A message from MoveUP on Labour Day 2022

August 30, 2022

On behalf of our executive board, executive council, and our staff at MoveUP, we want to wish all our members and their families a safe and happy Labour Day.

After spending so much of the past two-and-a-half years having to be apart, it is encouraging to see signs of people and communities slowing coming back together again. After hosting mostly online events for the past two Labour Days, many labour councils are running in-person events again this year and we highly encourage you to see what your local labour council is doing this year to mark Labour Day.

You can find a full list of labour events across the country here.

While there is much to look forward for this year’s Labour Day, we are still feeling the effects that the pandemic has had on workers and their families. The pandemic has exacerbated the existing inequality in our society, and we now find ourselves in the midst of an affordability crisis. People across the country are seeing an increase in the cost of housing, food, medication, and transportation, and workers are worried about falling further behind because of inflation.

We are seeing this fight to combat the rising cost-of-living play out all across the country, but particularly here in BC with public sector workers recently beginning job action as the labour movement collectively continues to push the BC provincial government to come with a fair deal for public sector workers that includes adjusting for the increasing cost-of-living.

In BC, this Labour Day also kicks off the final push towards the 2022 municipal elections in which we will need all workers to put their votes behind progressive, worker-friendly candidates be it on city councils or school boards to ensure that workers jobs are preserved, to ensure critical services are retained and even expanded, and to employ effective and progressive solutions to issues that are core to workers and families such as affordability and climate change.

This Labour Day, it’s about coming back together. But it’s also about recognizing the important work that unions and the labour movement have done for workers in the past, and the important role that we—and you—continue to play to ensure that we have strong, healthy, and safe communities that are equitable and welcoming to all moving forward.

Happy Labour Day!

For our members in Vancouver, Richmond, North Vancouver, and West Vancouver

MoveUP will have a booth at the Vancouver & District Labour Council event at John Hendry (Trout Lake) Park on September 5 from noon to 4 p.m. This event will feature a BBQ, music, face painters and balloon artist, games and much more. We hope you will stop by and say hello, have some fun, and show your support for the work of unions. If you are interested in volunteering for this event, please email bmartens@moveuptogether.ca.

In solidarity,

Lori Mayhew, President
Graeme Hutchison, Secretary-Treasurer
Rysa Kronebusch, Vice-President, Utilities
Christy Slusarenko, Vice-President, Combined Units
Annette Toth, Vice-President, ICBC