The public doesn’t usually warm to the notion of labour militancy — until reminded that, without it, weekends would be a lot shorter, or maybe not exist at all.
The truth is labour militancy has benefited all of us. It was instrumental in attaining the weekend, the eight-hour workday, the end of child labour, public pensions and public health care, and countless other gains that have dramatically improved the lives of working people and the broader public.
It’s worth keeping this connection in mind as the union movement — sidelined and subdued for decades — is finding its sea-legs and starting to reassert itself.
Certainly, its stunning victory last month in its clash with the Ford government has rekindled workers’ dreams of reclaiming some of the ground they’ve lost during the past four decades, when corporations have dominated and imposed their pro-market agenda.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s overreach — in picking on lowly paid education workers and using the soft-touch skills of an axe murderer in invoking the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause — helped CUPE win over the public, unite the labour movement and convince Ford he had no option but retreat.
Of course, there could be a backlash if labour strife escalates, especially if mainstream media commentators go on to depict workers as selfish and indifferent to the public’s suffering.
Commentators are remarkably quick to depict striking workers as holding the public hostage, while never noticing that business interests routinely hold us hostage when they threaten to leave the country if their taxes are raised.
In the case of such business threats, we’re told that the only answer is to submit to the demands of the hostage-takers and keep their taxes low. In the case of workers, however, we’re told never to give in to hostage-takers — it only encourages them.
With or without public support, labour militancy may soon be pressing up against the brick wall of a recession, which is being deliberately induced by the Bank of Canada to crush inflation.
In fact, wage gains have not been a major source of recent inflation, while corporations have taken advantage of inflation to pad their profits, notes economist Jim Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work.
Even so, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem has singled out workers for discipline, advising businesspeople at a Canadian Federation of Independent Business event last summer to hold wage increases in check. The audience seemed only too happy to oblige. “You bet! We’re on it, sir!”
As the corporate world and the Bank of Canada form a mighty phalanx to block labour advances — only in the interest of fighting inflation, of course! — labour’s battle to make up for years of lost ground becomes tougher.
And labour is pushing not just for higher wages, but for a shakeup of players at the power table.
While white men continue to dominate the corporate world, women and minorities have surged into leadership roles in the union movement, where there’s an appetite for breaking down traditional power structures.
Labour’s role in these battles is key. It is the only force in society sufficiently strong and organized to effectively champion the broad interests of working people, while pushing back against the crushing weight of corporate power.
Labour takes on these battles because equality — improving conditions for everyone — is baked into its agenda.
This aspiration for a better world for all was captured beautifully many years ago by J.S. Woodsworth, the first leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (forerunner of the NDP), when he wrote: “What we desire for ourselves, we wish for all.”
Woodsworth, a Methodist pastor, became a staunch advocate for organized labour, and was arrested for controversial editorials he wrote supporting the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.
The corporate version of his credo might well be: “What we desire for ourselves is the only thing that matters, so get out of our way.”
After decades of corporate triumphalism and gluttony, a little labour militancy in the spirit of J.S. Woodsworth isn’t something to fear but rather embrace.
This column was originally posted in the Toronto Star.
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