Actions Across the Country in Defence of Workers' Rights Quebec nurses are affirming their right to working
conditions without the organizational violence of mandatory overtime.
They organized a successful day of action to refuse mandatory overtime
on April 8. They are continuing their work to abolish mandatory
overtime except in case of unforeseen emergencies. Steelworkers in Newfoundland and Labrador are saying "Lest We Forget," keeping in mind their successful Labour Day action in 2017. In 2017, Glen Nolan, the President of USW Local 9316 who suffers from cystic fibrosis, traveled 150 kilometres on foot and by bicycle from the Come By Chance refinery, where his local represents the workers, to the province's House of Assembly in St. John's. He was accompanied by his vice-president in a car. On behalf of the refinery workers, he denounced the dangerous conditions that prevailed at the refinery. He denounced the exclusion of workers from safety management processes by the company and the government. The workers report an improvement in conditions since their action and told Workers' Forum they are constantly vigilant to ensure that they remain engaged in actions to defend their rights. Railway workers have been campaigning for several years, on the basis of scientific data and the living experience of workers, to establish an equilibrium that must exist between work and rest hours in order to work safely. This includes the elimination of the requirement to be constantly on call, a condition imposed on them by the major railways.
The Migrants Resource Centre Canada and Migrante Ontario are organizing a petition campaign, including a door-to-door campaign with three demands: that the Ontario government adopt a policy to require all foreign recruitment agencies to obtain a license from Employment Standards; that the government insist that all employers wanting to hire foreign workers in Ontario must first register with Employment Standards; that the Ontario government advocate to the federal government to provide permanent residency on landing for all migrant workers coming to work in Canada. Teachers who are members of the Autonomous Teachers Federation in Quebec are waging a campaign for the "Professional Affirmation" of their members. It aims to develop a collective stand and a collective voice determined by the teachers themselves. One of the goals is to build their capacity to say No! collectively to administrations or to the government that try to impose conditions on them through dictate.
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Injured workers in Ontario
are waging an intense campaign of mass actions under the theme
"Workers' Comp Is a Right." This campaign includes an Ontario-wide day
of action on May 14 in several cities and an Injured Workers' Day with
events at Queen's Park and elsewhere on June 1.
Once again this year
construction workers in Quebec are holding a solemn ceremony at the
National Assembly in Quebec City on April 28. They will plant crosses
on the lawn of the building, one for each worker who died during the
year, and make presentations demanding that the government take
responsibility to end the carnage in their
industry.