NDP stands with Canadian workers fighting to organize

NDP Deputy Critic for Labour Matthew Green made the following statement:

“Congratulations to the Starbucks workers in Calgary who have successfully unionized. This is a huge win for working people.

These organizing victories by frontline Starbucks workers across the country are a generational harbinger of things to come. People forced to work precariously are standing up against huge corporations to demand better working conditions, pay and benefits. If workers can take on corporate giants like Starbucks, it can happen anywhere.

While hard-working people across the country are struggling to make ends meet, the cost of everything just keeps climbing. The price of gas, food and housing are all sky-rocketing while corporations make bigger and bigger profits. This is wrong. Canadian workers didn’t cause inflation and they should not be the ones paying the price for it. Victories like the one from the Starbucks workers in Calgary are essential to ensuring that workers’ voices are heard and valued.

New Democrats want to make sure that workers everywhere have the option to unionize it they choose without barriers or convoluted processes put in place by governments or union busting corporations. The federal government has an obligation to make it as easy as possible for workers to organize without unnecessary barriers. We’re also calling on the government to put measures in place to ensure that workers aren’t exposed to harassment, intimidation or firing by their employers for trying to organize.

On behalf of all New Democrats, I want to again offer my congratulations and solidarity with the new United Steelworkers represented frontline retail members at Starbucks who are standing up for safer, healthier and fairer workplaces.”