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Series of rallies as part of the Bell Real Talk campaign

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Several rallies will be held over the coming weeks as part of the Bell Real Talk campaign aimed at denouncing practices that have a harmful effect on the working conditions and quality of life of its employees. Enough is enough! That’s the message Unifor members want to send to their employer. After making that message clear at events in Gatineau, Sherbrooke and Saint-Jérôme, members organized a rally at the Bell Campus on Nun’s Island on January 30. You can support Unifor members working at Bell Canada by staying tuned for updates on further actions planned for the coming weeks and months. Solidarity!

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Black History Month – Anderson Ruffin Abbott

Black History Month in Canada

Black History Month is observed across Canada every February. Black History Month in Canada provides an opportunity to share and learn about the experiences, contributions and achievements of peoples of African ancestry (see Black Canadians). It was initiated in Canada by the Ontario Black History Society and introduced to Parliament in December 1995 by Jean Augustine, the first Black woman elected as a member of Parliament. Black History Month was officially observed across Canada for the first time in February 1996 (see also Black History in Canada).

Unifor  1996-O Recognize:

Anderson Ruffin Abbott

Anderson Ruffin Abbott

In Solidarity,

 

Equity Committee 1996-O

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Unifor National – Coronavirus Fact Sheet

Read Article here….

On December 31, 2019, Chinese health authorities identified a new (or novel) coronavirus (referred to as

2019-nCoV) through a series of reported cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, China. We all have a responsibility to reduce risks of exposure to and transmission of the virus. As workers, take precautions to reduce exposure. Employers should create preventions plans in consultation with relevant health and safety committees and worker representatives.

Coronaviruses

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses. They can cause diseases ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Some human coronaviruses spread easily between people, while others do not.

Though it has been determined that the virus can spread from person to person, how exactly the virus is transmitted remains unclear.

The American Center for Disease Control and Prevention identifies four main types of CoV in which infections are quite common, usually leading to common cold symptoms. However, there are the rare types of CoV such as SARS and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) that can be far more serious and can lead to pneumonia, respiratory failure, kidney failure, or even death.

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Unifor and Federated Co-operatives Limited to return to bargaining table

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January 30, 2020

REGINA—Unifor and FCL are scheduled to return to bargaining table on Friday January 31 following the union’s offer to remove all of the company’s obstacles to bargaining.

At 5 p.m. yesterday, Unifor agreed to comply with the injunction concerning the Co-op Refinery picket line if Federated Co-operatives Limited returns to the bargaining table in good faith. The company responded and agreed to those terms.

“Unifor has always been deeply committed to bargaining a fair contract for refinery workers, but this is the first move we have seen that suggests FCL is interested in getting a deal,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “If it becomes clear at the table that FCL is still unwilling to engage in good faith negotiations, the union’s demand that Premier Moe step in still stands. We need the provincial government to support Saskatchewan workers.”

Negotiations are set to begin at 9 a.m. in Regina.

Out of respect for the collective bargaining process, no other information will be released until a tentative agreement is reached or talks break off.

Nearly 800 highly skilled members of Unifor Local 594 remain locked out from the Co-op Refinery, which continues to rely on unqualified scab workers and managers to operate the refinery.

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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Jerry Dias….My worst nightmare? Not even close

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Tue, 01/28/2020

I read with fascination Erin O’Toole’s recent comments about me in the Hamilton media.

The Conservative Member of Parliament – and as of Monday the latest candidate to lead his party – says he intends to become my “worst nightmare” if he becomes Conservative leader.

Really? I don’t think so. He’s so irrelevant he wouldn’t even register in the top thousand.

O’Toole and I have history. I should state that up front. During the long negotiations to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement, O’Toole was a member of the cabal of Conservative MPs pushing the federal government to go along with whatever Trump wanted and sign a deal as fast as possible.

O’Toole himself called the inclusion of gender, Indigenous and environmental issues during the NAFTA talks nothing more than “virtue signalling” that were somehow separate from economic concerns.

What a dumb way to think about things. Lax laws on the environment, for instance, is one of the things that attracts corporations to such places as Mexico. No wonder I referred to him at the time as Erin O’Fool.

If Canadian negotiators had listened to the likes of O’Toole and his Conservative cronies, there would have been nothing in the deal addressing these issues in the finished USMCA: improved labour rights for Mexican workers, stronger made in North America rules for auto parts, elimination of special investor protections, tools to protect Canada against unfair trade penalties, and more.

I was proud to be part of the team advising Canada’s negotiators on USMCA. If any of us had listened to fools like O’Toole back then, we never would have made these advances.

The new NAFTA, which goes before the House of Commons this week, is still far from representing the bold rethink on trade policy the world needs. But in many key areas it’s better than the old NAFTA, and better by a long shot than anything O’Toole and the rest of the Conservative would’ve had us sign.

If it was up to O’Toole, his naïve approach to negotiations would have seen Canada abandon the need for major changes to Mexican labour laws, free collective bargaining, and trying to rebalance the scales of unfair competition – and willingly giving up market access on supply managed sectors, and caving on drug prices, just as Stephen Harper did in European and Pacific Rim trade deals.

Trade deals by the Conservative Party under Harper undercut Canada’s manufacturing sector, leading to thousands of jobs leaving the country. The deal with Korea, for instance, gave virtually unfettered access to Canada for Korean manufacturing, but offered little in return.

Of course, that doesn’t stop O’Toole from somehow trying to put the blame on me for GM stopping assembly in Oshawa, even though it was his party that undercut manufacturing here and it was his Conservative buddies in Ontario who were willing to throw in the towel with GM at the first bell.

Not Unifor, we took action right away and never let up. We pushed hard, talked to everybody we could and mobilized the community.

In the end, we preserved Oshawa GM as a footprint for the future – far more than any a Conservative ever did for that city, including O’Toole. Even the bailout years ago for the Detroit 3 automakers, made only after intense pressure to do so, could not make up for disastrous Conservative manufacturing policies – their true legacy.

O’Toole might think he can build a political career out of attacking people like me, but he’s wrong.

The fact is, Canadians simply don’t want anti-labour, anti-women, anti-gay, anti- immigrant governments. Andrew Scheer proved that. He proved that the religious right simply does not translate into political success in Canada.

O’Toole should understand that. After all, he was there to witness first hand as the last Conservative election campaign collapsed in the wake of his leader’s homophobic and anti-woman views.

Instead, O’Toole has added the founder of Doug Ford-backing Ontario Proud to his campaign’s team and promised to run to the right of other leadership contenders. Only a fool would think that would help. He makes dog whistle references to his Christianity, a wink to social conservatives to support him as he runs for the leadership of his party. In launching his leadership bid, O’Toole even expressed nostalgia for the Harper years, of all things.

O’Toole might fancy himself as my worst nightmare, but I can assure you I won’t be losing any sleep over it.