The CBTU will be present at the World Social Forum being held in Montreal from August 9 - 14, 2016. Created in 2001, in Brazil, the World Social Forum (WSF) is the biggest civil society gathering aiming to find solutions to contemporary issues, by establishing practical alternatives to the neoliberal economic model and politics founded on human beings and nature’s exploitation.
The WSF is a place of convergence for all social movements. Its aim: building together, in an impetus of international solidarity, a better world based on social and environmental justice, social and supportive economy, participative democracy and the acknowledgement of equal dignity of all human beings.
This is the first time the WSF is being held in North America. In light of the global crisis affecting all of humanity, it is crucial that we surpass the cleavages persisting and to invite movements and actors of solutions from all continents to act together.
CBTU Statement on the Dismissal of the Black Class Action Lawsuit
It is with pain and deep dejection that the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) in Canada reviews the Federal Court's decision to dismiss the Black Class Action Lawsuit. The Black Class Action Lawsuit was founded by current and former Black employees of 99 federal government departments representing hundreds if not thousands of Black workers in Canada. These workers alleged that they were discriminated against and kept from promotions because of their race going as far back as the 1970s. They described being qualified enough to replace their non-Black colleagues in higher job functions when those colleagues were off on leave but not being qualified enough to fill the positions permanently when the positions became vacant. In Madam Justice Gagné’s decision which was rendered just over one week before the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The court acknowledged the discrimination that these Black workers were experiencing while simultaneously choosing to deny these workers the justice that the federal court should provide.
