Security for Security Screeners, United Church Ministers on the Winnipeg General Strike
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- Published on Wednesday, 05 June 2019 10:12
- Written by editor
If variety is the spice of life today's mailing will for sure make your day. So let's get right to it.
Chances are good that you have flown on a commercial flight at least once in the past year. You went through security without thinking much about the people who scan your bags and keep you and other passengers safe in the process.
Or perhaps, being a union member or ally, you assumed that the screeners’ collective agreement meant that they have all the protections most of us enjoy.
You would have been wrong.
Airport security staff are employees of a third party service provider who has the contract at your local airport, but they are subject to the whims of CATSA, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. While CATSA is not their employer it has the power to render decisions that adversely affect security staff. For workers who challenge CATSA’s decision union representation is not permitted and the process is extremely lengthy, often lasting several months during which time a worker may be without pay. All the tools that exist for workers to defend themselves when wrongfully accused are non-existent for airport screeners.
That, to put it mildly, sucks. Airport screeners deserve the same union rights as all other unionized workers.
The IAM, which represents many airport pre-board screeners, is campaigning to win for its members what should already be theirs: basic union rights. The same rights that you and I enjoy.
So please, add your name to the IAM petition to Parliament and demand that airport security staff have the same rights as all other union members. It takes just a few seconds. Just go HERE.
And please pass this along. When one union’s rights in the workplace are undermined we all are at risk.
One more time: go HERE to tell your MP that an injury to one is an injury to us all.
100 years ago this week workers in Winnipeg began one of the great labour struggles in Canadian history. Being who you are many of you will already know that many United Church ministers are members of Unifaith, a Unifor Community Chapter. And that many of the key figures in the Winnipeg General Strike were ministers in churches that later came together to form the United Church.
So, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the strike, those Unifor members have created a resource package for...I was going to say for churches and church members but it is way more than that. As the Unifaith Chapter members themselves put it:
"This resource connects worshipping communities with a formative episode in Canadian church and labour history, the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. It is offered in the spirit of solidarity—between workers and churches, men and women, and all parts of Canada and the world, where labour rights are still so needed by so many."
It really is a labour of love motivated by a love of labour. Check it out HERE and pass it along if you are a United Church member. Or even if you aren't. And if you know of other online 100th Anniversary items, send them along and we'll help get the word out.
Before I go a quick reminder about last week's boycott call in solidarity with Rainforest Cafe cafe workers on strike in Niagara Falls over, among other things, workplace sexual harassment and tip theft. Tell their employer you won't patronize their restaurants and hotels until the strike is settled by going HERE.
A long one I know, but there is a lot going on this week. In Solidarity,
Derek Blackadder
LabourStart Canada
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