“I can’t work if I can’t breathe,” writes Mark Brown in the Summer 2016 edition of Our Times. Those words are central to Brown’s argument that the Canadian labour movement must support the Black Lives Matter movement. His call to action couldn’t be any more urgent.
“Mass Incarceration — Modern Day Slavery,” a workshop held by the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) at the 2016 World Social Forum in Montreal, trained its lens on an essential part of the struggle Black Lives Matter has taken up: Systemic anti-Black racism is especially entrenched in the criminal justice system.
Black and Indigenous inmates are hyper-overrepresented within the prison population, both in Canada and in the U.S. As noted by the Torontoist’s Catherine McIntyre in her article “Canada Has a Black Incarceration Problem”, Black inmates are the fastest growing group in Canadian federal prisons — their numbers have increased by 70 per cent within the last 10 years.
Layoffs coming at Nova Tube, more uncertainty in the steel sector MONTREAL – The United Steelworkers union (USW) is publicly asking how many more jobs must be lost, or steel plants closed, before the federal government takes stronger action to crack down on unfair trade that is harming Canada’s steel industry. The USW has learned […]
USW District 3 welcomes the BC Federation of Labour’s declaration of a hot edict on mineral products and by-products from Teck’s Highland Valley Copper operation. This is a powerful show of solidarity with more than 1,200 members of USW Local 7619 who have been on strike since October 24, fighting for fair wages, pensions, adequate […]
TORONTO – The United Steelworkers union (USW) issued the following statement in response to the federal budget 2026: “The United Steelworkers welcomes federal investments in Canada’s forestry and wood products sector, as well as in the critical minerals industry. These are important steps toward the industrial strategy Canada needs. But we cannot build the industries […]