Labour

No One Is Illegal Vancouver reports that on June 12, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney was forced to leave a Filipino Independence Day celebration. 

On May 18th, Canadian labour leaders announced at a press conference that they will hire Abousfian Abdelrazik in defiance of United Nations security council sanctions against him.

On Saturday, May 1st, 200 people marched in Winnipeg to mark International Workers' Day. This year, march organizers announced a theme of "Bread and Roses" to honor women's work and contributions to the labor movement.

MayWorks, a festival of labour and the arts, will continue throughout the month of May.

Thousands of people were in the streets today in Greece, and millions of workers are taking part in a nation-wide general strike. 

In the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since 1970, 29 West Virginia coal miners were killed in an explosion last week.

The CBC reports that the mine's owner, Richmond, Va.-based Massey Energy Co., has been under scrutiny for a string of safety violations at the mine, though CEO Don Blankenship has defended the company's record and disputed accusations that he puts profits ahead of safety.

In Pakistan last Saturday, March 20, two hundred union members occupying the basement of the Pearl Continental Karachi Hotel ended their 25-day sit-in.

Two of the hunger strikers - who had already spent over three weeks in the hotel basement - became seriously ill, prompting the Pakistan Medical Association to send a doctor who insisted on entering the hotel.

March 8, International Women's Day, saw hundreds of events and around the world where women took to the streets to demand justice. International Women's Day is an event that emerged from women's struggles for better working conditions and for the vote in the early 20th century.

Today, Greek unions have called for another national strike after Prime Minister George Papandreou announced more public-spending cuts.

Announcing a third 24-hour strike of the year for March 16, ADEDY union confederation vice-president Illias Vrettakos said: "The EU and the government need to understand that we will keep taking to the streets until we topple the unfair and anti-social measures which burden the poor without solving our economy's problem."

The Canadian Labour Congress has announced that as many as 500,000 Canadians who initiated EI claims in 2009 could exhaust their benefits before they are able to find a new job.  A report they produced says that the government had the right idea in recently expanding EI coverage by five weeks, but that more has to be done to ensure security for Canadians in times of a weak economy.