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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: Summer of strikes: What's the Jewish role in modern Canadian labour unions?
Description: In recent months, thousands of Canadian workers—in separate industries—have organized in unions and walked off the job. Port workers in British Columbia, teachers in Nova Scotia, liquor store staff in Manitoba, Metro grocery employees in Ontario—all have hit picket lines this summer, in a significant reversal of a long decline of union power.
Jews have a long history of labour activism in North America, dating back to when their leadership in the shmata business evolved into some of the first organized unions in the United States. But are Jews still deeply embedded in the movemen...