Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

On May 1, 1886, a general strike was called in the United States at a time when the right to organize and strike did not exist. A peaceful mass meeting at Haymarket Square in Chicago that followed was broken up by the police and led to the hanging of four labour leaders. All these events sparked the declaration of May 1 as an international day to remember and celebrate workers’ struggles.

One hundred and twenty years later, workers are fighting to protect their hard-won rights to organize, to bargain collectively and to strike. Recently, there has been a concerted effort by the labour movement to protect the right to bargain by pressuring Members of Parliament to adopt federal anti-scab legislation and first contract arbitration.

Workers know that this legislation is critical if they are to have any power in the bargaining process. The strike against Lakeside Packers in Brooks, Alberta last year was prolonged by the company’s attempts to run their operation with scab labour. The company colluded with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and put our members in the middle of a violent conflict. In the absence of anti-scab and first contract arbitration law, it was thanks in large part to PSAC members that the strike came to a successful conclusion.

In April, it took an occupation by PSAC activitists in Yellowknife to convince a contractor not to provide scab labour at BHP Billiton’s Ekati mine.

Even where rights have been won, they remain fragile. In Quebec, the Charest government’s anti-union Bill 142 has prohibited the right to strike and to conduct other forms of workplace protests by public sector workers in the province. It also allows the the government to modify or abolish collective agreements in order to hire scab labour.

PSAC pledges that our members will continue to be part of labour’s campaign to enact federal anti-scab legislation and first contract arbitration. And, we will continue to support the struggles of workers across the country for similar laws in the provinces and territories.

One hundred and twenty-years later we celebrate our successes but we remain vigilant against attacks on our rights.

Visit the national website’s 2006 Convention pages here.