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CN layoff announcements put profits over safe container rail service

November 17, 2019 – 12:00 AM

TORONTO– Unifor condemns CN’s layoff speculation at a time of high revenue.

“What we have here is a massively profitable corporation causing anxiety through public layoff announcements that, if realized, could seriously threaten working conditions and health and safety of rail workers,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.

Members of Unifor Council 4000 and Local 100 have received layoff notices over the past two months that add up to the reduction of just over 200 jobs.

Unifor members at CN inspect, repair and maintain rail cars, as well as perform essential work operating equipment to load containers.

“Targeting safety-sensitive labour costs in order to squeeze out a slightly higher profit margin is the wrong move. Some cuts are not worth the risk,” said Renaud Gagne, Unifor Quebec Director.

In the company’s own third quarter report, CN announced C$3,830 million in revenue, an improved operating ratio, and an eight per cent increase in operating income, to C$1,613 million.

“CN has not fallen on hard times, but the company still chose to cast uncertainty into the homes of loyal employees in order to signal to wealthy investors that higher dividends are coming down the pipe,” continued Dias.

The union remains in communication with the company to advocate for all members, and to negate the damaging effects of these unnecessary cuts.

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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Unifor Statement on the Trans Day of Remembrance

Jerry Dias

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender and gender diverse people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.

This year is the 20th annual TDOR. Gwendolyn Ann Smith founded that first day of remembrance to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman and local educator who was killed in 1998. While we memorialize the legacy of transgender and gender diverse people, it is important to recognize the resilience of the community in the face of harassment and violence.

The experience of anti-trans violence and persecution proved to be universal, and since that first vigil, the recognition of TDOR has spread to cities and communities around the world.

Transgender Europe, a network of organizations combatting trans discrimination through advocacy and community building, has counted 331 trans people who have been murdered in the last 12 months alone. Anti-transgender violence is hate crime that disproportionately impacts people of color and trans women of color. Migrants make up a high number of reported murders in Europe, and of the reported killings worldwide, 61 per cent were sex workers.

Unifor encourages all members to build safer communities, workplaces, and local unions for trans members.

The work to end violence against trans and gender diverse people begins at home by supporting local transgender and LGBTQ organizations, participating in local marches and candlelit vigils, and learning about the pervasive problems experienced by trans and gender diverse people. Trans Day of Remembrance shows us that there is much work to be done to put an end to anti-trans violence.

To ensure that trans members receive the support they may need, local unions can bargain complete coverage for medical procedures that may be required including; hormone therapy, gender-affirming surgery, wigs, voice classes and counselling.

As the global refugee crisis expands, trans and gender non-binary refugees face heightened discrimination because of their gender identity.

Unifor Locals are encouraged to support organizations that provide services to LGBTQ refugees, through monetary donations, volunteering, and other forms of community engagement.

The safe, supportive communities that we seek to create will only be built if working people unite. That requires all workers to stand together on this Trans Day of Remembrance.

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In Solidarity,

Jerry Dias
National President

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Bell petitions Trudeau government to overrule CRTC on wholesale network rates

Telecom company Bell Canada is asking the federal government to overrule the CRTC’s decision to slash wholesale rates. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada has asked the federal cabinet to prevent the country’s telecommunications regulator from slashing the wholesale rates that large carriers charge smaller rivals for access to their broadband networks.

Among other things, Bell is asking the federal government to restore wholesale rates for high-speed access that had been in place prior to a decision issued in August by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

The company also wants the government to overrule the CRTC’s decision to make the lower wholesale rates retroactive to 2016, potentially forcing Bell and other carriers to repay hundreds of millions of dollars to Canada’s independent internet providers.

Bell — the country’s largest phone company — and most of Canada’s large cable companies have already challenged the CRTC at the Federal Court of Appeal, which issued a temporary stay on the CRTC decisions in September.

Negative consequences

The large companies have warned there will be serious negative consequences if network owners aren’t able to charge a higher wholesale price to smaller internet service providers.

“The commission failed to heed this warning,” BCE said in a 37-page petition filed with the government Wednesday.

“The incentive to invest in facilities capable of achieving a nearly 200-fold speed improvement has been completely negated by the order.

“There is no clearer proof than the fact that Videotron has withdrawn its flagship gigabit Internet offer from the market, including for its own retail customers, explicitly as a result of the order.”

Videotron is a subsidiary of Montreal-based Quebecor Inc. that competes in Quebec against Bell, but shares BCE’s view that the CRTC’s wholesale broadband pricing regime should be scrapped.

Videotron joined Rogers, Shaw and other large cable network operators in a suit filed with the federal appeal court. Bell Canada filed a similar suit with the court on behalf of itself, Bell MTS and Bell Aliant.

Read the Article here….

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Hundreds rally against Doug Ford’s health care cuts

November 14, 2019 – 1:00 PM

 

On Saturday November 9, hundreds of Unifor members and retiree’s joined with coalition partners at the latest Ontario Health Coalition rally to protect public health care from Doug Ford’s reckless cuts to hospitals, long-term care, and ambulance services.

“Doug Ford says he’s for the people but he’s proved that he’s only for the rich people,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “They offer tax breaks to the wealthiest in our society, to rich corporations, and slap all sorts of cuts on us to pay for their gifts to the rich. This is an attack on our children and grandchildren.”

Dias spoke at the mass public rally to denounce the cuts by the Ford Conservatives. Dias took the opportunity to remind supporters that residents in nursing homes receive just six minutes of care each morning, and that we must keep fighting to make sure conditions are improved so we have better care and safer work.

“Doug Ford’s government has been a complete disaster for Ontario’s public services. All told, he has cut billions of dollars from sorely needed funding for vital social programs that help Ontario’s most vulnerable, the sick, children with autism, and our seniors,” said Katha Fortier, Assistant to National President Jerry Dias. “Ford’s cuts amount to a cut of more than $1,100 per person in Ontario on everything from hospitals and schools to vital social and public services including water and food safety, and even vaccinations.”

The government plans to cut funding for and eliminate 25 out of 35 local public health units ,49 out of 59 local paramedic & ambulance services, and eliminate 12 of 22 local dispatch units. They have also imposed real-dollar cuts to local hospitals, and impose real-dollar cuts to long-term care homes, including cancelling two special funds that contribute to resident’s well-being.

While the province is experiencing a severe shortage of personal support workers, Ford has also implemented public sector wage restraint legislation that will disproportionately affect women who work in health care and social services, earning very modest wages.

Unifor is monitoring leaked information that suggests home care services will be privatized in local communities and more major cuts are coming to care provision staff in the provincial agencies including the LHINs.

“What type of government would attack children with autism, cut $17 million from women’s programs, and then cut funding and give less care to the sick, to our seniors, and to the most vulnerable in our society?” asked Dias. “Doug Ford’s conservative government is attacking health care workers and patients alike and it’s up to us to put a stop to his conservative agenda.”

The November 9 day of action came as part of four regional actions across Ontario supported by labour unions and social partners working with the Ontario Health Coalition to fightback against the Ontario government’s health care cuts.

Unifor has launched the Stop Ford Cuts campaign in September to fightback against the government’s conservative agenda. The campaign calls for an end to the government’s slashing of public services and municipal spending, and instead invest in public services that lift up all workers and ensure a brighter future for all.

You can take action now and tell Premier Ford to stop his reckless cuts by visiting stopfordcuts.ca.