Are there any labour activists in Squamish?
Had things gone according to plan, there would have been a story two weeks ago in this paper about the position of local unions on some of the big issues facing Squamish: the proposed Woodfibre LNG export facility and FortisBC pipeline, the upcoming Official Community Plan review and council’s budget, to name just a few.
This story idea came out of a head scratching moment when I looked back at the stories I had written since I started at The Squamish Chief and noted that I hadn’t actually quoted a single labour representative in any of the dozen stories per week I have written.
According to federal government 2013 statistics, about 30 per cent of workers in Canada are unionized.
In every other community where I have lived or worked as a reporter, there has been some go-to labour voice speaking up at council or community meetings, and we have certainly had our fair share of meetings in Squamish. And yet I have not seen labour representatives at the table or speaking up at meetings here.
Chasing the story, I spent two weeks asking around. I called trusted sources, called the Canadian Labour Congress, did Google searches, called relatives in the know, even resorted to tweeting “Where’s labour?” All to no avail.
Of course there are union members here; there are teachers and some nurses and even district workers who are unionized.
Maybe I missed the union leader getting up at a council or LNG meeting, and maybe the activists have been on vacation these last weeks. It is possible.
But even so, the relative silence of labour in Squamish strikes me as odd, given that the voices seemed so loud when I came here growing up, but that was when forestry ruled. There is still forestry, of course, but the voices have gone silent, or so it seems.
But maybe you say, “I don’t want to hear what union leaders have to say.” Fair enough, dear reader. But it is still odd, and that is what I am pointing out.
This is Squamish, for goodness sake, home (though briefly) of the world’s first unionized McDonalds.
So labour dudes, if you are out there, email or call me.
