January 13, 2021

TORONTO – Unifor believes the recently announced workforce reductions at Air Canada could have been lessened if the federal government had developed a plan to support Canada’s aviation industry.

“Today’s announcement leaves airline workers with continued disappointment in the federal government’s lack of action to support the industry,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “For months, we have been demanding that the federal government develop a long-lasting plan and provide financial support to save the industry from total collapse.”

Air Canada announced plans to close its Yellowknife, Kamloops, Gander and Goose Bay regional offices and reduce its first-quarter capacity by 25% resulting in 1,700 job losses.  The job cuts will also affect more than 200 workers at its Express carriers. This is in addition to the more than 20,000 layoffs previously announced last May.

“It baffles me that our federal government continues to remain silent when in the past week we have seen layoffs at WestJet and now Air Canada. The federal government can no longer operate as business as usual. Support for airline workers needs to be an immediate priority of the incoming Minister of Transport,” said Dias.

Though the CEWS program provided some job protection measures for Canadian airline workers, the sector has seen unprecedented layoffs and furloughed workers. Yesterday Unifor, alongside Air Canada Pilots Association, Air Line Pilots Association and Canadian Airline Dispatchers Association, issued a joint media release calling on the federal government to make a direct and meaningful financial contribution to the already devastated airline industry.

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.

WINDSOR – Unifor, its Local 2458, and the wider Windsor community began the New Year in mourning of health care worker and fellow union member Sheila Yakovishin, 60.

“On behalf of our union, I express the deepest condolences to Sheila’s family and all those who knew and loved her. Unifor mourns with you, as we decry her preventable death,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.

Yakovishin passed away on December 31, 2020 with COVID-19. The LTC home that Yakovishin worked at for more than 30 years, Berkshire Care Centre, is in severe outbreak with 82 residents and 38 staff having tested positive for COVID-19.

“As the New Year begins, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage unchecked in Ontario’s for-profit long-term care homes. It must be stopped, we must protect health care workers from this disease,” continued Dias. “Ontario should have learned its lesson during the first wave, but LTC workers and residents are still left at risk across the province.”

Many for-profit LTC homes in the Windsor Region are experiencing severe COVID-19 outbreaks, with some having more than 100 residents and staff infected.

“These rising statistics of infections among workers in Windsor’s for-profit LTC centres are more than numbers. They are people like Sheila, with full lives to live, people who deserve like we all do, to come home safe from work,” said Tullio DiPonti, President of Unifor Local 2458.

Unifor has long campaigned for an end to profit-driven LTC in Ontario and across the country, and is a partner in the Care not Profits provincial campaign, found at carenotprofits.ca.

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.

WINDSOR— Staffing levels at The Village of St. Clair are below crisis levels and action is demanded from the provincial government, says Unifor.

“This is a matter of life or death,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “The current owners of The Village of St. Clair are no longer capable of providing the necessary care. The Government of Ontario must step in.”

Unifor has written to Premier Ford to ask that his government to take over control of the long-term care home’s operation.

To-date, the home has 97 active COVID-19 cases among residents and 50 among staff. Nine residents have died. The employer’s attempt to use agency workers as replacements is not working, says Unifor. There have been reports of one PSW assigned to care for more than thirty residents.

“The government has resources at its disposal for emergencies like this, including the armed forces or the Red Cross. Something must be done immediately before a terrible situation gets even worse,” said Dias.

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.