Canadian Unions and Medicare

Canadian Pension Plan Employment Insurance: Alongside collective-bargaining activities, unions have spearheaded efforts to expand the Canadian Pension Plan and Employment Insurance coverage, to raise minimum wages and to improve labour laws, according to Huffington Post Canada. While these campaigns have directly benefited all workers, unions have also been heavily involved in fights for Medicare and public daycare, programs that serve a wider interest than just people who work for a living. But, even the best Canadian unions have largely failed to provide an alternative vision to the existing system and challenge the power of big business over important areas of our lives. Over the past few decades most unions have devoted resources to combating sexism, racism and homophobia. Advertising provides a striking example of this implicit class compromise. They have done so out of a sense of solidarity and an understanding, built upon internal union struggles, that these forms of oppression take their toll on many members and society in general. But unfortunately unions have generally deferred to the business class regarding much of the social, cultural and even economic sphere. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.