Stand up and fight back theme of B.C. Regional Council
It was a celebration of union activism as delegates representing locals from across the province participated at the B.C. Regional Council, held in Whistler November 22-24, 2019.
“For the past few decades, workers have been sold a lie, their ambitions have been held back, and their struggles have been minimized,” said Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle. “We need to stand up and fight back – that’s the theme of B.C. Regional Council 2019.”
McGarrigle highlighted major campaigns that the union undertook in the past year including the federal election member-to-member campaign, which was highly effective in British Columbia.
“Our member organizers came together, trained, learned how to work together…they volunteered their hearts out in targeted ridings, multiple times each week,” McGarrigle told delegates. “Unifor was there in force and we continued for every day of the campaign, speaking to our members, visiting workplaces, and volunteering.”
The members’ election campaign efforts were also praised by guest speaker Don Davies, the NDP MP for Vancouver Kingsway.
“Unifor was there for me in my campaign when I was targeted for defeat,” said Davies. “Unifor’s member-to-member campaign was visible, it was noticed, and it was a demonstrated success.”
On day two of Council, Unifor National President Jerry Dias continued the theme of fighting back and union activism.
“We can be anything we want. We can be bold, in your face, principled,” Dias told delegates. “We can push governments, we can push corporations, or we can be silent. As I look across this room I know the chances of us being silent are zero.”
Dias highlighted the union’s support of Indigenous issues as he invited members to join him on the Unifor Walk for Reconciliation on B.C.’s notorious Highway of Tears, the location of many murders and disappearances of Indigenous women.
“When we walk the highway of tears you are all joining me. We’re going to do it right – for our fellow sisters, for our members for our kids because we have to,” said Dias.
Delegates voted to pass resolutions in support of the Reconciliation Walk and to lobby the B.C. provincial government to fully adopt and implement the Calls for Justice included in the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Unifor backed up its commitment to Reconciliation with a $250,000 donation to the B.C. Aboriginal Child Care Society (BCACCS) made jointly by the Unifor Social Justice Fund and CN Rail. The funds will be used to expand an innovative speech and language development program for children across Canada.
“We know comes from people speaking up so by investing in language you are allowing our children to have the voice to make changes when they are older,” BCACCS Board President Mary Teegee told delegates as she accepted the cheque.
Delegates also passed resolutions and recommendations to end corporate control over west coast fish quotas, to call for climate change disaster assistance for fish harvesters and allied workers, to assist locals to promote “Just Transition” language in industries where CO2 emissions counts continue to rise and to lobby all levels of government to take aggressive action to combat climate change.
Unifor refinery workers take fight with Co-op to airwaves at Grey Cup
November 22, 2019
REGINA—As Federated Co-op Limited (FCL) continues to demand concessions and digs in for a fight against its own workforce, Unifor is ramping up its campaign by taking the bold move of debuting a new television commercial during the broadcast of the Grey Cup this Sunday.
“All 315,000 of our members right across the country stand in solidarity with Unifor Local 594,” said Scott Doherty, lead negotiator and Executive Assistant to Unifor’s National President. “Refinery workers’ fight for pension security is everyone’s fight – when a company rakes in billions in profit, we won’t tolerate the employer’s attempt to gut the pensions of its highly skilled and experienced workforce.”
After FCL’s refusal to back-off pensions, mandatory mediation broke down on November 12, 2019 without a fair deal. Refinery workers and their union now have no reason to believe a fair deal is forthcoming.
“We have been clear from the start of bargaining that we are not prepared to go backwards,” said Kevin Bittman, President of Unifor Local 594 which represents 800 refinery workers.
“We are unwavering on choice and protection on pensions for our members. During this time of sustained record profits, anything less would be an unnecessary concession,” said Bittman.
By constructing scab camps and conducting campaigns of misinformation, FCL has demonstrated they have no intention to bargain in good faith with the workers who proudly operate this refinery with safety at the forefront of every shift.
Refinery workers keep communities across Western Canada running while keeping the dangerous facility safe and profitable.
“We want to send a strong message to FCL: you can only count on brand loyalty from Co-op members and supporters for so long,” said Bittman.
“Thanks to this new ad, even more people will be demanding Co-op do the right thing and respect its workers by offering a fair deal,” said Doherty.
The new Unifor commercial will be seen by millions of Canadians during the Grey Cup broadcast and on programs in the coming weeks.
Meeting
Sunday, December 15, 2019
7:30pm – 9:00pm
Unifor Local 112
30 Tangiers Road, Toronto, ON, M3J 2B2
New Bell patent details LTE-connected smartband
Update: The news was first broken by The Logic. The author regrets failing to attribute to the correct sources.
A new Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) patent revealed that the telecommunication company is posing itself to target the wearable market.
Filed by Tony Hui, products and services development manager for Bell Canada (according to his LinkedIn profile), the new patent detailed a wearable device tailored to providing emergency services. The device would have sensors that measure heart rate, temperature, altimeter, accelerometer, and fall detection, among others. It could alert the user when it senses a dangerous environment or, in the case of an actual emergency, send out alerts on the user’s behalf. Moreover, the wearable may be configured with an SOS button.
By including a GPS, the device may also be used as a location tracker.
The patent document outlined a number of flexible parameters including form factor and display formats. For example, while it could be configured with an LED display, it could also rely solely on LED alert lights to conserve power.
The inventor also intended to leave the design aspect up to the various manufacturers provided that they meet the functional criteria.
While the market is in no short supply of robust smart wearables, BCE highlighted a common pitfall they share in its patent summary.
“Any of these wearable devices are also not able to independently connect to a cellular network and often require to be ‘paired’ with other devices or must communicate by alternative means, which may inhibit the device’s ability to communicate with remote devices, respond to an emergency, etc. As such, the functionality of existing wearable devices is limited.”
To mitigate this issue, BCE’s wearable patent explicitly required the device to be able to connect to a low power wide area network (such as LTE-M) without a parent device.
BCE hasn’t yet announced arrival time or any specific partnerships with device manufacturers.
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