Chris Ramsaroop /Guest Columnist THE NEWS that one of Canada’s most influential labour leaders, Jerry Dias, allegedly took bribes, could not have come at a worse time for Canada’s labour movement. In a struggle to improve the lives of working-class peoples, the entire labour movement has been put on the defensive by being painted by the same brush as Dias. While there is anger over the controversy, there is a consensus by labour activists that the actions of one leader cannot erase the tremendous work that rank-andfile workers undertake every day, to improve their workplaces. The fear is that business interests will once again use this as an optimum time to increase their attacks to not only curb the power of workers but to outright abolish labour unions once and for all. As Canada’s economy continues to fluctuate and there is an ever-increasing polarity between the rich and the poor, unions are necessary to counter this divide. In fact, with the growth of the Freedom Convoy and other far-right organisations, unions have an instrumental role to fight racism, xenophobia, white supremacy and the growing rise of fascism in the working class. FIGHTING DIVIDE AND RULE There are two fronts that labour unions must take to curb the rise of the far right. In their own house, theremust be a thorough and honest conversation regarding white supremacy and racism both in its membership and its structure. Many union members, elected officials and staffers were exposed for their contributions to the Freedom Convoy. Immediate steps are needed to confront the role of racism and facism in the workplace. Unions can’t hide behind tokenistic gestures. The pandemic only breeds hatred and fear, reinforcing historical views of others considered“foreign”and outside of the community. Economic insecurity adds fuel to the fire. To overcome the struggles we’re facing as the working class, the labour movement must invest substantial resources, well beyond slogans and open letters, to address and debunk the underlying fears that members are facing. The pandemic exposes the critical juncturewe are at. Solidarity by fighting the systemof divide and rule among workers is much-needed and crucial at this juncture. Secondly, unions need to redouble organising efforts to address the growing polarising and precariousness in society. This means building power in both workplaces and the streets, to counter the most recent salvos in the neoliberalist offensive. Illustrating the growing polarisation during the pandemic, a recently released report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) ‘ADisproportionate Burden: COVID-19 Labour Market Impacts on Indigenous and Racialized Communities’ paints a stark economic picture faced by racialisedworkers. The report states, “Racialized workers bore a disproportionate burden during the pandemic in twoways: They weremore concentrated in industries that were most likely to suffer job losses from the pandemic and they were concentrated in frontline occupations at highest risk of infection.” The same study reveals that, over the period July 2020 to June 2021, 28 per cent of indigenous peoples, and 31 per cent of racialised households, lived with economic insecurity on average compared to 16 per cent of white households.” Unions are important nowmore than ever to increase wages, benefits and to democratise the workplace. In addition, unions are necessary to counter the rise of the far right and fascism, by organising both in the workplace and community. They must send the message that the enemy is not your fellow worker, but the corporate elites who try to pit communities against one another. Chris Ramsaroop is an organizer with the activist group Justice for Migrant workers, an instructor in the Caribbean Studies Program at the University of Toronto and a clinic instructor at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law. 8 6-3670 Odyssey Drive Mississauga, Ontario, L5M 0Y9 T: 905-607-6222 Unions are important nowmore than ever The Gleaner [ EDITORIAL ] THE WEEKLY GLEANER | APRIL 4 - 30, 2022 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com Read the full columns at our special diaspora site at www.gleanerextra.com and at www.jamaica-gleaner.com.
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