On a balmy Monday afternoon, the downtown area of Winnipeg became a sea of camaraderie as Manitoba’s unionized workforce propagated the spirit of unity to commemorate Labour Day. The heartening spectacle was part of the annual Labour Day Rally, an event orchestrated by the Winnipeg Labour Council, amassing hundreds of union affiliates from sundry labour fraternities.
Their journey embarked from Memorial Park, winding down Broadway and culminated at The Forks. The march, steeped in enthusiasm and determination, concluded at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Nathan Martindale, the president of Manitoba Teachers Society, on reflecting upon the significance of the march, commented on how it held profound relevance in light of recent strikes in the province.
Martindale mentioned the rallying cry of the ‘summer of strikes’ or ‘summer of solidarity’ as several units of MGEU took to strikes. The consequential outpouring of support from the Manitoba Federation of Labour affiliates underscored the heightened importance of the movement this year.
Manitoba has indeed witnessed a flurry of unionized job actions over the year. As of now, approximately 1,700 members of the Manitoba Public Insurance are striking for higher wages, severely disrupting the public insurance provider’s services for over a week.
In the previous month, about 1,400 employees of the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries (MLCC) concluded a nearly six-week-long picket, with businesses resuming after much interruption. During this upheaval, the MLCC was forced to shut almost every Liquor Mart location throughout the province.
In July, the provincial land titles office saw their unionized employees from Teranet Manitoba intensifying strike actions in a bid to conclude a new contract. Concurrently, during spring, a substantial number of Manitobans participated in a nationwide strike that involved about 155,000 government employees from across Canada.
The stirring images of strikes that girdled the national and international spectrum, such as the B.C. port workers strike and the Hollywood writers and actors strike in the U.S., amplified the sense of unity and collaboration between the labor unions. Martindale asserted that the workers’ engagement and comprehension of the importance of unionism, as well as their robust support for the collective works of unions, distinguished the current year.
