Happy Labour day
Schools and some business will be closed Monday. For most of us it is a long weekend which we might enjoy at the cottage by the lake, catching up on a project around the house, or beyond a hundred other things – spend that extra time with family.
Labour Day is to remind us of how hard workers fought for better working conditions and workers rights. Back in 1872 union members were imprisoned for striking campaigning for 9 hour work day. Trade unions themself were still considered illegal. It wasn’t until over time, as public support grew and a huge parade in Ottawa of perhaps 10000 protesters took place. Governments couldn’t ignore the place of unions in Canadian society anymore. Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald kept his word as he had promised to the protest marchers, repealing the union laws and arranging for the release of imprisoned union organizers. This eventually led to the founding of the Canadian labour congress in 1883.
For the future and present, I believe the union, and the peoples strength behind them (after all that is what makes a union strong) will have to fight very hard for the rights of workers and human rights as a whole. We have already seen more striking workers on the street these last couple of years as wage increases over many years for many workers were frozen. Workers have been without a contract for years. One also seeing more contract and contingency workers brought in by companies, undermining the collective agreement they have with their union and strength of its union.
I believe union should be impartial to government parties and solely a representation for the worker, as political parties shift their stands or align themselves with ideologies pushed and paid for by Lobbyist that represent selfishness. Unions themselves have to become stronger in lobbying and be more visible in what they do.
And yes we can all do our part to further fairness human rights, dignity at work and where ever we set foot.
pic by wikilmages
