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Trade unions say the right to strike is an essential weapon to be used in the last resort when bargaining or arbitration has broken down. However, argument still rages over whether some strikes are normally unjustifiable. Some people – unionists amongst them – believe that the right of patients to medical care should take absolute priority over the right of health workers to strike. Some unionists, however, argue that unless workers in these services strike for improvements, patient care and education will suffer more. There is disagreement too over whether unions have the right to strike to force elected government to change their economic policies – or whether strikes should be illegal in wartime. During World War I & II there were legal restrictions on the right to strike. Currently, the armed forces and police are forbidden to go on strike, and some would extend the ban to members of essential services such as firemen, water workers and nurses. When strikes affect the public – through stoppages of post or transport for instance unions are often accused of selfishly ’strike happy’. Yet unionists claim they would always prefer to avoid such action. It damages both members’ incomes and union funds when strike pay has to be paid out. Strikes have been occurring in Canada from very early years. The first strike in Canada may have been as early as 1652. It was a tough year for the fur trade. The fur merchants ordered their voyageurs to travel father and paddle faster for the same pay. The men refused, saying life was too short, and they were right, most of them were dead before they were thirty-five. The voyageurs carried loads of 68 kg (150 pounds) over tricky portages, some of which were 72 km (45 miles) long. One wrong step could bring death. His daily supply of food was sometimes only a few ounces of fish and a handful of corn. He slept in a blanket full of fleas. He had to put up with clouds of black flies and mosquitoes, and crowds of irritated Iroquois. If was obvious that working conditions were not the greatest. Although the Voyageurs did not have a contract like that of Local 007, they did have an agreement with the merchants about matters such as the distances traveled, the price per pelts, and rest stops during the longer portages. They felt the merchants had broken this agreement. They threw sown their paddles and would not pick them up again until the merchants backed off. These days, a strike occurs when the old contract has expired and the employer and workers can not agree on a new contract; or when the union has been certified but the employer refuses to bargain for a first contract. After a time set out by law, the workers can go on strike. A vote is held, and, if a majority of workers chooses a strike, the union executive orders the members to walk out. Picket lines – workers caring signs informing the public that a strike is progress – are set up around the work place. If the union can afford it, the strikers get pay for as long as the strike lasts. The strike is the last resort. Nobody wants a strike, and nobody likes a strike, especially the strikers. But if workers and employers can’t agree on wages and working conditions, the only weapon workers have is to withhold the only thing they can sell: their labour. Without the right to strike, working people have no power at all. Unions’ primary goal is to protect the workers from the employers and as far as it stands these days they are doing a fine job. There as been some concerns express about future jobs and unions. By the year 2010, when your children are your age, the world will be quite a different place. Canada will change, work will change, and unions will change. Nobody knows exactly what those changes will be, but people called “futurists” have made some predictions based on what’s happening right now. One futurist says that Canada will have millions of unemployed; another says that millions of new jobs will be created. It has already been address that the biggest unions in Canada are the public service unions, and they are growing fast. These big unions have captured workers in the resource and manufacturing industries and are now looking beyond their boundaries for members. Workers in a library and a funeral home now belong to the United Food and Commercial workers. Small unions are joining big unions, and weak unions are joining strong unions. Airline employees are now part of

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