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On May 1 each year, Unifor marks International Workers’ Day, May Day, to celebrate worker solidarity and the labour movement. International solidarity has achieved so much for workers’ rights, and must continue to form the foundation of the ongoing struggle against obscene greed and capital worldwide.
Across Canada and around the world, including Brazil, Taiwan, and India, workers have been mobilizing against U.S. President Donald Trump's unjust tariffs that have threatened jobs and entire sectors of the economy, from auto, forestry, steel, aluminum and more.
In Canada, Unifor members have been organizing under the banner of the Protect Canadian Jobs campaign, with rallies in Vancouver, Windsor and Brampton, lobbying meetings with MPs in Ottawa, and actions on the ground, such as supporting locked out members at Titan Tool & Die in Windsor, who have fought for over 250 days to resist the movement of their jobs to the U.S.
Trump's foreign policy is based on military aggression and violations of international law. Actions against Venezuela, Cuba and Iran have increased global political and economic instability, humanitarian emergencies, and threats to the lives and livelihoods of workers and communities. These attacks have also exacerbated the affordability crisis with higher prices on fuel, food and other basic necessities.
This approach has little to do with supporting democracy and human rights, but rather it is a deliberate strategy to assert U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere and threaten the sovereignty of nations—including Canada's. Unifor joins the international labour movement to call for an end to hostilities, the protection of civilian lives, and the safeguarding of human rights.
Despite these challenges, workers and unions continue to organize in solidarity against regressive government policies and powerful corporate giants. In B.C., Unifor won a significant victory for Amazon warehouse workers, recovering over one million dollars in back wages owed to unionized workers.
In Quebec, workers' economic and social rights have been under sustained attack, with the CAQ government pushing anti-union policies while the social safety net is deliberately eroded. Unions, community groups and civil society are the bulwark against this erosion—which is precisely why the CAQ is working to weaken them. On May 2, Unifor members will join workers, retirees, students, and community organizations in Montreal for an International Workers' Day march under the theme Droits piétinés, faut resister—"trampled rights, we must resist”.
Nationally, the union has been mobilizing to strengthen Canada's public health care system and provide greater support for health care workers. Unifor has also stood in solidarity with Air Canada flight attendants, who were fighting to put an end to unpaid work time as well as the federal government's attack on collective bargaining rights.
South of the border, U.S. labour unions and workers are mobilizing against immigration raids and state-sponsored attacks on migrant workers and migrant worker communities.
Unifor continues to build worker solidarity internationally through the Social Justice Fund, supporting global workers' movements, including domestic workers through the International Domestic Workers Federation, garment workers across south and southeast Asia through the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, or public transit workers in Chile, with the Santiago Metro Trade Union Federation. Creating and strengthening relationships with international labour unions and workers is needed now more than ever, in this increasingly divided and fractured world.
