Injuries, disease and death are the common experiences of many Canadian workers--and undoubtedly workers in all countries dominated by the power of a class of employers. This is so since, on the one hand, profit is the driving force of human life in such societies (see The Money Circuit of Capital for an explanation of … Continue reading Working for an Employer May Be Dangerous to Your Health, Part Six
Tag: Unions
The Contradictions of Social Democracy: Mr. Gindin’s Musings on the Closure of GM’s Oshawa Plant
The following is a critique of an article written by Sam Gindin before the coronavirus pandemic emerged. It is relevant to the current situation because of the current call for public ownership as a solution to the problems that we face. Mr. Gindin published an article on February 3, 2020, titled Realizing 'Just Transitions': The … Continue reading The Contradictions of Social Democracy: Mr. Gindin’s Musings on the Closure of GM’s Oshawa Plant
The Limitations of Social-Democracy in the Face of the Coronavirus
John Cartwright is the president of Toronto and York Labour District Council. According to the website of this Council: The core belief of unions is in solidarity. We want every one of our members to feel they belong, to appreciate the gains that unions have made for working people, and to have a sense of … Continue reading The Limitations of Social-Democracy in the Face of the Coronavirus
Review of Jane McAlevey’s “A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy”: Two Steps Backward and One Step Forward, Part Two
This is the continuation of a post that reviews Jane McAlevey's latest book entitled A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy. In the last post, I showed that Ms. McAlevey exaggerates the extent to which strikes and collective bargaining can offset the power imbalance between the class of employers and the working … Continue reading Review of Jane McAlevey’s “A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy”: Two Steps Backward and One Step Forward, Part Two
Review of Jane McAlevey’s “A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy”: Two Steps Backward and One Step Forward, Part One
Jane McAlevey is everywhere these days. Recently appointed a senior fellow at Berkeley’s Labor Center, she is now also a regular columnist for both the Nation and Jacobin. Her webinar (“Organizing for Union Power”) has a global audience. She continues to be called on to address unions and run training sessions in the United States, Canada, the … Continue reading Review of Jane McAlevey’s “A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy”: Two Steps Backward and One Step Forward, Part One
The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Five: Middle-Class Delusions
This is a continuation of a critique of an academic leftist (aka academic historical materialist), the philosopher Jeff Noonan. As noted in a previous post, Professor Noonan makes the following statement in relation to employees at a university (from Thinkings 4: Collected Interventions, Readings, Evocations, 2014-2015, page 13): Instead, all members of the institution– faculty, librarians, … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Five: Middle-Class Delusions
Worker Resistance Against Management, Part Four
This is a continuation of a series of posts on worker resistance. The following was written by Herman Rosenfeld. Since it formed part of a course that he, Jordan House and I presented for workers at the Toronto Pearson International Airport, I am including the preliminary instructions and the subsequent questions so that others can … Continue reading Worker Resistance Against Management, Part Four
Management Rights, Part Eight: Private Sector Collective Agreement, Quebec
Here is another clause from a collective agreement concerning management rights, this time from the private sector--and in a province in Canada where French is predominant officially. Undoubtedly for the social-democratic left, it expresses a situation where there is decent work--a cliché among the left, who refuse to investigate its meaning in a democratic fashion. It … Continue reading Management Rights, Part Eight: Private Sector Collective Agreement, Quebec
The Contradictions of Unions: Reformist and Radical Assessments
Steven Tufts, in an article first published on Wednesday, September 11, 2019, on The Star website, and republished on the Socialist Project website on September 25 (Pension Plans Should Not Invest in Companies That Harm Working People), tries to show that, despite unions consciously disassociating themselves from investments that harm workers, their own pension fund managers may … Continue reading The Contradictions of Unions: Reformist and Radical Assessments
The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Four: The Myth of Creating Socialist Spaces
Professor Noonan, an academic leftist, argues that the Nemak return to work provides lessons for the left. Indeed, it does--but unfortunately he fails to draw further lessons from the situation. He says the following: As regards work, the structural dependence on paid employment is what makes people working class. This structural dependence is what, above … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Four: The Myth of Creating Socialist Spaces
The Abolitionary 