Schools and some business will be closed Monday and for most of us it is a long weekend which we might enjoy at the cottage by the lake, catching up on a project around the house or beyond a hundred other things, – spend that extra time with family.
Labour Day is to remind us of how hard workers fought for better working conditions and worker rights. Back in 1872 union members were imprisoned for striking, campaigning for 9 hour work day. Trade unions them self were still considered illegal. It wasn’t until over time, as public support grew and a huge parade in Ottawa of perhaps 10000 protesters took place. Governments couldn’t ignore the place of unions in Canadian society anymore. Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald kept his word as he had promised to the protest marchers, repealing the union laws and arranging for the release of imprisoned union organizers. This eventually led to the founding of the Canadian labour congress in 1883.
For the future and present, I believe the union and its people strength behind them, – after all that is what makes a union strong, will have to fight very hard for the rights of workers and human rights as a whole. We already seen more striking workers on the street this year as wage increases over many years for many workers were frozen, far below inflation or workers have been without a contract for years. One also seeing more contract and contingency workers brought in by companies, undermining contract they have with their union and strength of its union.
I believe union should be impartial to government parties and solely a representation for the worker, as political parties shift their stands or align themselves with other. Unions have to be stronger in lobbying and more visible in what they do. And yes we can all do our part to further fairness and human dignity at work and where ever we set foot.