No Future
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK – UPDATE 11th FEBRUARY 2013
EVENTS
NEW MEDIA BOOTCAMP FOR UNION ACTIVISTS
Beginning February 18
Are you interested in learning how to master new media tools for union activism?
The New Media Bootcamp for Union Activists is a free online course that teaches union activists how to better use online tools to put forward the message of the labor movement.
You can learn more about the course at http://www.NewMediaForUnions.com
You will learn things such as:
– How to make your union’s content go viral online
– How to grow your Facebook Pages
– How to create effective petition pages
– How to best use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
– How to get your issue to the top of Google
The first module comes out on February 18th and you can complete the course at your own pace.
Register at http://www.NewMediaForUnions.com
+++++
“RIGHT-TO-WORK” IS WRONG: DEFEAT THE HARPER/HUDAK ATTACK ON WORKERS’ RIGHTS CAMPAIGN LAUNCH AND TRAINING
Saturday March 2, 2013
9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Allstream Centre, Exhibition Place
Registration – $50.00
Passage of so-called “right-to-work” legislation in Michigan, the birthplace of industrial unionism, has sent shockwaves across both sides of our border. Conservative MPs are planning the same here, and Ontario Tory leader Tim Hudak has made it part of his election platform. Canadians are about to experience an unprecedented level of aggression against the very foundations of collective bargaining. The entire labour movement is poised to take on this immediate threat.
The Toronto and York District Labour Council will be launching a massive internal union organizing campaign on Saturday March 2nd – registration form is at http://www.labourcouncil.ca
To see a copy of the campaign flyer: http://www.labourcouncil.ca/uploads/8/8/6/1/8861416/right_to_work_flyer.pdf
+++++
SOCIAL ECONOMY CENTRE: SOCIAL ENTERPRISES AND THE NEW WAVE OF FOOD AND FARMING CO-OPERATIVES
Wednesday, Feb 13th, 2013
Noon – 1:30 pm.
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (U of T)
252 Bloor St. West, (St. George Subway Station)
Room 3-104
*No registration required
Presenters: Hannah Renglich, Local Organic Food Co-ops Network; Glenn Valliere, Ontario Co-op Association Board of Directors; and Randy Whitteker, Ontario Natural Food Co-op
Join us to explore:
-The story of the Ontario Natural Food Co-op, a 37-year-old social enterprise that proactively brings to market natural, organic and local foods within a co-operative network
– The new wave of food and farming co-operatives sprouting up across Ontario, and the corresponding emergence and development of the Local Organic Food Co-ops Network
– The sustainability and resilience of the co-operative model in the current economy, as it contributes to strong local economies, environmental stewardship, and community-sufficiency
Bring your lunch and a mug. Water, coffee, tea, and fresh-baked snacks from Lemon & Allspice will be provided.
For more information, please contact us at secspeakerseries@gmail.com
Webcast: This event will be webcast live. To view the webcast, click here: http://socialeconomycentre.ca/webcast-instructions
+++++
FILM: TSAR TO LENIN
Saturday February 16
6 pm Dinner
7 pm Film screening
Oak Street Co-op Community Room, Toronto
(Directions: take River Street north from Dundas or south from Gerrard St. E., walk east on Oak St. and look for stairs and a ramp on the right side, just past the convenience store. Community Room at bottom of stairs.)
Film screening and fundraising dinner. The definitive film record of the 1917 Russian Revolution. This film premiered on March 6, 1937, at the Filmarte Theatre in New York City, after nine years in the making. At that time, the New York Times praised Tsar to Lenin as “an important work – a complete, impartial and intelligent film history of the Russian revolution.” The critic of the New York Post described the film as the “most important moving picture I ever saw in my life…the most vital and absorbing film, to my mind, in the history of the movies.” With the onset of the Cold War this film was denied the audience it should have received. But as the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution approaches, it is being rediscovered.
Come to this special film screening and fundraising dinner for http://www.socialist.ca
Suggested donation $7-15 (sliding scale)
Organized by Coxwell International Socialists. Info: 647.393.3096
+++++
NEWS & VIEWS
ATTACK ON FREE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING POLITICAL, NOT FISCAL
from Leftwords
In December, it was predicted that outgoing finance minister Dwight Duncan would reduce his deficit forecast just before his departure (for Bay Street). Duncan had somehow estimated in his fall economic statement that the 2012-3 deficit would be $14.4 billion, i.e. higher than the 2011-12 deficit — and even higher than the 2010-11 deficit!
Sure enough, Duncan lopped another $2.5 billion off the deficit in January.
Read more: http://ochuleftwords.blogspot.ca/2013/02/attack-on-free-collective-bargaining.html
+++++
OUR TIMES WOMEN’S ISSUE SNEAK PREVIEW
Our Times’ ever-popular annual women’s issue is heading to press soon, cutting through the noise and spin of the powers that be with the sharp, wise and sincere voices of women standing strong and making change.
We’ll be launching our three-part series, Leadership, Feminism and Equality in Canadian Unions, in which we’ll share the collective wisdom of 50 women from across Canada.
You’ll also hear from Halifax Idle No More organizer Marina Young, a Mi’kmaq activist speaking out about Indigenous and Canadian issues and efforts to shape the future of First Nations communities and the country as a whole.
We’ll also hear a parent’s point of view on the teachers’ fight against Bill 115, and though it may have been repealed, its impacts in Ontario and the fight for collective bargaining continue.
We’ll also check in with K-12 education support staff in Edmonton. And because children “shouldn’t just be for rich families,” Sharon Gregson, a spokesperson for the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C., as well as unionists in B.C. and across Canada fills us in on their steadfast campaign for universal child care.
This is just a sampling of the stories in this issue. It’s going to be a great one. Please join us in celebrating and supporting women workers!
If you would like to order extra copies of this issue (more than 20) as an education resource for your workshops, conferences or schools, please place your order with our business manager by February 19.
Telephone: 416-703-7661 Toll free: 1-800-648-6131 Email: office@ourtimes.ca Special bulk order prices are available.
I hope you enjoy the issue and find it of use.
In Solidarity,
Lorraine Endicott
Editor, Our Times (http://www.ourtimes.ca)
+++++
TELL YOUR STORY – “OUR LIFE AT WORK”
by Iles Minoff, creator and editor of OurLifeAtWork.com
I’ve posted a new website, http://www.OurLifeAtWork.com, where working people can tell their story. On the site now are fifteen stories written by electricians, roofers, rail workers, a flight attendant, a nursing home organizer, and workers at factory bakeries and a meatpacking plant among others. They were written in the 1990s by mostly labor leaders for a class in the Anthropology of Work I taught for five years in the college degree program of the George Meany Center for Labor Studies in Silver Spring, Maryland. Take a look.
What makes these stories so compelling is that the descriptions of occupations and workplaces are from their own point of view, having sometimes spent some twenty years or more on the job. They write about starting out on the job, a day at work, how the work really gets done, gaining respect on the job, the informal rules, the job pecking order, friendships, teamwork, conflicts, accidents, the emerging role of women, race, and organizing as they and their fellow workers experienced it all.
I hope you will make use of the site and encourage people to write their own stories. If you are involved in this area, or know of others who are, please let me know. OurLifeAtWork.com is a work-in-progress. How can I make it better? Thanks.
Iles Minoff, Email: ilesminoff@gmail.com
+++++
AMNESTY FOR THE UNDOCUMENTED, THEY’VE EARNED IT
by Richard Mellor, Facts for Working People
Immigrants are hard workers; they have to be. They are usually economic refugees, victims of wars, both physical wars and trade wars. The Irish came to England and to the US in droves to escape poverty in their homeland, a poverty that was a product of occupation and the theft of their land. As a person of English origin living in California, I have often compared the Irish immigrants to Britain to our Mexican and other Latino immigrants who are also economic migrants, forced to leave their homes and families to stave off starvation. NAFTA drove more than a million Mexican farmers from their subsistence farms; many came up here. It’s hard to compete with Con Agra or Monsanto when it comes to agricultural production, the US small farmer can testify to that.
Read more: http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.ca/2013/02/amnesty-for-undocumented-theve-earned-it.html
+++++
FACTORY IN GREECE STARTS PRODUCTION UNDER WORKERS’ CONTROL
from libcomm.org
Striking workers at the Vio.Me factory in Thessaloniki, Greece who have not been paid since May 2011 have decided to restart production under workers’ control on 12 February 2013.
With unemployment climbing to 30%, workers’ income reaching zero, sick and tired of big words, promises and more taxes, unpaid since May 2011 and currently withholding their labour, with the factory abandoned by the employers, the workers of Vio.Me, by decision of their general assembly declare their determination not to fall prey to a condition of perpetual unemployment, but instead to struggle to take the factory in their own hands and operate it themselves.
Read more: http://libcom.org/news/factory-greece-starts-production-under-workers-control-11022013
+++++
WHY I DON’T FEEL SAFE OR RIGHT FLYING PORTER AND YOU SHOULDN’T EITHER
by Trish Qualtrough – COPE Organizer
Several months ago I was approached by a group of young workers at Porter Fixed Based Operations (FBO) looking for a union to represent them as they had serious concerns around health and safety. The stories they recounted of flagrant health and safety violations and unsafe working conditions were appalling.
Read more: http://copeontario.ca/why-i-dont-feel-safe-or-right-flying-porter-and-you-shouldnt-either/
+++++
JOBS
PROFESSIONAL TELEPHONE FUNDRAISERS FOR PROGRESSIVE CAUSES (ENGLISH AND BI-LINGUAL FRENCH-ENGLISH) – TORONTO
Progressive Metrics is a fundraising, communications and political consulting agency. We specialize in assisting trade unions, worker organizations, grassroots campaigns, political advocacy organizations and progressive candidates to work for social change.
Progressive Metrics is currently seeking telephone representatives for its Toronto-based call centre.
Primary responsibilities are fundraising for various political advocacy organizations, NGO’s, and progressive political parties and candidates.
Application deadline: 12 PM (Noon) Tuesday, February 19, 2013.
For more information and to apply: http://progressivemetrics.ca/careers/
+++++
UNION REPRESENTATIVE- COPE LOCAL 397 (SASKATCHEWAN)
Canadian Office & Professional Employees Union (COPE), Local 397 requires an experienced person to be responsible for all aspects of Labour Relations with various employers throughout the Local’s jurisdiction.
Qualifications:
– Ability to promote and support the principles of Trade Unionism.
– Relevant post secondary education and/or extensive labour relations work-related experience (graduate of a Labour Studies program would be an asset).
– Demonstrated extensive experience in the administration, negotiation, and interpretation of Collective Bargaining Agreements.
– Working knowledge of relevant Labour Legislation.
– Strong oral and written communication skills.
– Demonstrated ability to work independently, to set priorities and to balance a demanding workload.
– Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships.
– Demonstrated ability to use the Microsoft Office Suite.
– Possession of valid driver’s licence and a reliable vehicle.
For more info and to apply: http://www.cope397.ca/sk/employment_opportunity
+++++
UNION ORGANIZER – COPE LOCAL 397 (SASKATCHEWAN/MANITOBA/ALBERTA)
The Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE), Local 397 is a progressive and professional Union with Members who work at Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), Service Employees International Union (SEIU-West) in Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Swift Current, Saskatchewan NDP Provincial and Caucus Offices, Saskatchewan NDP Constituency Assistants, the RM of Alexander, the U of R Faculty Association and our Calgary Unit. We have over 1,600 members in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta.
We are currently seeking a talented and motivated individual for the term position of Union Organizer. This position will be extended as funding is available. This person will be based in Regina.
For more info and to apply: http://www.cope397.ca/sk/employment_opportunity
+++++
+++++
ABOUT CSEW (CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION & WORK, OISE/UT):
Head: Peter Sawchuk
Co-ordinator: D’Arcy Martin
The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) brings together educators from university, union, and community settings to understand and enrich the often-undervalued informal and formal learning of working people. We develop research and teaching programs at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UofT) that strengthen feminist, anti-racist, labour movement, and working-class perspectives on learning and work.
Our major project is APCOL: Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning. This five-year project (2009-2013), funded by SSHRC-CURA, brings academics and activists together in a collaborative effort to evaluate how organizations approach issues and campaigns and use popular education. For more information about this project, visit http://www.apcol.ca
For more information about CSEW, visit: http://www.csew.ca
**END**
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)
‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com
Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski
Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski 