labours of love

In honour of everyone's favourite excuse to pass out while swatting mosquitoes with an empty bottle of Moosehead Tragically Hip CD, a cornucopia of labour-themed links for you all this Labour Day.

• An interesting feature in FP on how unions are slowly but surely losing some of their influence in Canada.

• But reports of the death of labour might be greatly exaggerated. Outgoing CAW president Buzz Hargrove disagrees, for one.

• As most of the world's economy wobble close to recession, signs are trickling out of China that that country's roaring economy is even starting to slow down. The latest numbers predict single-digit growth in China's GDP this year. One of the culprits? Increasing costs for transportation, energy, raw materials and -- you guessed it -- labour. Should be interesting to see how China responds as their inherent manpower advantage is slowly eroded away over the coming years.

• Ontario college students are breathing a sigh of relief as it appears a potential strike by support workers starting this semester appears to be off, for now, as the union and the colleges have struck a tentative deal.

That's it. Unlike most of the 30% of Canadians at work today, I get paid triple time to be on the Internet today. But you? You have no excuse. Put down the iPhone, have another beer and think about fixing the lawnmower, already.