THE WORKER SOLIDARITY NETWORK AND THE LABOURERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA PRESENT:

ORGANIZING 101 WORKSHOP SERIES

Are you tired of having your labour taken for granted? Are you interested in unions but don’t know where to begin? Do you want to come together with your coworkers to challenge power and stand up for yourselves? Or do you just want to know how to protect yourself from missing wages, discrimination, and bad bosses?

At this stage in the COVID-19 Pandemic, workers understand better than ever that they deserve better protections and fair treatment. Workers deserve to know how to stand up for their rights. Workers deserve unions.

Join us for our Organizing 101 workshop series to learn how to organize for the rights you deserve.

For the first time ever, the Worker Solidarity Network and the Labourers’ International Union of North America are teaming up to offer a comprehensive and FREE online workshop series covering everything you need to know to stand up for your rights, fight back against employer abuse, and form a union.

Workshops will cover: Understanding the Employment Standards Act, Procedural Fairness 101, Retaliation, the Labour Code, Organizing 101, talking to your coworkers about unions, and more!

Workshops will run once a month online for an hour from June to August, and then bi-monthly online September to November. We will end with a session introducing you to all the major unions in BC to find the union right for you!

Curriculum:

1) Understanding the Employment Standards Act: June 6th

2) Procedural Fairness - Your Rights During a Complaint Process: July 4th

3) What is Retaliation: August 8th

4) Labour Code Part 1: September TBA

5) Labour Code Part 2: September TBA

6) Organizing Part 1: October TBA

7) Organizing Part 2: October TBA

8: Organizing Part 3: November TBA

9) Unions in BC Showcase: November TBA

Sign up to be a member of the Worker Solidarity Network at workersolidarity.ca to stay in touch and find out more!

Too often when workers advocate for their justice; they face not only the challenges of navigating a complicated process on top of the violation of their rights, but also retaliation from employers. The fear of retaliation is a major barrier for precarious workers already dealing with wage theft, discrimination, and unjust working conditions. Fear of retaliation may prevent workers from pursuing an Employment Standards Branch complain, unionization, speaking out against awful or illegal conditions, or speaking about their working conditions amongst themselves.

But what does retaliation look like? How do you protect against retaliation, and what are your recourses when faced with retaliation? What remedies are available to workers who have faced retaliation?

This presentation intends to empower self-represented complainants, prospective complainants, and all other workers, to advocate for themselves and each other effectively. The goal of this presentation is to help workers identify and protect themselves from retaliation, know what courses of action they may take, and understand what resources there are to support them through retaliation. No prior experience or familiarity is needed in order to attend and benefit from this presentation.

Topics covered will include:

• The Employment Standards Act
• What is Retaliation According to the Employment Standards Branch
• How Retaliation Decisions are Made
• Filing a Complaint
• Remedies

The workshop is interactive and will include an example exercise.

This workshop will continue your introduction to your rights as a worker in BC and the steps you can take to protect them, as we build towards organizing your workplace. A zoom link will be sent after registration, and all registrants will be notified of the next workshop in our series upon completion of the first one.