Which side are you on? Indigenous peoples and Canada’s labour movement

This chapter problematizes the labour movement’s selective engagement with Indigenous peoples. We begin by presenting some early examples of alliances and conflict between unions and Indigenous peoples that demonstrate the long and complicated relationship between organized labour and anti-colonial struggle. We then turn to Indigenous political developments from the 1970s to the present, discussing how these developments have continued to create a complex and contradictory terrain for union engagement. In the latter half of the chapter, we examine contemporary union-Indigenous relations, highlighting the endurance of this fraught relationship caught between strategic forms of engagement, broader union commitments to social justice, and more reactive and defensive union responses to Indigenous empowerment. Throughout, we seek to emphasize the importance of unions valuing reciprocal relations and engagement Indigenous peoples, while also acknowledging the challenges unions face in building positive and sustained relationships with Indigenous movements when their objectives are in conflict.