Unifor Local 1996-O

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Watch Unifor’s presentation to Ontario’s Treasury Board, Budget 2021

Naureen Rizvi in a Zoom meeting frame, wearing a black shirt.

What would you do when the Ontario government only gives you 3 minutes to tell them what needs to be in the 2021 budget?

You make it work, because Ontario’s workers need a lot to change! Naureen Rizvi runs down the top union priorities in this presentation to the Treasury Board.

“In 2018, one of this government’s first moves was to eliminate recently and hard fought for paid sick days and planned minimum wage increases,” began Rizvi. “The pandemic has shown that both of those policy moves were a mistake.”

In its 2021 budget submission, Unifor highlighted the critical need for policy changes and investment in the province.

Workers have spent years campaigning for a dramatic overhaul of Ontario’s for-profit long-term care sector. Unifor demanded that the government abandon the 4-year phase in and immediately fund 4 hours of direct care per day, and fast-track PSW training to improve staffing levels.

Outside of the LTC sector, workers are still left without support and protection. Unifor proposed that the government ensure all workers are paid for the value that they bring to society.

  • Revoke Bill 124, that caps the wages of low-paid public servants and stomps on their rights to collective bargaining
  • Extend the COVID-19 wage top ups, and make them permanent
  • Re-introduce a higher minimum wage, at 60% of median full time wages (2020 would have been $15.86 by this standard)

To invest in Ontario’s infrastructure, for years to come, Unifor asked the province once again, to come forward with the one-thirds funding for new TTC streetcars, built here in Thunder Bay.

Rizvi closed with a brief call to action for MPPs, “The people of this province have shown undeniable resilience in the face of a cruel year. Your actions in this budget will determine if those workers and their families get relief and a better tomorrow.”

Read more about Unifor’s plans for the Ontario Budget in the union’s 2021 Budget Submission.

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Without leadership Bombardier rail car plant in Thunder Bay risks closure

Mon, 01/18/2021

As originally published by The Toronto Star

By Jerry Dias

Now more than ever, Canadian workers need our political leaders to act swiftly and decisively to support them, their families and communities.

As the cascading economic crisis grows worse each day in tandem with daily record-breaking COVID-19 case counts, no such leadership has stepped up for the hundreds of workers in the Bombardier Thunder Bay plant.

With only enough work to sustain itself until the end of this year and under new ownership by Alstom, based in France, the threat of a permanent closure has never been more real.

The threat this situation poses to the livelihood of hundreds workers, their families and the economy is enormous. There are short and long-term solutions. The first requires only the stroke of a pen.

The City of Toronto has already agreed to fund its portion of transit vehicle purchases from Bombardier, including 60 new streetcars and 420 subway cars. However, to date, neither Ottawa nor Queen’s Park has agreed to come to the table and ante up their share.

All they have to do is sign on, the cars get built and the jobs get created in Thunder Bay and Toronto. It’s just that simple.

We cannot allow an order book to stand empty at a plant so vital to Ontario’s economy, under new offshore ownership no less, and not expect a catastrophe.

It is unacceptable to let this scenario play out with politicians shrugging off their fundamental responsibility to lead at this crucial moment.

We know that Toronto’s transit system ultimately needs these vehicles to create more capacity. This need has been known and identified repeatedly at every level of government.

Before COVID-19, the transit system in Toronto was already well over capacity. Today, more room is needed for social distancing protocols. In the future, the system will still need these vehicles if we’re going to have any hope of a rapid economic recovery.

Our union has held numerous meetings for more than two years with politicians of all stripes. We were joined by the City of Thunder Bay, the Chamber of Commerce and Bombardier Transportation who all supported the efforts to no avail.

Time is a luxury the workers in Thunder Bay don’t have. As political foot-dragging and partisan finger-pointing continues, workers and their families face an increasingly uncertain future. We’re at serious risk of losing a vital part of our industrial capacity that will almost certainly move us further away from an economic recovery that can’t come soon enough.

Besides the jobs at the Thunder Bay plant, there’s the jobs at supplier plants, its contractors and all the businesses that benefit from the good wages its workers earn.

A strong post-pandemic recovery has to be based on good jobs. We can’t afford to put these good jobs at any further risk. Already, too many Bombardier workers are on layoff awaiting new contracts. Once the federal and provincial governments sign off, we can secure those jobs and bring back more.

We need to prevent these situations from happening in the first place. I can recall the excruciating moment in 2018 when the federal government chose to award a VIA Rail contract to a Siemens plant in California. That order should have gone to Bombardier to support Canadian manufacturing. Hundreds of millions of dollars were siphoned away from Ontario.

It’s high time we start seeing genuine long-term support for our manufacturing workers with ‘Buy Canadian’ policies. These exist already in several jurisdictions, including the United States. More importantly, they work.

If there’s a lesson to be learned from the pandemic, it’s that a strong and well-supported manufacturing base is vital to our economy.

When global medical supplies dried up, it was Bombardier workers who came through and manufactured the ventilators our province needed. As the second wave of the pandemic continues, we may very well need them again.

These workers had our backs, and now our politicians should have theirs.

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Ontario’s COVID-19 response plans must include paid sick leave

March 20, 2020

TORONTO—The Ontario government passed Bill 186 yesterday and introduced measures aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus, but failed to provide any paid sick leave for those in quarantine or isolation.

“This legislation falls far short of where we needed it to be in order to have a comprehensive response to this pandemic,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “If we are going to get through this crisis, then the plan has to start with giving everyone directed to self-isolate or quarantine paid sick days.”

Other jurisdictions, including Quebec and Prince Edward Island, currently have a minimum number of paid sick days employers are required to provide for workers. Prior to 2019, Ontario had requirements for two paid sick days which was repealed by the Ford government’s Bill 47. One provision of Bill 47, allowing employers to require sick notes was repealed by the newly introduced legislation.

The measures contained in Bill 47, including the repeal of paid sick days, were widely opposed by Unifor and a broad coalition of labour organizations, community, anti-poverty, and migrant workers’ advocacy groups due to the threats posed to public health.

“Ontarians should not be put in the position of choosing whether to protect their health and that of their friends, family, and co-workers or picking up their next paycheque, and that’s what this legislation appears to do,” said Naureen Rizvi, Unifor’s Ontario Regional Director. “The government’s COVID-19 plan shouldn’t be aimed at protecting the pocketbooks of employers but should help protect our health.”

Unifor has urged the Ford government, and all Premiers across the country, to immediately enact 14 policy measures as part of their respective COVID-19 response plans, including instituting a minimum of 14 paid sick days for those in quarantine or directed to self-isolate by medical authorities. The measures also include creating direct, emergency income assistance measures to all workers and families – including those ineligible for Employment Insurance benefits. The contents of the letter and list of recommendations can be viewed here.

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.

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Ontario workers need paid sick days now

Woman sits on a couch blowing her nose, with a thermometer in her hand.

 

The lack of paid sick days for all workers in Ontario persists as a stain on our society, and is leaving too many at risk from COVID-19 and other contagious illnesses.

Workplaces are by far, the largest contributor to the spread of COVID-19. By mid-December, nearly 8,000 workers in Ontario had contracted COVID-19 on the job. A month later, that number is likely to be far higher.

At this point, 10 months into the pandemic, the speedy implementation of employer-paid sick days should not be a matter of public debate.

It should be implemented, province-wide, immediately.  Momentum is on our side. We are the majority, but we need to take collective action in order to win.

Since Doug Ford and his conservative Ministers are unwilling to do what it takes, we need to increase the pressure on them.

The City of Toronto is on its way toward adding a strong voice to pressure the province to implement paid sick days. We think that all municipalities should join the fight.

The fact is, each of our local communities, towns and cities have citizens to protect from COVID-19, and Premier Ford isn’t doing it for them.

So, whether you have paid sick days or you have none, this issue affects you.

Add your voice today and call your city councilor.

 

Make the call

Click here now…Make The Call

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Unifor members at CAMI ratify agreement with General Motors

January 18, 2021

INGERSOLL—Members of Unifor Local 88 who work at the CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario have voted by 91% to ratify a new agreement with General Motors that brings $1 billion in investments to begin large scale production of electric commercial delivery vans.

“This is the result of collaboration with the Ontario and federal governments, and General Motors. I want to thank them and the Local 88 Master Bargaining Committee for working so hard to secure jobs for our members and create new ones for this community,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.

General Motors will spend $1 billion to transform the CAMI assembly plant into Canada’s first mass-market producer of electric commercial vans to support its new business line BrightDrop.

Unifor Local 88 represents 1900 workers at the CAMI Assembly plant, where work will begin immediately to prepare for EV600 production starting in November as the Chevrolet Equinox program is phased out in 2023.

This agreement brings the total investment negotiated by Unifor to nearly $6 billion after agreements were ratified with General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler in 2020 that also included support from the federal and Ontario governments.

“To achieve this level of commitment for auto manufacturing shows what can happen when we have a collective vision to secure this sector and create good jobs for Canadians,” said Dias.

“While the process was complicated by COVID-19, we refused to let a pandemic impede our progress to find ‘made in Canada’ solutions.”

This three-year agreement follows a historic pattern setting deal first reached with Ford that includes a five per cent increase to hourly rates, a $7,250 productivity and quality bonus, a total of $4,000 in inflation protection bonuses, improved benefits, shift premiums, and restoration of the 20 per cent wage differential for skilled trades.

The deal also makes major improvements to the New Hire Program and includes an agreement to create an anti-racism action plan, establish a new Racial Justice Advocate in the workplace.

“The stakes going into these negotiations were high with the Equinox program ending, and there wasn’t a time during these difficult negotiations that we were not thinking about our members and their families, and we are grateful to all the members for their solidarity as we worked to ensure our plant is viable,” said Mike Van Boekel, Chair of the Master Bargaining Committee.

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.

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