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Worker Solidarity Movement
New Orleans In the early years of this century in Canada public employees and their unions faced almost exactly the same kind of hard conservative, neoliberal provincial attack on collective bargaining that we are seeing in the Republican assault in the Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana. Conservative governments had gained the whip [...]
Vancouver Even as the regional leaders of the BCGEU were strategizing with me on Friday morning about living wage campaigns in their cities and raising the minimum wage in British Columbia, according to the Prince George Free Press the local City Council had reneged on a pledge made in 2007 to the support an [...]
The Cleaner
Prince George When doing the “ housekeeping” for the BCGEU regional leadership meeting, Lynda Morrice, the educational director, introduced Carol Adams, a communications staff was going to be the “ ombudsman” for the meeting, and that if anyone had any problems whatsoever, bring them to her. Later in talking to both of [...]
Prince George, British Columbia I wanted to hear Napoleon Gomez Urrutia speak to the British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU) leaders gathered in the northern part of the province to look at how their union connects to the community. Gomez is Secretary General of the 250,000+ member Union of Mining, Metallurgical, Steel and [...]
Hanoi We were all used to seeing facemasks of different sorts, fashions, and colors on the tens of thousands of scooter drivers when we first navigated the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and then later Hanoi. What was more curious in the stifling heat and humidity was figuring out the long arm stockings that [...]
Hanoi The Organizers’ Forum delegation kept hearing about the distinctions between unions, the government, the party, non-profits or NGO’s, and associations, all of which became clearer in our first meeting in Hanoi with the Vietnam Women’s Union, one of the principal associations in the country. With 20000 staff at different levels and branches [...]
Ho Chi Minh City One of the real thrills of the Organizers’ Forum dialogue experience is being part of a diverse and talented group of organizers coming together for the first time in a foreign setting and trying to each on their own and all collectively get their arms around the illusive uniqueness of other [...]
Houston Watching the World Cup in South Africa, reading the stories in the Times from slums outside of Johannesburg, makes me look at the calendar for the countdown to the next huge international sports event: The Commonwealth Games! In October teams from all over the former colonies of the British Empire will be parachuting [...]
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