As you may know, the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is currently in a dispute with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) over the fundamental issue of raiding (when one union tries to take members away from another union).

Raiding is destructive to solidarity, doesn't advance the interests of workers and wastes precious resources that should be used to service members and organize non-union workers. Unfortunately, some CLC affiliated unions continue to raid other CLC affiliates. NUPGE has never subscribed to the position that some other CLC affiliates have taken: "if you are raided, then you should just raid back."

A bill passed second reading in the Ontario Legislature on Oct. 28, a bill that is a clear danger to the labour movement's ability to win fair contracts and defend public services. Bill 83, which essentially outlaws picketing outside of group homes that are housing people with intellectual and other disabilities that require home care.

In the last week of July 2010, workers of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9537, who have been locked out of their workplace and on the picket-lines for nearly five months, found a big pile of shit sitting right smack-dab by their picket-line outside of a warehouse in Vaughan, just north of Toronto. One could not ask for a better symbol of retail-capital's attitude toward their workers. Workers at this supply warehouse have been locked-out since April Fool's Day after rejecting a concessionary offer. They have been fighting an uphill battle against a nefarious employer who has not shrunk from hiring scabs and pitting the warehouse workers against the retail workers.

The health of the world's economy depends on the health of the world's workers, and the time is long overdue for the world's policymakers to listen to them.

This is the message trade unionists and environmentalists from around the globe wanted to send to world leaders when the former two groups met in Toronto this past weekend to demand environmental, social, and economic sustainability in advance of the G8/G20 summit. The World Conference on Sustainability was organized by two Geneva-based global trade union federations, ICEM, and IMF, and was well attended by Canadian labour activists and leaders.