November 2, 2020

TORONTO – The Ontario government announced today to finally do what Unifor members and long-term care workers have demanded for years, to establish an average of four hours of direct care for long-term care residents by 2024-2025.

“Today’s victory is the result of years hard work, and pure grit from health care workers, unions and families wanting a strong long term care system in Ontario,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “Ontario’s long-term care system has been in crisis far too long. This pandemic has spotlighted the crisis in long-term care and the urgency to make change. This announcement gives workers and residents hope for brighter days ahead, but we must aim for a faster timeline for implementation and create a plan to attract the thousands of front-line workers who have left the industry.”

The government plans to announce details in the provincial budget later this week and layout a long-term care staffing plan next month. In addition to the minimum of four hours of care announcement, the government plans to hire more personal support workers, registered practical nurses and registered nurses in the coming years ahead.

“It has taken an immense amount of hard work to achieve today’s victory,” said Naureen Rizvi, Ontario Regional Director. “It’s a tragedy that it took thousands of deaths and the pandemic for governments to recognize that workers are overworked and undervalued in long-term care. Moving forward, I hope that the government moves quickly to enshrine the four hours of direct care in legislation. We must stop putting monetary values on our elderly and those who care for them.”

In 2017 Unifor launched the Six Minute Challenge campaign to highlight the on-going struggles of many personal support workers in long-term care facilities who have only six minutes in the morning to prepare residents for breakfast. This year before the pandemic, Unifor National President Jerry Dias issued a challenge to Doug Ford to spend one shift with him in a long-term care home and see the obstacles facing workers and work together to find solutions to strengthen the sector.

“Though Premier Ford did not spend one shift in a long-term care home with me and witness the dangerous conditions for workers and residents, I am relieved that he listened to our demands and is committed to fixing our long-term care sector,” said Dias.

For more information, please visit, www.caretakestime.ca

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector and represents 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.

Information about the union’s response to the pandemic, as well as resources for members can be found at unifor.org/covid19.

November 04, 2020

MOUNT PEARL–Unifor has resumed a secondary picket line at the Weston’s bakery in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, as part of escalating action by the province’s 1,400 Dominion store workers, in week 11 of an ongoing strike against Loblaw Companies Limited (Loblaw Co.).

“Our members will not be intimidated from exercising their right to hold a secondary picket, not by Loblaw Co. and not by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias.

During a prior secondary picket at Weston’s bakery on October 27, 2020, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) deployed riot and tactical units to threaten peaceful picketers with arrest under the Highway Traffic Act and the Criminal Code of Canada.

Today, Unifor will file notice of civil claim against the RNC in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador for breach of Charter Rights, negligence, negligent or willful misrepresentation and intimidation.

“We’ve returned to the location where RNC unjustly shut down our picket line,” said Unifor Local 597 President Carolyn Wrice. “It is Unifor’s position that this is a legal secondary picket in our action to bring Loblaw Co. back to the bargaining table with a legitimate offer to end this strike. ”

Weston’s bakery is owned by George Weston Ltd., which also operates Dominion’s parent company Loblaw Companies Limited.

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector and represents 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.

Remembrance Day commemorates the sacrifices of people in all armed conflicts.

Why Remember?

We must remember. If we do not, the sacrifice of those one hundred thousand Canadian lives will be meaningless. They died for us, for their homes and families and friends, for a collection of traditions they cherished and a future they believed in; they died for Canada. The meaning of their sacrifice rests with our collective national consciousness; our future is their monument.¹

These wars touched the lives of Canadians of all ages, all races, all social classes. Fathers, sons, daughters, sweethearts: they were killed in action, they were wounded, and thousands who returned were forced to live the rest of their lives with the physical and mental scars of war. The people who stayed in Canada also served—in factories, in voluntary service organizations, wherever they were needed.

Yet for many of us, war is a phenomenon seen through the lens of a television camera or a journalist’s account of fighting in distant parts of the world. Our closest physical and emotional experience may be the discovery of wartime memorabilia in a family attic. But even items such as photographs, uniform badges, medals, and diaries can seem vague and unconnected to the life of their owner. For those of us born during peacetime, all wars seem far removed from our daily lives.

We often take for granted our Canadian values and institutions, our freedom to participate in cultural and political events, and our right to live under a government of our choice. The Canadians who went off to war in distant lands went in the belief that the values and beliefs enjoyed by Canadians were being threatened. They truly believed that “Without freedom there can be no ensuring peace and without peace no enduring freedom.”²

By remembering their service and their sacrifice, we recognize the tradition of freedom these men and women fought to preserve. They believed that their actions in the present would make a significant difference for the future, but it is up to us to ensure that their dream of peace is realized. On Remembrance Day, we acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of those who served their country and acknowledge our responsibility to work for the peace they fought hard to achieve.

During times of war, individual acts of heroism occur frequently; only a few are ever recorded and receive official recognition. By remembering all who have served, we recognize their willingly-endured hardships and fears, taken upon themselves so that we could live in peace.

Unifor and Loblaw Companies Limited have agreed to resume negotiations today in an attempt to settle the ten week strike by 1,400 Dominion grocery store workers in Newfoundland.

“We’re pleased to get back to the bargaining table. Unifor has always maintained that the only way this strike would end would be through serious negotiations between Loblaw Co. and the union,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias.

The two parties will meet October 29, 2020 at 10 a.m. NDT in St. John’s. Unifor will not conduct secondary pickets while talks are ongoing.

In recent weeks, the striking workers escalated pressure on the company with secondary pickets, beginning with a round the clock picket at the Loblaw distribution centre on October 20, 2020.

Following an injunction application by the company, the secondary picket location relocated to the Weston’s bakery facility in Mount Pearl on October 26, 2020. The bakery is owned by George Weston Ltd., which also operates Dominion’s parent company, Loblaw Companies Limited.

Following two days of peaceful picketing, the workers were threatened with arrest as the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) descended on the peaceful picket line with tactical and riot units Tuesday night.

“It’s outrageous that the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is intimidating peaceful picketers with police doing the bidding of Loblaw Companies Limited,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “The only place this will be resolved is at the bargaining table.”

The RNC threatened to charge workers under the Highway Traffic Act and the Criminal Code of Canada unless the workers allowed loaded delivery trucks to cross the picket line.

“The police have no business intervening here. This is a matter between the workers and Loblaw Companies Limited,” said Unifor 597 President Carolyn Wrice.

In an early Wednesday morning Facebook live broadcast, Unifor Assistant to the National President Chris MacDonald told the workers that it was only a matter of moments before police would move in and arrest anyone in the way of the trucks.

“I’m not going to ask our members to get arrested here tonight because they’ve fought so bravely for the last number of days and unfortunately the police are moving in on us. On a peaceful demonstration, a peaceful picket line,” said MacDonald. “It’s a shame that this is what it has come to. It’s frankly astonishing.”

With the looming threat of mass arrests, the workers banded together in a show of defiance, and marched to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary station to express outrage at the interference with their right to picket.

“This will not be settled by the RNC. This will not be settled in any other way other than getting back to the bargaining table and getting a fair deal for our members,” said MacDonald. “I want to thank members for supporting us across the country in the courageous battle to get fair pay forever.”

October 27, 2020

TORONTO, ON – CUPE Ontario, SEIU Healthcare and Unifor held a joint press conference on Tuesday morning, calling on the Ontario government to legislate a minimum care standard of four hours of hands-on care in long-term care homes by immediately passing Bill 13, the Time to Care Act.
Based on the latest pre-pandemic calculations by the Ontario Health Coalition, Ontario’s long-term care homes average about 2.7 hours of daily care. The calculation is based on worked hours of care, as opposed to paid hours.

“We need to give seniors in Ontario a guaranteed care standard to help enhance the quality of working and living conditions in long term care. The lack of a staffing standard means that the care levels are left up to the individual facilities to establish, and we know that virtually across the province, staffing levels are dangerously low. It’s high time the government takes action by passing Bill 13,” said Candace Rennick, Secretary-Treasurer of CUPE Ontario.
The legislation, an NDP private member’s bill introduced by Teresa Armstrong, will be debated during second reading on Wednesday evening. The unions echoed the recommendations of the government’s own staffing advisory panel report released in July, and last week’s interim report by the Long-Term Care Commission. Both reports called for the implementation of a four-hour minimum care standard, with the latter stressing its immediacy.

“Families, experts, and frontline workers all agree that current staffing levels are too low to deliver quality care for our most vulnerable in long-term care. Inaction means denying seniors dignity and it means unsafe workplaces for health care workers. It doesn’t have to be this way,” said Sharleen Stewart, president of SEIU Healthcare. “Bill 13 would afford frontline staff the time necessary to do the job well and do it safely. My message to the Ontario government and all members of the Legislative Assembly: pass this bill and give workers the time to care.”

“For years, health care workers, residents, their families and even opposition conservative MPPs in 2017 called for a legislated minimum standard of care in long-term care,” said Katha Fortier, Assistant to Unifor National President. “Bill 13 will finally implement long overdue improvements in these facilities and we expect the government to set partisanship aside to show those who live and work in long-term care the respect they deserve.”

Unions leaders were joined at the media conference by Dr. Pat Armstrong, the distinguished professor of sociology at York University, who has been researching long-term care for over two decades. Dr. Armstrong and 24 other academics recently released an open letter to the Ontario legislature, calling for action on Bill 13.

“COVID-19 has created a consensus on what research has been saying for decades; namely, without sufficient staff neither residents nor staff are safe, let alone thriving,” said Dr. Armstrong. “Recent research shows that staffing levels are strongly associated with COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care, emphasizing the importance of moving quickly to achieve these minimums.”

Ontario’s long-term care sector has not had a minimum care standard since the Ontario Progressive Conservative government eliminated it in 1996. Since then, healthcare unions and multiple advocacy groups have consistently called for a restoration of the staffing requirement. The Ontario Long-Term Care Association, which mainly represents for-profit providers, has consistently opposed a care standard.