Crisis in the Canadian Labour Movement
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1548 ... January 26, 2018
________________________________________________________________
Crisis in the Canadian Labour Movement
A crisis has suddenly erupted within the Canadian labour movement, falling along old divisions of the movement’s archaic organizational structure, and assisted by the lack of any strategic focus or signs of even modest political ambitions beyond self-preservation in either the labour central or any of its affiliates. In the case at hand, the crisis is centred in Toronto and UNITEHERE Local 75, a large, diverse local with a militant history of organizing in the hotel and hospitality sectors in the Greater Toronto Area. Local 75 has been placed into trusteeship by the U.S.-headquartered International. Unifor, the largest Canadian (mostly) private sector union has organized a campaign to convince the membership of Local 75 to break with the International and... join it. Many are calling the Unifor actions a membership raid. In response (or as a calculated decision from the outset), Unifor has announced its withdrawal from the Canadian Labour Congress, citing the inability of the Canadian labour central to provide a mechanism for the local’s membership to challenge the trusteeship and allow the members to decide in a democratic vote. The events have opened up a series of questions, some related to the specific case at hand, and others speaking just as much to the organizational impasse of the Canadian union movement.
Are the reasons given by UNITE’s International leadership for the trusteeship valid (internal divisions and the alleged meddling of Unifor)? Are the efforts to sign up Local 75 members little more than a raid? Or are there important reasons – based on internal union organizational issues and a direction being forced on the members of the Canadian local – to challenge the International’s control of the local? Important developments internal to the local and the international are clearly at play. Some of this will only become clear with results from the recertification process and others will remain muddy and disputed.