporters rally outside the federal Liberals' cabinet meeting in Nanaimo on August 22, 2018 demanding the government deal with the problems caused by the Phoenix pay system and ensure workers are paid correctly and on time.

Federal public service workers confront Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on September 5, 2018 as he arrives for a fundraiser in Edmonton. They demand: "Fix the Phoenix Pay System Now!"

Public sector workers in Moncton hold a mass membership meeting on September 15, 2018 as part of CUPE New Brunswick's "Breaking the Mandate: Bargaining Forward" campaign that puts wage increases for all 30,000 CUPE members as the first priority in current negotiations with the province. Meetings are held in cities around the province during September.

Public sector workers demonstrate outside the Quebec National Assembly on October 17, 2018 demanding the Legault government make major new investments in services
after years of cuts.

Federal public service workers hold a Day of Action on February 28, 2019 to demand immediate rectification of the chaos sown in the lives of thousands of workers by the Phoenix Pay System. Photos above from Ottawa (top) and Charlottetown.

Health Care Is a Right

Town Hall in Thunder Bay on May 29, 2018 focuses on the crisis in long-term care.

Thousands converge for mass rally at Queen's Park in Toronto, October 23, 2018, demanding the Ontario Ford government rebuild and restore health care services, not further cut and privatize.

A Day of Action is held across rural Nova Scotia on October 13, 2018 to defend the right to public health care. The situation in most rural areas has reached a crisis level. Above, workers picket in Shelburne.

Nova Scotia nursing home workers picket MLAs' offices March 11, 2019, two days after they are deprived of the right to strike by the provincial government and the courts.

Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union organize a "Rally to Raise the Alarm that Health Care for All Nova Scotians is in Crisis," on April 3, 2019.

More than 500 New Brunswick nursing home and other public service workers demonstrate in front of government buildings in Fredericton, April 12, 2019, demanding acceptable wages and working conditions.

Nurses, licensed practical nurses and respiratory therapists from the Outaouais march October 9, 2018, rejecting their employer's requests for concessions on working conditions during the current round of local negotiations.

Members of the Union of Care Professionals of the Outaouais hold sit-in at the Gatineau Hospital, October 15, 2018, expressing their dissatisfaction with their employer's demands for concessions in negotiations to renew their collective agreement.

Three Outaouais health care unions announce a common front to address the crisis in health care, January 23, 2019, and forward their demands to the Quebec government to improve the working conditions and the quality of health care and social services.

Toronto picket February 12, 2019, part of National Day of Action demanding the right of refugees to health care be recognized. Actions take place in 15 cities.

Quebec nurses protest poor working conditions, including mandatory overtime, outside health care human resources offices in Laurentides, March 28, 2019.

Quebec nurses at Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital in Montreal, joined by community supporters, participate in successful "No Mandatory Overtime" Day of Action held across
Quebec on April 8, 2019.

Teachers and Education Workers Defend Public Education

On April 29, 2018, the third annual May Day Roundtable is held in Windsor, hosted by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation District 9 and Greater Essex Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario with the theme "Speaking for Ourselves."

York University faculty and students and their supporters rally on July 18, 2018 at Queen's Park to denounce the Ontario Ford government's passage of back-to-work legislation against striking

CUPE 3903 members.

On October 15, 2018, community college faculty hold actions at campuses across the province to mark the first anniversary of their strike, emphasizing the demand that pay equity for contract faculty not be eliminated under the Ford government. Faculty pickets at George Brown College (top) and Sault College.

Hundreds of teachers, education workers, parents, students and supporters of public education rally at the Toronto Congress Centre in Etobicoke on February 27, 2019 to protest cuts in funding of public education in Ontario. The occasion is a $250-$1,600 a plate fundraiser for the Ontario Progressive Conservative party, with Premier Doug Ford as the keynote speaker.

Teachers and education workers meet the Ford government's latest assault on public education, March 15, 2019, with sustained acts of solidarity. They hold "black shirt days" and "red for education days" in their schools to involve everyone.

Unions representing teachers and education workers, along with other workers, protest outside
PC Party events in Nepean and Essex (above), March 22, 2019.

Mass rally of teachers, education workers and their supporters at Queen's Park on April 6, 2019 to defend the public education system against the Ford government's attacks.

Striking education support workers in Living Waters Catholic School District in Alberta sign a contract on October 5, 2018 that ends two-and-a-half years of bargaining and an 18-day strike.

Alberta teachers use the Alberta election, April 2019, as an opportunity to take to a new level their ongoing battle to provide the right to education with a guarantee. 

Defend the Rights of All Working People

Fourth annual Justice for Injured Workers' Bike Ride travels through mining towns and cities in northern Ontario. It starts with a seminar in Elliot Lake (top photo) on May 26 and concludes in Sudbury on May 28 with meetings to form an injured workers' support group.

Injured workers in London picket outside a PC Party rally on May 30, 2018, days before the Ontario election, to demand justice for injured workers and denounce governments and cartel parties for ignoring the plight of injured workers and their families.

Injured workers make their voices heard at spirited rally and march in Toronto on June 1, 2018, Ontario Injured Workers' Day, affirming "Workers' Comp Is a Right!" Following the rally they hold a meeting with candidates in the provincial election to discuss their concerns. Actions take place in other cities across Ontario to mark the occasion. 

Injured workers picket the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) annual general meeting on September 26, 2018 in Toronto demanding it withdraw its plan to cut employer premiums. The new government claims it has eliminated WSIB's fraudulent "unfunded liability" ten years ahead of schedule, which justifies giving employers a massive reduction in premiums starting in 2019, depriving the compensation system of $1.5 billion.

The Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups holds a week of actions across the province from December 10 to 14, 2018 as part of its ongoing "Workers' Comp Is a Right!" campaign. The actions highlight the hardships injured workers and their families face throughout the year and especially during the holidays. Photo above from Sudbury.

 

Quebec farmers take to the streets of Montreal on September 6, 2018 saying "Enough is Enough. No More Concessions." They insist the Trudeau government defend supply management against U.S. demands for greater access to the Canadian dairy market.

 
More than 5,000 farmers, representatives of the agri-food sector and others march in Montreal on November 18, 2018 to defend food security. Participants demand an end to the Canadian government's concessions on agriculture in free trade agreements.

Casino workers in Vernon, Penticton and Kamloops take strike action on June 29 in their struggle to improve their wages and working conditions.

Workers at the Quebec Liquor Board continue their one-day strikes on November 16, 2018 to back their demands for a negotiated settlement that addresses their precarious working conditions and low wages. One-day strikes across Quebec began in July. Shown above are picketers in Alma.

    

East Danforth women organize a forum January 19, 2019 to discuss their conditions of work as immigrant women and how to defend their rights in light of the Ontario government's passage of the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018, and its other attacks on workers' rights.

Live-in caregivers demonstrate in Toronto on Mothers' Day, May 13, 2018, to put forward their demands for rights and defend their dignity as workers. Like other migrant workers, they face oppressive working conditions that are a form of modern-day slave labour.

Migrant care workers hold meetings and press briefings in Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal on November 18, 2018 to release a report, "Care Worker Voices for Landed Status and Fairness," demanding  the government uphold their rights and grant them status on arrival. Photo above from Edmonton.

Demonstration by seasonal workers in Tracadie, New Brunswick on September 15, 2018 demands reforms to Employment Insurance to ensure adequate benefits.

Unemployed groups, unions, municipal elected officials and seasonal industry employers from the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick and the Charlevoix, Côte-Nord and Bas-St-Laurent regions of Quebec, hold a press conference, December 4, 2018 at the House of Commons to highlight the difficult conditions experienced by seasonal workers and to call for solutions that enable them to live in dignity.

Actions at Service Canada offices in a number of locations in Quebec on November 29, 2018 demand the problem of inadequate Employment Insurance be addressed. Photos above are from Rimouski; Tracadie and La Malbaie.

Demonstration in Toronto on June 16, 2018, following the June 7 election of the Ford Conservatives demands the government not privatize public services and not revoke improvements to labour law and the minimum wage included in the 2017 Bill 148.

Emergency actions take place across Ontario October 24-26, 2018 to oppose the Ford government's anti-worker Bill 47, the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, that rolls back improvements workers won to labour legislation in 2017. Above, action at Ministry
of Labour in Toronto.

Our Security Lies in the Fight for the Rights of All!

Action in Lindsay is one of a number that took place in towns and cities, August 7-10, 2018, demanding the Ontario Ford government reinstate the Basic Income Pilot Project, which it cut when it came to power. Many activists have fought for years to gain this small advance in the
fight to end poverty.

On the eve of the Quebec election, housing rights activists rally and march in Quebec City, September 29, 2018, demanding the new government recognize the right to housing. The "From Cities to Villages for the Right to Housing" march began in Ottawa September 2, and travelled through some 50 municipalities to finish in Quebec City.

People gather outside CBC building in Montreal where the Quebec "Leaders' Debate" is taking place, September 13, 2018, determined to break the suffocating silence the election imposes on them and affirm their demands for rights. Contingents from community advocacy, youth, tenants' rights and environmental groups and workers from many regions, including locked-out aluminum smelter workers, health care workers, and workers from Bombardier all participate.

More than 100 protests are held from coast to coast on June 4, 2018 at the constituency offices of Members of Parliament decrying the use of public funds to bail out private U.S. pipeline monopoly Kinder Morgan. Copies of a petition opposing the project and bailout are delivered to MPs. More than 250,000 people have signed the petition. Photo shows action in Calgary.

March and rally under the theme "Build Our Future Not a Pipeline" takes place in Vancouver, September 8, 2018, against construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline and the federal government buyout of the Canadian assets of the U.S. monopoly Kinder Morgan. The action expresses the continued opposition of people across Canada to the pipeline being pushed
through without the consent of the Indigenous peoples.

 

 The people of Quebec affirm "The G7 does not represent us!" in actions against the June G7 summit in Quebec City and in La Malbaie (above) where the meetings took place.

Youth from coast to coast to coast in Canada vigorously participate in the global Student Strike for Climate which saw some 2,200 events organized March 15, 2019 in 130 countries around the world. There was outstanding organization and participation from the Quebec youth in particular, with the largest action, pictured above, organized in Montreal.

Sisters in Spirit vigils are held for the 13th year on October 4, 2018 in more than 115 cities and communities across Canada and Quebec. The largest, shown above, was on Parliament Hill. The vigils remember and honour Indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing and demand an end to the continuing violence.

In cities, small towns and remote communities across the country, Canadians, Quebeckers and Indigenous peoples hold a Day of Action January 8, 2019 to oppose the RCMP's brutal assault on the Wet'sewet'en land defenders the previous day and to stand with them in defence of their hereditary rights to their lands. Photo above from Victoria, BC. 

Women's Memorial Marches in Vancouver, February 14, 2019. Marches took place in cities across the country, honouring and demanding justice for all the Indigenous women and girls.

 March in Toronto on the occasion of International Women's Day. Rallies, marches and gatherings of all kinds took place across the country. 

 

Activists rally at Peace and Freedom Park in Halifax, November 17, 2018, against two war conferences -- the Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. The HISF has been militantly opposed each year since coming into being in 2009.

Windsor Peace Coalition holds "Hands Off Venezuela" picket as part of an international Day of Action in solidarity with the people of Venezuela and their legitimately elected government. Actions took place in cities and towns across Canada.

Actions across Canada on the occasion of 70 years of NATO on March 30-31, 2019 say No! to NATO and express determination to make Canada a zone for peace. Above are actions and meetings in Halifax (top) and Montreal.

The 70th anniversary of Al Nakba -- the massive dispossession of the Palestinian people to create Zionist Israel -- is marked with expressions of the determination of the Palestinian people to return to their homeland across Canada, May 12-18, 2018. Photo above from Edmonton.

A conference takes place in Toronto, June 16, 2018, on unfolding events on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of the historic Panmunjom Declaration and Democratic People's Republic of Korea-U.S. Summit in Singapore. A similar event is held in Vancouver the next day.

Monthly pickets in Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver demand an end to the blockade of Cuba.
  These actions take on greater significance with the U.S. announcing its decision to activate Title III of the Helms-Burton Act effective May 2, 2019. Above, Ottawa, April 17, 2019.

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