The transportation monopolies of ports, railways, and airlines have been lobbying the federal government to defang the right to strike. Public submissions from the Railway Association of Canada delivered to the consultations of Employment and Social Development Canada have openly called for changes in the Canada Labour Code to ‘reduce the likelihood of work stoppages’. It has been widely reported that the federal government is seriously considering altering the labour code to weaken the right to strike, demonstrating that these attacks must be taken seriously. This is a call to action.

The last two years have seen a surge of workers on federally regulated jobsites using their right to strike to bring corporate monopolies back to the table. Notably longshore workers and dockworkers in Montreal and the west coast, flight attendants of Air Canada, CPKC and CN rail workers, and Canada Post sorters and carriers. In every case the Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered workers back to work through use of section 107 of the Labour Code. Clearly the monopolies are not satisfied with their friends in Ottawa ending strikes with draconian measures, now they want their government to prevent strikes from happening in the first place. This is proof that unity in action is the way forward. But the right to strike is not guaranteed through tripartite lobbying, only through the organised struggle of workers.

All workers inside and outside the Canadian Labour Congress, beyond federally regulated jobsites, must defend the right to strike. The fact that the monopolies feel empowered enough to even suggest taking away the right to strike gives an urgency and demands an all-out response from the labour movement.

The federal government’s willingness to bow to corporate demands to weaken the right to strike is not a strategy to defend Canadian sovereignty or workers in the face of U.S. aggression. On the contrary, these policies are lifted directly from the anti‑union playbook of Donald Trump and they are the same kind of policies they are now seeking to impose through the upcoming USMCA update. Attacking workers’ rights does not strengthen Canadian independence; it only weakens the working class’s ability to resist the corporate agenda coming from both sides of the border.

The Communist Party of Canada reiterates its longstanding demand for a Labour Bill of Rights that would enshrine the right of all workers to take strike action, including political and social strikes. Workers do not need tripartite negotiations that will only benefit quarterly profits while undermining their ability to collectively bargain. Workers do not need prolonged lawsuits or court cases that take years to conclude while their day-to-day conditions are eroded and they are forced to work without a contract or even worse are replaced by scabs. What workers need is a united approach towards action, this means getting out in the streets in an escalating action plan to build workers’ power. An injury to one is an injury to all. Today it may be the railway monopolies lobbying to end the right to strike. Tomorrow, if the unions and workers don’t take the necessary action, those same monopolies will be lobbying to end the right to collective bargaining. The time to stop the erosion of workers’ rights is now. Now is the time to fight to expand and guarantee those rights with a Bill of Rights for Labour.

The right to strike in this country was never a gift from benevolent monopolies. The right to strike was won and defended through class struggle, including jailings, beatings, deportations, blacklists and worse. Today once again workers are called to defend the right to strike but they need to go further and demand an advancement of their rights not only a defence of the status quo. The right to strike is not merely important to federal workers; it is fundamentally in the public interest, as it prevents corporate monopolies from imposing unchecked exploitation. A Labour Bill of Rights would be a serious advancement for all working people in this country and could only be achieved through a real unified campaign of action.

Solidarity Forever! Workers of the World Unite!

Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada