Union members rally in solidarity for Ottawa’s annual Labour Day march

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Hundreds of union members gathered in downtown Ottawa on Monday for the city’s annual Labour Day march, rallying for solidarity and workers’ rights.

The groups marched from city hall to McNabb Park at the corner of Bronson and Gladstone, many waving union flags and chanting messages like “the workers united will never be defeated” over megaphones.

While the unions took part in the event while highlighting several individual issues — like remote work, the use of artificial intelligence and various bargaining issues — Labour4Palestine member Shaheen Lotun said they walked in solidarity.

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“Solidarity means supporting an issue even if it doesn’t impact you immediately and personally,” said Lotun, who said it was important for the Labour4Palestine group to have a presence at the march, especially after several individuals and organizations decided to boycott Capital Pride for their pro-Palestinian stance. “All workers benefit when we work together.”

President of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) president Jennifer Carr and Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) president Nathan Prier said major federal unions, which also included the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Association of Canadian Financial Officers, took the event as an opportunity to fight the government’s soon-to-be-implemnented remote work mandate.

Many federal union members wore forest green shirts with the hashtag “RemoteWorks” to send a message to the federal government.

“This is the first time in a while that we’ve all come together around a cause,” Prier said. “We’re here to say that we’re uniting around this in ways we’ve never united before.”

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Alex Kucharski, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 586, said she hoped her presence at events like Monday’s march would help encourage more women to get involved in the trades.

“The numbers are low and they’re embarrassingly low; I think in our union we have less than one per cent of it being females and we’d like to get that number up a lot more,” said Kucharski, who runs the organization’s women’s committee. “Being a part of a union is a very good option, it’s a very good career choice to make and they’re there to protect you.”

Workers gathered in front of city hall in the morning before beginning their march down Elgin Street at around noon and making their way to McNabb Park for a picnic. The event was organized by the Ottawa and District Labour Council, which represents more than 90 union locals with around 55,000 members. 

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who marched to the park alongside Ottawa and District Labour Council president Seak McKenny, was surrounded by marchers, some wearing keffiyehs and waving Palestinian flags, before leaving and entering Richard Pfaff School. They chanted “Sutcliffe, Sutcliffe you’re a liar, we demand a ceasefire.”

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In an interview, Sutcliffe said he sympathized with “people who have connections to the events that have happened in the Middle East.”

“It’s tragic and it’s devastating, and I wish there was something that I could do,” Sutcliffe said, noting that he has shown his support to “all the people who have been affected by it.”

Sutcliffe said it was important he take part in the Labour Day event as he supports workers’ rights.

“I wanted to show my support for the labour movement and for our partners in the unions today,” Sutcliffe said.

Police on bicycles, motorcycles and in cars lined the front and back of the crowd, blocking people from traffic as they walked through downtown Ottawa. More than 15 police stood by the entrance of the park as marchers were greeted by a live band.

John Koensgen, president of the Ottawa branch of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, said it was important to be a part of a “positive, joyful celebration.”

“It’s to show solidarity,” said Koensgen, who has been a union member since 1978. “We support them, they support us. I wouldn’t cross their picket line, they wouldn’t cross our picket line.”

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