Labour Day is a workers’ celebration of the fights it took to get us where we are today. It's also a solemn reminder that rights aren’t given – they're won and have to be defended.
As of late, we’re getting regular reminders that rights only have meaning if we can back them up.
The federal government has repeatedly thrown its weight behind corporate interests, imposing binding arbitration and violating workers’ Charter-protected freedom to strike. That isn’t a democracy – it's a protection racket for oligarchs.
The recent CUPE strike, which sought to secure a fair deal for Air Canada flight attendants and put an end to the exploitation of their unpaid labour, was a lesson in discipline and courage. Their refusal to abide by the government’s back-to-work order forced their employer back to the negotiating table, pushing forward gains that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
We’ve seen that this government is willing to throw the Charter to the wind to bail out corporations that won’t bargain. And we’ve seen what happens when workers have each other's backs and enforce their rights.
You need to stand strong because this government seems fully committed to slashing the public sector at a time when federal workers are the frontline standing between Canadians and a chaotic world. Canadians need much more than tax cuts and deregulation in this unprecedented moment; we need strong federal programs to face down the storms to come.
Now is the time to build and show our collective power. Connect with your coworkers who are organizing every day to do exactly that by joining your local organizing committee and building the kind of discipline and structure the flight attendants did.
In solidarity,
Nate Prier
