May Day 2013 in Vancouver

To commemorate International Worker's Day (commonly known as "May Day"), over 100 people took part in an anti-capitalist march in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday, May 1st. The march began with a rally at Victory Square, then coursed its way through the Downtown Eastside, led by a boisterous black bloc that handed out flaming torches to whoever would carry them. The march paused for several minutes of chanting in front of Pidgin, an upscale restaurant that's been picketed for weeks by anti-gentrification campaigners, before continuing on to its conclusion at Thornton Park.

The Vancouver Police Department deployed large numbers of officers on bicycles and motorcycles around both Victory Square and Pidgin restaurant, while the PSU (riot police) shadowed the march from start to finish, filming protesters along the way.

Organizer Training 101 Report

On April 27th, the Vancouver and Vancouver Island IWW branches co-hosted an 'Organizer Training 101' education session. A fellow worker from the Edmonton branch flew out to deliver a packed day of organizer training.

The morning started with a quick round of personal introductions. We had a solid turn-out of Wobblies and allies from diverse backgrounds. The training material outlines the basic stages of a workplace organizing campaign, starting with gathering basic information about co-workers, discussing grievances, and culminating in the establishment of a strong union that protects the rights of workers. Throughout the training session, we had several opportunities to share our own personal workplace experiences and discuss the challenge of organizing.

The training session offered experiences that cannot be found in any book, pamphlet or website. For instance, we used role-playing to practice how we might approach a fellow worker to find out if they've been having issues at the workplace that they need help resolving, and how open they are to the idea of forming a worker-led union.

Organizer Training 101! [UPDATED]

Vancouver IWW is pleased to announce an Organizer Training 101 (OT101) course for Spring 2013! OT101 is a two-day crash course on grassroots, direct action-driven solidarity unionism that will teach skills to help workers build power in their workplaces from the bottom up. It focuses on techniques for building a committee of workers who are confident and capable of addressing issues in the workplace, and for overcoming obstacles like worker apathy, anxiety, and the bosses’ counter-organizing efforts. The course is free (though a donation of $5/day is requested), and is open to everyone (not just IWW members) – so please forward this event to anyone who might be interested! We have established a Facebook page for this event here.

UPDATE: The training session has been condensed into a 1-day program to make it easier for people to schedule their affairs around it. The training session will now be held in its entirety on Saturday, April 27th, and there will no longer be a second day on Sunday, April 28th. Please see the full event time and location information below.

Full Event Details
Saturday, April 27th 8:30AM-5PM
SFU Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings St.)
Lecture Room #1315

Registration is mandatory; please email contact (at) vancouveriww.com to confirm your attendance, as well as which dates you plan to attend.

Bill C-377 Takes Aim at Unions' Financial Info

In mid-December, the House of Commons passed the third reading of Bill C-377. The bill, sponsored by MP Russ Hiebert (Conservative, Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale), requires labour organizations to disclose detailed financial reports to the federal government. Hiebert states that the goal of the bill is "to increase transparency and accountability in another group of public institutions – labour unions."

In the IWW, we disclose our financial details to our members at monthly general membership branch meetings. In the interest of solidarity, transparency and self-management we believe that our rank-and-file members have a right to know how their dues are spent, and to have a say in the management of our union.

Various trade unions have similar rules on delivering financial reports to their membership, though they do not emphasize self-management of the union by their rank-and-file. The way towards improving the structure of those unions is by agitation for greater democracy from within, not by mandating that financial details be reported to the federal government.

The latest developments on Bill C-377 can be found on the Open Parliament website.

Statement of Solidarity: TSSU

The IWW Vancouver - Coast Salish Territory GMB wishes to express its solidarity with the Teaching Support Staff Union in their current labour dispute with Simon Fraser University.

The following quote is from Derek Sahota, TSSU spokesperson via press release dated July 2nd, following a TSSU strike vote:

"With 90% voting in favour of taking job action, the TSSU has a mandate to fight for an equitable collective agreement. We are serious about being treated fairly, and clearly TSSU members are prepared to take action for that purpose ... After two frustrating years of bargaining, no offer to increase wages, and not a single agreement reached, it is time for the Employer to acknowledge our concerns and engage in some real bargaining.”

The Vancouver IWW will be sending a letter of support directly to SFU President Andrew Petter. You can find a TSSU support form letter here (docx file format).

We encourage our local IWW members, supporters and allies to keep up with the TSSU's current situation via their website and to support the union however they can. Please show solidarity by respecting any picket lines.