Why should I care about International Workers’ Day?

ONA members and staff stand alongside our union allies at a hospital rally.

When ONA and our allies come together, like at our hospital all-out rally in Oakville on March 20, anything is possible!

It comes around every year. Some people mark it, some even celebrate it, but many of us may barely notice it. What is May Day, aka International Workers’ Day, all about, and why should nurses and health-care professionals care about it?

In its simplest form, May Day, observed on May 1, is about the power that we have when we come together to fight for our rights. It’s an ideal that lays the foundation for the entire labour movement and also informs our Mission and Vision at ONA. 

Our mission at ONA is to defend the rights of and advocate for nurses and health-care professionals who care for the health of Ontarians. Our vision is empowered members taking collective action for safe, equitable workplaces and high-quality health care for all Ontarians.

May Day dates as far back as the late 1800s when the industrial revolution was in its heyday. At the time, workers’ days could be as long as 16 hours, with no guarantee of safety while on the job (sound familiar?). Workers knew they weren’t getting a fair deal, so they used the power they had to fight back – their collectivism and their ability to withdraw their labour (aka to go on strike). 

The first Canadian example was in Montreal, where almost a thousand people took to the streets under the slogan “workers of the world unite.” This phrase has since become a rallying cry for workers worldwide and International Workers’ Day is now an annual opportunity to demonstrate worker power. Today, most countries recognize workers and labour rights in some way on this day.

Workers flexing their might 

One of the biggest examples of Canadian solidarity related to International Workers Day is the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. 

With soldiers coming home from WWI and society trying to return to normal, many workers were becoming increasingly disillusioned with their living conditions. Low wages, an increasing cost of living, unstable employment, discrimination towards immigrants and poor health and housing conditions prompted greater political engagement among the working class and led to a spike in union membership. 

What began as two smaller strikes among members of the Metal Trades Council and the Building Trades Council coinciding with International Workers’ Day ended up as a 30,000-person general strike by June, stopping activity in Winnipeg almost completely – virtually the entire working population of the city, with public workers like police, firefighters, postal workers, telephone and telegraph operators, and utilities workers joining factory, retail and train workers in walking off the job. After almost half a decade of challenging years, workers had had enough.

Nurses and health-care professionals are workers too 

If this is all feeling a little familiar, you’d be right. We’re currently living through another spike in many of the issues those workers organized to protest. After surviving the worst of a pandemic, we’re now in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and the greatest wealth divide in decades. As nurses and health-care professionals, we’re burned out and unappreciated, barely scraping by and having to fight tooth and nail for any tiny raise or benefit we can get. And to make matters worse, our politicians don’t seem to care, listening to rich companies and individuals instead of making sure working people are taken care of. 

These challenges make the value of a union and collective power even more important. Through ONA, nurses and health-care professionals across the province come together to identify and solve workload issues, health and safety concerns, entitlements and our ability to provide professional, high-quality care in a safe and equitable environment. Together, we stand in strength and unity to harness our collective power and achieve our shared goals.

Despite the challenges and frustrations we face, it can help to remember the significant power we have when we come together. The past few years have seen incredible advances in workers’ rights and livelihoods, both in immediately tangible and longer-term ways.

As workers, we should never forget the incredible things we can achieve when we band together.

Worker wins 

In 2023, the federal government passed a law to ban replacement, or scab, workers during strikes/job action across all federally regulated public-sector jobs. The passing of universal pharmacare and dental care programs at the federal level are also major recent worker wins, and achievements ONA and the wider Canadian labour movement have been working towards for decades. In the past few years, we’ve also seen unions break their way into notoriously anti-labour workplaces, such as Starbucks, Amazon and Walmart, both at home and across North America. 

These might feel small on their own, but together they add up to huge wins. We’ve seen time and again that gains won by unions in some sectors are often adopted by others and, eventually, into employment legislation. Parental leave is a great example of this, thanks to the hard work of CUPW.

Closer to home, ONA members have organized and fought at a remarkable pace over the past few years, most notably against the wage suppression legislation we all know as Bill 124. Together with other public-sector unions, ONA fought and achieved the repealing of the bill and payouts for some members affected.

As workers, we should never forget the incredible things we can achieve when we band together. Together with Labour Day in early September, International Workers’ Day is an annual celebration of that.

International Workers’ Day remains a call for unity among the working class and an annual opportunity to educate and galvanize ourselves and each other in our common cause. It’s a chance to remind the fat cats and bad bosses of the power that we, the workers, have in controlling our own destiny. We see the issues, and we’ll fight to make sure they’re taken seriously – and solved.

Be part of the movement 

Part of our fight is working with allies in health care and the labour movement to combine our efforts. We act in solidarity and use our collective voice to tell the brutal truth and make sure it’s respected and heard by policymakers, government, stakeholders and the public.

Here are some ways you can get involved with International Workers’ Day, ONA and the wider Canadian labour movement:

  • Attend an International Workers’ Day march.
  • Get more involved with ONA by:
    • Sharing your thoughts in our member survey
    • Attending an ONA event
    • Getting involved in your Bargaining Unit
    • Supporting the ONA representatives in your workplace

We’re not afraid to be vocal on issues that matter to Ontarians and our health-care system, and encourage all ONA members to do the same.

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