TORONTO– The Bank of Canada’s decision to impose a quarter-point interest rate hike willfully ignores inflation data, unfairly jeopardizes workers’ jobs and fails to address the root causes of price increases.

“The Bank’s stubborn and aggressive rate increases are already having an impact on the economy contributing to increased costs for working families while at the same time corporate profiteering has been given a free pass,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “Workers jobs and incomes are at stake here. It’s time to stop the rate hikes before the economy is pushed into a deep recession.”

Today’s decision is the 8th consecutive interest rate hike by the Bank, raising interest rates from 0.25 to 4.5% in less than a year.

“At the last rate hike, the Bank of Canada Governor pointedly stated the next rate decision would be data driven,” said Payne. “The data clearly shows that inflation is slowing and that sources, namely supply chain bottlenecks and soaring gas prices, are easing.”

Between December 2021 and December 2022, inflation was 6.3% while wage growth failed to keep pace at 5.1%. Meanwhile, corporate profits continued to soar. In Q3 2022, profits were more than 20% of GDP, up from the 15% average in the five years before the pandemic.

Instead of recognizing corporate profiteering as a source of inflation, the Bank continues to focus on wages as the most worrying indicator of entrenched inflation.

“The Bank of Canada remains hell-bent on its recession creating strategy to stifle wages, putting the onus on workers while continuing to ignore blatant corporate profiteering,” said Payne. “Corporations are taking advantage of inflation hysteria, using it as cover to increase profit margins and extract even more of workers’ hard-earned cash.”

As Parliament prepares to resume, Unifor is calling on the federal government to address corporate profiteering by expanding the excess profits tax and to prepare for a potential recession by fixing Employment Insurance.

Nikki Moffat
Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Vice President
Corporate Services
BCE and Bell

Dear Ms. Moffat,

In September 2010, Bell Let’s Talk began a new conversation about Canada’s mental health with the public. At the time, many people were not openly discussing living with mental illness.

Millions of Canadians, including leading personalities, engaged in an open discussion about mental illness, offering new ideas and hope for those who struggle, with numbers growing every year.

This conversation shines a bright light on the issue across the country, but one place remains that needs to be better illuminated, Bell’s own house.

Workers at Bell, across all units, experience workplace stress, mental health and illness, and workplace culture in vastly different ways. Unifor is deeply connected to workers across Bell and Canada’s telecommunications sector with roughly 26,000 members working at large and small employers across the country. Two-thirds of sectoral membership, approximately 17,500 members work for Bell Canada or one of its subsidiaries, including Bell Aliant, Bell Technical Solutions, Expertech, Bell MTS and Progistix Solutions.

Additionally, Bell Media employs 2,100 Unifor members, which equates to one out of every six Unifor media members overall, making Bell Media the largest Unifor employer in this sector.

For these members, workplace stress and other elements that are within Bell’s control such as job security, management practices and disciplinary procedures have been primary bargaining priorities for many years.

For Bell Let’s Talk Day this year, Unifor asks that the company turn its attention inside, and commit to better resourcing mental health research and data as a first step towards promoting better workplace culture and mental health.

Bell should adopt a data-driven approach, with externally-verified measurements, to set a baseline for mental wellness from which we can improve. This approach must include:

• a data collecting exercise (i.e. a survey) of the employees of Bell and its subsidiaries such as the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ);
• the analysis of such data by a qualified expert;
• the establishment of a plan based on the findings;
• the delivery of such plan; and
• a review of the delivery of the plan every 6 months thereafter.

The impact of mental illness on the job security and quality of so many Canadian worker’s lives cannot be addressed through advertising campaigns.

Unifor has a critical concern that all members have access to workplaces which sustain psychologically healthy and safe working conditions. We ask that your company takes immediate steps to ensure this interest is realised.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

LANA PAYNE                          LEN POIRIER                                     DANIEL CLOUTIER
National President                  National Secretary-Treasurer          Québec Director

Thanks to the hard work of Unifor members, the federal government is planning changes to Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) system- but they’re not in place yet.

On September 24, all temporary measures that improved our access to EI were allowed to expire.

At the start of COVID, the federal government relaxed EI eligibility to improve access to emergency support for those most in need. Without these supports, it would have been much worse for workers and their families due to the COVID closures, lockdowns and layoffs.

An inaccessible and inadequate EI program is another disaster for workers who need access to EI now when the next crisis hits. That’s why we are demanding the federal government immediately extend the temporary EI measures and implement the following permanent changes:

• Expand EI access:
  • A 360-hour or 12-week qualifying rule with 50 weeks of income support
  • An end to harsh disqualification rules
  • Ensure migrant workers have access to EI
  • End misclassification, a practice where employers falsely label their employees as self-employed independent contractors to avoid paying their fair share of EI and CPP.
• Improve the weekly benefit rate and include a guaranteed weekly minimum
• Fund a new, annual federal government contribution to EI to help pay for improvements, provide adequate staffing with fair pay, and ensure EI acts as an effective economic stabilizer at times of crisis.

DELTA, B.C.—Workers at the Cascades casino in Delta became Unifor’s newest members after the B.C. Labour Board certified the unit on January 24, 2023.

“Unifor is very proud to welcome a new group of hospitality and gaming workers into our union, joining thousands of Unifor members in the sector. We thank the Cascades workers for choosing Unifor and I know they are eager to get started on having a say in improving their working conditions,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne.

More than 200 workers employed as dealers, slot attendants, guest services workers, food and beverage servers, cashiers, and security guards have joined Unifor Local 114 and will now begin the process of bargaining their first collective agreement.

“We look forward to negotiating a first contract for workers at Cascades,” said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor Western Regional Director. “Unifor has been aggressive in achieving industry-leading agreements across the gaming and hospitality sectors.”

Unifor Local 3000 members at the Parq Casino and Resort are currently in bargaining to adjust wages to reflect Metro Vancouver’s high cost of living.

Unifor represents more than 22,000 workers in gaming and hospitality across the country. Gaming sector workers suffered some of the longest lay-offs during closures resulting from pandemic safety regulations.