Why unions?

For the first time in more than a decade an actual labour strike made its way to Six Nations. More than 15 years ago the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) members took to the picket lines, again at Six Nations schools, over contract disputes. While it is certainly not unusual now for Indigenous people to be part of the wider labour movement and labour struggles it is unusual to see it actually happen within communities. Outside communities, for generations, Indigenous men have been part of steelworkers unions and built some of the largest and most significant infrastructure that now maintains both Canada and the U.S. They faced challenges of racism and exploitation but they also introduced to their communities the idea of belonging to a union and why it…

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