2011 was an important year for working Canadians. Amidst rising unemployment, an ever-growing divide between the nation's richest and poorest citizens, and a lack of government support for people who are desperately in need, voters made history by electing Jack Layton's New Democratic Party (NDP) as the Official Opposition to Stephen Harper's Conservative government.
VANCOUVER, BC - December 19, 20011 - Over a hundred workers and community and labour activists converged at Library Square in downtown Vancouver, Canada yesterday chanting 'Stop the Blacklist', in a protest aimed at the Mexico government and its Vancouver consulate. It was the third such protest in the last two months and the largest to date — combining street theatre, a holiday choir, and even a solidarity visit by Santa Claus
Proclaimed by the United Nations in 2000, December 18th is annually commemorated as International Migrants Day to raise awareness that the human and labour rights of migrant workers must be respected and protected across all borders.
Over 235 food processing workers in Mississauga, Ontario, recently voted to become the newest members of UFCW Canada Local 175.
Workers at a vegetable farm and wholesale operation 70 kilometers northeast of Montréal have been certified as the newest TUAC Canada agriculture bargaining unit in Québec. The new members work in Joliette at Produit VegKiss, which grows, packs and ships produce for domestic as well as export markets.
December 24th marks the second anniversary of the Toronto Christmas Eve scaffold tragedy, in which four migrant workers were killed and another seriously injured after the scaffold that was supporting them collapsed. Aleksey Blumberg, Vladimir Korostin, Fayzullo Fazilov, Aleksanders Bondarevs, and Dilshod Marupov were reinforcing and repairing balconies when the platform they were working on snapped in half and plunged them 13 stories to the base of a Toronto apartment building. The accident occurred just as the five men were preparing to go home for the day.
When it was created in 2005, CFACQ (Centre de formation de l’alimentation et détail du Québec – the Retail and Food Training Centre of Quebec) had five objectives: to train new workers for the retail and food industry; deliver customized training courses for employers contributing to the education fund; offer courses on safe food handling; and to develop life skills courses for TUAC Canada Local 500 members.
Canadians’ household debt in the second quarter of 2011, reaching an all-time high this year.
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United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Canada's private sector union