(The following article is from the September 16-30, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Vancouver Bureau

Labour Day was marked on September 1 by protests and union rallies across Canada.

     Hundreds of people marched in Grand Falls-Windsor for the Newfoundland town's 88th annual Labour Day celebrations. But the parade came as workers waited for news of mass layoffs at the local Abitibi-Bowater pulp mill.

     Abitibi-Bowater released its restructuring plan to the union and to government officials in August, warning of as many as 160 layoffs.

     Gary Healey, national representative for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union, which represents the mill workers, was a keynote speaker at the parade. His message was that if Abitibi-Bowater "can't, or won't, or don't want to run our mill, we'll find someone else."

     One float in the parade was a replica of the Abitibi-Bowater mill labelled with a "For Sale" sign. Another was designed with a doll, representing a child, with a sign asking if her generation would have to go to Alberta for work. The CEP's five union locals at the mill are holding meetings with members to vote on the proposal.

     In Halifax, over 300 workers battled rain and winds to march around the Commons before gathering for a picnic and speeches. Keynote speaker Mary Clarke Walker, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said the federal election would provide an opportunity to push for change.

     "Women's wages are still much lower than men's," Walker told the media. "On average it's about 70.5 per cent. If you are university educated ... it's even lower than that."

     At the other end of the country, hundreds of trade unionists rallied at the Vancouver Art Gallery to demand an increase in the BC minimum wage and to condemn the provincial Liberal government's huge salary increases to top bureaucrats. Speakers also blasted the government's new "carbon tax" which is deepening the economic hardships faced by working people, and the greed of the big energy monopolies. CEP national union president Dave Coles spoke to the crowd, drawing noisy support with a rousing call for public ownership of the big energy corporations.

     Sudbury's annual Labour Day Parade was led by over sixty female bank workers, who have been on strike against the CIBC for eight months. Their strike symbolized the theme of the Sudbury rally - Equality Once and For All.

     John Closs, president of the Sudbury and District Labour Council, told the media that the CIBC strike has "a lot of resonance" in Sudbury, as does the equality theme. The gender gap in the workplace is increasing, said Closs, and is larger in Sudbury than in many other communities because the high paying mining industry is largely staffed by men.

     Years ago, mining jobs paid poorly and weren't considered good jobs, said Closs. The union movement changed that. "We are trying to make jobs in banking good jobs, too," he said.

     "Mobilize to Organize" was the theme of this year's Labour Day parade in Toronto. The largest such event in the country drew thousands of trade unionists, marching from Queen Street West to the Dufferin Gates at the Canadian National Exhibition.

     For the third year in a row, Labour for Palestine, a network of rank and file union activists promoting the campaign against Israeli Apartheid, marched in the Toronto parade. The float was part of a contingent from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (Ontario), whose 2006 historic "boycott, divestment and sanctions" resolution was followed this year by a similar Canadian Union of Postal Workers resolution. Three thousand leaflets urging trade unionists to get involved in the struggle against Israeli Apartheid were distributed.

     Another Labour Day parade with a long historic tradition continued this year in Sarnia, where 2500 workers and 45 floats took part. Organized by the Sarnia and District Labour Council, the parade was first held in 1902.

     Over six hundred workers took part in the second annual Niagara Labour March, rallying at Canadian Niagara Hotels at the base of Clifton Hill.

     "This is Canadian Niagara Hotels, famous in Niagara Falls for mistreating its workers," said Alex Dagg, Canadian director of UNITE HERE Canada, which represents many of the hotel workers.

     Two years ago, actor Danny Glover and some union members were charged with trespassing after entering one of the hotel lobbies and demanding to speak to an owner. Canadian Niagara has renovated the former Brock Hotel, now called the Crown Plaza, investing millions of dollars on that project, but little for its workers.

     Sandra Rebrovich, president of UNITE HERE Local 2347 Niagara, said this year's march focused on the need to fight manufacturing sector job losses that devastated Niagara. The march also highlighted the need to raise workplace standards in the tourism industry.