Gavin McGarrigle

The Work

The files that take up most of the time. Each one collects what happened and the coverage of it, in order, so you can follow how it developed.

Trade Trade Tariffs and duties on softwood arrive in this region as shift cuts and closures. British Columbia and Manitoba each set up a body to work out a response, and I… 19 items → Forestry Forestry Mill closures have taken hundreds of jobs out of communities that have few other employers, while U.S. duties on softwood keep climbing. Most of what follows is about those closures… 26 items → Amazon Amazon Workers at the Amazon warehouse in Delta organized, and in July 2025 it became the first large Amazon facility in Canada certified with Unifor. The company has contested it since.… 24 items → Organizing Organizing Organizing was the job for twenty years before any title came with it. A drive is won by the people who work there; what a union adds is the standing… 6 items → Transit Transit Transit bargaining in Metro Vancouver and Victoria has repeatedly gone to the edge. The coverage here follows those disputes, and the argument about what the work of moving a city… 17 items → Hospitality Hospitality Hotel workers were told to wait through the pandemic, then told to accept less. These are the strikes that followed, including the Surrey Sheraton — about recall rights, staffing, and… 7 items → Political Action Political Action Lobby days, election campaigns and rallies: the part of the job that happens at legislatures and on doorsteps, pressing governments on the laws that decide how workers fare. 11 items → Future of Work Future of Work Paid sick days, minimum wage floors, sustainable jobs and what a recovery built for workers actually looks like. This collects that coverage, alongside the federal Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council work. 7 items → Container Truckers Container Truckers In 2014 drivers shut the Port of Vancouver over rates and waiting time. Back-to-work legislation was reversed and a settlement followed; what lasted was legislated safe rates, an enforcement regime,… 15 items →

Reports & Speeches

Reports & Speeches Reports & Speeches Council reports, convention speeches and a look back at each year — what the region did, and what I think comes next. 18 items →

Appointments, councils and task forces are set out separately on the public policy page.

Stay connected

Keep up with what I'm doing — on the job and off.

Rather than checking back, let the updates come to you. I'll send the occasional note — what I'm working on for working people, and what it means. Straight from me, unsubscribe anytime.