quote:

---

Today we take paid holidays, safe work places, medical care, unemployment insurance, fair work hours, union wages and "the weekend" for granted. How many of these advances would have happened if it were not for the long-forgotten heroes who fought so hard to make unions, and Labour Day, a reality in the first place?

---

It's also important to highlight, for those who think that unions are no longer necessary now that those labour standards are set, that there is nothing corporations would like better than to take those standards away from people. They're doing it little by little in non-unionized sectors, and through right-wing labour legislation by corporate lackey politicians.

I am well aware of labour's role in the creation of the NDP and the legislation that flowed from that protecting workers rights throughout our fine country. It is why i have been a shop steward since 1992 to present and continue to promote and defend organised labour as the bulwark against the corportate dismantling of hard won protections as Michelle has pointed out very well.

It is also why i am a proud NDP member, a party which continues to promote and protect labour rights through legislation, even in the face of opportunistic abandonment by such labour "leaders" as the Senator Hargrove, whom, since i became involved formally in labour at 19 years old i have admired immensely, but am now quite dissapointed with. It is appropos that on the cusp of Labour Day that workers don't forget the origins of the benefits they currently have and are damn well entitled to, having provided business with a solid and reliable workforce proud to produce the goods and services that have made business owners and leaders very wealthy indeed, often at the expense of the workers themselves.

Thanks for starting this thread and i hope to help continue it in the positve light that i now realise you intented. cheers!

ps: for the record, i am in no way "anti-CAW" at all. I do question the support some members have given to thier seriously misguided leader, who in my not so humble opinion is selling them out (new ford deal anyone?), but in my on the ground experience in the past 3 elections in toronto (2004,2006 federal + 2006 prov. by-election, toronto-danforth), the NDP has been supported by dedicated and hardworking CAW members whom i'm sure will continue to do so for years to come, despite the official position thier executive has taken. obviously some do not forget from whence they came, and i am proud to support them.

[ 31 August 2006: Message edited by: farnival ]

CLC & President Georgetti's message on Labour Day

LabourStart - where trade unionists start their day

... and, uh, the trade unions that are, through in cahoots, founding partners of rabble:

1. British Columbia Teachers' Federation
2. Canadian Auto Workers
3. Canadian Union of Public Employees
4. Public Service Alliance of Canada

Welcome to rabble.ca

Without the CAW and organizations like it, there would be no rabble.ca .

[ 31 August 2006: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]