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Emergency Economic Support Proposal – Add Your Voice!

Emergency Economic Support for Crab Industry

FFAW-Unifor has launched a campaign for federal support for those impacted by the post-pandemic collapse in the NL snow crab fishery. The detailed proposal includes income support requests for fish harvesters, fishery workers, and enterprise owners, to address significant income shortages this year and provide the help needed to make it to next season.

The fishery is a reliable, sustainable, and important source of economic development for coastal communities with over 7,500 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians relying on the crab solely or mostly for their livelihood. The current crisis can be attributed to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, pandemic stimulus spending in the United States, the Russian/Ukraine challenge and Russia’s takeover of Japanese seafood markets, all contributing to the market collapse and subsequent 70% drop in market prices from last year.  The anomalous downturn in the snow crab fishery requires federal intervention to protect those who are currently in crisis.

Both federal and provincial governments declared fish harvesters and plant workers essential workers during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic – critical to both the economy and food supply of the country. Now, these Canadians need help in the form of economic relief from the federal government. Our Union has developed an informed funding proposal that would provide critical support for valuable enterprise owners, crew members, and other fishery workers impacted by global factors that influenced the collapse in the snow crab market this year.

FFAW-Unifor is proposing an emergency economic support grant as well as temporary emergency changes to employment insurance qualifications for seasonal labour claims to ensure members will be protected given the dramatic decline in income this year. FFAW is presenting this proposal to government immediately and EVERY VOICE is needed to increase pressure for action!

The proposal requests:

(1) FISHERIES WORKERS – This proposal applies to all non-harvesting jobs relying on the snow crab fishery. For example, processing plant workers, duckside monitors, offloaders, delivery drivers, etc., whose employer can attest to the fact that they rely ont eh snow crab fishery for 60% of their income. Ensuring access to employment insurance benefits this year will be of the utmost importance.

  • Lower minimum insurable hours to qualify for regular E.I. benefits based on the unemployment divisor of 14 (In most cases it is a minimum of 420 to 700 insurable hours to qualify).
  • AND offer a Fishery Worker Economic Hardship Grant – $4000 per affected seasonal worker to supplement lost income. Non-taxable, & no effect on current EI claims.

 (2) FISH HARVERSTERS – This proposal applies to all commercial fish harvesters whose income is primarily dependent on snow crab.

  • Fish Harvester Economic Hardship Grant – $10,000 per affected fish harvester to supplement lost income and the drastic reduction in employment insurance benefits. Non-taxable, & no effect on current EI claims.
  •  AND New Entrants Economic Hardship Benefit – up to $15,000 to enterprise-owners who invested in the snow crab fishery within the last 10 years to offset increased operating expenses due to pandemic-related causes and subsequent reduction in forecasted earnings. Non-taxable, & no effect on current EI claims.
  •  AND defer CEBA interest accumulation and payments for an additional calendar year.

Add your voice and sign the FFAW’s petition here.

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Reproductive Justice Now! – Unifor National

Source: Unifor National – petition

For more information and to sign the petition click the source link

Reproductive rights are fragile and we must work together to protect and expand access to sexual and reproductive health care.
Abortion is health care

Canada must protect of abortion rights to ensure reproductive justice and gender equality. Access to safe and legal abortions is essential to an individual’s autonomy and the ability to make decisions about their own bodies.

Unfortunately, these choices are limited for too many and there are still significant barriers to accessing free, public abortion services, particularly for marginalized and rural communities. The truth remains that there are ongoing and persistent attempts to criminalize abortion here in Canada.

Sign your support now

Join the fight

First, we protect the reproductive care that we have, then we fight to expand it!

Start by signing Unifor’s letter addressed to all Federal Members of Parliament demanding they protect abortion access here in Canada.

Sign the Federal Petition

Then, drive the message home in your province or territory. Send a separate message to your provincial representatives demanding that they improve access and funding for reproductive care.

Sign the Provincial Petition

Please sign the emails today to send a clear message that we will not tolerate anti-choice legislation.

It is crucial to remain vigilant and continue to advocate for reproductive rights and justice to ensure that access to safe and legal abortion remains available to everyone who needs it.

Political threats to human rights

With the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States, we are watching state after state restrict access to safe abortion. We cannot allow this to happen here.

To expand and secure abortion access, we need:

  • Enforcement of the Canada Health Act and strong penalties for provinces that don’t provide fully-funded and accessible sexual and reproductive health care.
  • Increased funding for abortion clinics in rural areas.
  • Implement options such as telemedicine services for medical abortions (prescription of mifepristone and misoprostol).

By ensuring access to safe and legal abortions, we can promote reproductive justice and empower all people who can become pregnant to make decisions about their own health and well-being.

It is essential that workers act to ensure that anti-choice and anti-abortion legislation is not passed in Canada, not now, not ever. The right to choose whether to have an abortion is a fundamental human right, and any attempt to restrict this right is a direct attack on people’s health, autonomy and bodily integrity.

Unfortunately, we know that some conservatives continue to try to sneak in legislation have continuously attempted to introduce legislation designed to undermine the right to determine what happens to one’s own body and, in some cases like we are seeing in the U.S., deny life-saving health care.

In fact, there is currently legislation in our parliament aimed at criminalizing abortion:

  • In 2012, Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth introduced a motion that sought to examine the legal definition of a human being, a move that many saw as an attempt to challenge abortion rights.
  • In 2016, Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall introduced a private member’s bill to make it an offence to cause injury or death to a fetus while committing or attempting to commit an offence against a pregnant woman and to add pregnancy as an aggravating circumstance for the purpose of sentencing. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice at the time, Bill Blair, pointed out that abusing pregnant women was already considered an aggravating factor for sentencing purposes.
  • Again, in May 2023, Wagantall resurrected her flawed private member’s bill for another attempt at creating a legal noose for reproductive freedoms with Bill C-311.

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Canada’s Wonderland Membership Appreciation Day, Sunday, July 9, 2023

Unifor Day Canada's Wonderland

Tickets for Unifor’s membership appreciation day are now available online and can be purchased at www.canadaswonerdland/com/uniforday. We have attached a poster you can post and circulate to your members to inform them of the event. As indicated on the poster we are encouraging all participants to wear their Unifor colours/swag as we will be handing out prizes throughout the day. We anticipate this will be a well attended event so please make sure to secure your tickets early and we look forward to seeing you there.

Discounted tickets are as follows:

  • $49.99 Ages 3 and up. Includes parking, admission, rides, and lunch at the Courtyard Buffet.
  • $19.99 for Courtyard Buffet only (park admission required to gain entry).
  • Free for kids under age 2.

Delta Toronto Airport Hotel

Members can call the Delta at (416) 244-1711 and request the Unifor rate of $169/night which includes breakfast and self parking.

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Bell CEO warns ‘micromanagement’ by regulators could push telcos to curtail investment, services

Source: Financial Post

Bell Canada president and chief executive officer Mirko Bibic warned May 29 that increased regulation in Canada’s telecommunications industry could prompt companies to scale back investment and make cuts to service for underserved communities.

Speaking at a lunch hosted by Canadian Club Toronto, Bibic took aim at the federal government and Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for a shift “towards more micromanagement of Canada’s telecom industry.”

 

Continue reading click the source link at the top of this post