NB Federation of Labour President Patrick Colford (submitted)
In Canada we now celebrate Labour Day in September, but for all foreign workers who are in our province, today is May Day or International Worker’s Day.
Federation of Labour President, Patrick Colford says we have come a long way since 1919 when a labour dispute in Manitoba turned extremely violent.
” The Winnipeg General strike lasted 40 days until what is known as Bloody Saturday when police on horseback arrived and fired into a crowd of protesters” stated Colford.
Colford says there are still cases of union busting going on and cites a labour dispute at a smelter in the northern part of the province.
” We have a strike going on in Belledune right now and one of the things we have seen that happened really quickly was a security company was brought in and on their website they are known as the Strike Breakers and they advertise that quite publicly,” said Colford.
Colford says there are still struggles for workers when you have people with jobs in this province who still rely on food banks to get them through each month.
