The Big Win: Beyond Saskatchewan

Bea is the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) President and a member of UFCW from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

It’s been ten years since SFL led the effort to enshrine the right to strike as a constitutional right. The entire labour movement in Canada is grateful for this monumental win.

This is what solidarity looks like! The coming together of unions under the umbrella of the SFL shows what we can achieve when we support one another and work together!

This decision is a critically important win for the whole Canadian Labour movement. Defending the right to strike is the bedrock of labour movement. Without the ability to withdraw our labour, we are at the whims of the employer. This decision ensures that all workers can demand better and fight for a fair deal.

We can never take our rights for granted. In strike after strike, we see governments attempting to chip away at our rights and use whatever means at their disposal to give an upper hand to the employer.

But the same solidarity that brought us this win ten years ago will help us win even more victories for working people.

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Rob is the President of International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada, of which Saskatchewan’s GSU & RWDSU are affiliated.

A decade ago. unions across this country won a great victory led by the SFL and a great legal team, but this victory came with a gremlin locked inside of it – one that would not show its ugly face a for a few years.

But do we actually have the “right to strike”?

Let me take you to July 2023, when our longshore division went on strike for a fair and freely negotiated collective agreement. We managed to strike for thirteen days, but then then the federal government forced us back to work through section 107 of the federal labour code.

They folded like a cheap deck of cards to the cohort of usual suspects, complaining about the economy, or that goods were not able to get through. The federal government never thought that sending them back to work would embolden employers not to bargain with unions… or did they?

Then in 2024 we saw the federal government threaten - or steal away - workers’ rights to withhold their labour. This was apparent in the WestJet fight, and especially the 13-hour Teamsters rail strike (the day before, the Minister of Labour announced the feds would not be getting involved).

Then the feds stole away the right to strike with S.107 from ILWU Local 514 and CUPE 375 as well.

It’s a government that pats us on the head and says to us, “good little workers, we have pretended to give you what you want - now run along while we change the rules to f$%k you!”

They send the organized working class of this nation to binding arbitration, which is exactly what the employing class wants. Instead, it should be us fighting it out on the streets where it belongs! There should be zero use for ‘back-to-work orders’ and there should be zero use of scabs!

So back to the question: do we have a right to strike? My answer: yes, but - the government and the employing class will forever work against us. This is why voting (and who we vote for) matters!

We must put aside the many attempts at division used to split us apart: on gender, race, religion, or any other divide. We must stand united no matter how hard it feels. We must do this to survive against the employing class that wish to crush us!

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