Unionman's Home Page

(Or in this case... Only Page)

Web pages seem be about selling things and/or providing information.
I'm more interested in sharing information with fellow travellers than in selling anything except empowerment though collective action and mutual support.

I'm interested in:

Worker control and empowerment
Popular Education techniques
What socialism means now that the statism has been largely discredited
International solidarity based on the exchange of experience around common problems.

Bio

I work for a public sector union in Canada where I develop training materials.
About 20,000 workers a year participate in workshops that I help develop.
I have worked in Mozambique and South Africa on shop floor training.
This January, I spent 2 weeks in Cuba working with our counterpart union.

Why Unions?

Unions are groups of workers.
Workers organize themselves into unions to solve problems that individuals cannot solve themselves.
Unions exist because groups have more power than individuals.
Power in this case means the ability to force employer to do things they otherwise wouldn't do. Union power is based on the threat of collective action to solve problems.
But not everyone faces the same problem at the same time.
If workers only acted on their own problems men would not support paid maternity leave, young workers would not support improvements in retirement benefits and whites would not support actions to deal with workplace racism.
To operate union need solidarity.
Solidarity means "I will support you when you have a problem on the understanding that you will support me when I have a problem".

Workers form unions because they have more power when they support one another and act as a group than when they act alone.

In January I spent a 2 weeks in Cuba as part of a union exchange. We were able to see things and to meet people that few outsiders get to see when they visit.
If you are interested in what we discovered follow the link:

Cuba

If any of this sounds interesting, contact me