New labour militancy from the folks who brought us the weekend

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 https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2022/11/08/when-doug-ford-tried-to-prevent-a-strike-he-only-made-more-of-them-likely.html?rf 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. |Read more https://rabble.ca/columnists/new-labour-militancy-from-the-folks-who-brought-us-the-weekend/|
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