April 23, 2024

 

On May 1st, Unifor joins unions across Canada and around the globe to mark International Workers’ Day – a day where we celebrate workers and the labour movement – from our collective victories to our common struggles.

The ongoing affordability crisis continues to be a challenge for working class communities across Canada.  This crisis has been fueled by growing economic inequality exacerbated by global corporate giants who squeeze workers’ wages while extracting more wealth for their executives and shareholders. As recently reported by Oxfam International, the richest five men in the world have doubled their fortunes since 2020, while the wealth of 5 billion people has decreased. Further, seven out of ten of the world’s largest corporations have either a billionaire CEO or a billionaire as their principal shareholder.

It is no surprise then that we have seen a corresponding wave of labour actions take place in Canada, the U.S. and around the world. It is clear the labour momentum of the 2023 ‘Hot Labour Summer’ has carried forward into 2024 as workers reject sub-par offers and concessions from employers that are simultaneously recording massive profits.

Since May Day of last year, thousands of Unifor workers have fought hard at the bargaining table, and in some cases engaged in strike action to achieve the fair gains they sought. This includes our 3,700 Unifor grocery store members at Metro, one of Canada’s grocery giants, who took strike action for fair wages. It also includes workers at Autoport, a subsidiary of CN Rail, who fought their employer who brought in scabs on the first day of the dispute. Elsewhere across North America, port workers, auto workers, writers and screen workers, media workers, transport workers and many others took unprecedented months-long strike action fighting for better job protections and working conditions.

These bold labour actions have inspired more workers to look to join unions and have resulted in equally bold organizing campaigns. In the past year, thousands of workers have joined Unifor to gain a seat at the bargaining table, a voice in their workplace and a place in the labour movement family. In B.C., Unifor is working hard to organize Amazon workers.  We have also seen the UAW make recent history by successfully organizing workers at the Volkswagen assembly plant in Tennessee, despite fierce right-wing political opposition – a strong signal that even in the most challenging of labour environments, workers are looking for dignity and respect on the job and are ready to stand up for their rights.

Only by building working-class power and uniting our movements at a global level can we effectively challenge the growing concentration of multinational corporate power.

On May Day, let us continue to mobilize and organize in solidarity, fighting for peace and social and economic justice and build the better world all workers deserve.

 

April 19, 2024

 

TORONTO–Unifor expects to achieve the wage increases and benefit improvements awarded to Ontario OCHU-CUPE and SEIU Healthcare members by Arbitrator William Kaplan in a recent decision.

Unifor congratulates OCHU-CUPE and SEIU Healthcare on this award as all three unions hold firm to their Solidarity Pact to bargain collaboratively and plans to achieve a similar outcome for Unifor health care workers in Ontario.

“Unifor health care members expect the same increases that have been awarded to other unionized workers,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “Every person in this province wants, and needs access to quality, public health care. We can’t do that without supporting the workers across the system with respectable pay and working conditions.”

Unifor’s Northern Group, encompassing 15 acute care units from Locals 229 and 1359 in Northern Ontario, opened negotiations on February 13, 2024 and will be in mediation on May 4. The bargaining committee is bolstered by news of the 6% wage gains and other improvements awarded to OCHU-CUPE and SEIU.

“These three influential health care unions are championing a 10-point Solidarity Pact, not as a symbol, but as a powerful framework to save our public health care, starting with improvements to worker pay,” said Unifor Ontario Regional Director Samia Hashi. “Canadians can no longer take public health care for granted, or as a given. Publicly funded health care is under daily direct attack and we will not allow it to be turned into yet another of life’s core necessities to be milked for profit.”

Learn more about Unifor’s mission to restore public health care in Ontario so it’s great for everyone at savehealthcare.ca.

April 19, 2024

 

BRAMPTON—Fifty workers remain on strike this week at the flagship headquarters of MDA Space while the company refuses to continue negotiations and resolve the labour dispute.

“It is a staggering contrast that management at MDA Space, on the one hand, have the crucial role of advancing Canadian space technology and, on the other hand, are unwilling or incapable of bargaining a collective agreement covering a group of 50 dedicated, highly skilled workers,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “Advanced aerospace manufacturing is no place for staging theatrics and playing games, particularly when MDA Space receives a generous amount of public dollars.”

MDA Space, the future home of the Canadarm3 and a key player in NASA’s lunar Gateway space station project, has been awarded substantial contracts. These include a $269 million contract for the next phase of the Gateway project, a $250 million contract for supporting robotics operations on the International Space Station, and approximately $25 million from the Ontario government to fund its new global space headquarters.

Unifor represents 50 workers at MDA Space in Brampton, Ontario who perform a wide range of production, office, and clerical duties for the company. In the days leading up to a strike deadline set for the morning of April 8, the company communicated that it would not participate in further negotiations with Unifor. At issue in the negotiations were a combination of economic issues including insufficient wage increases, pension contributions, and protection against rising living costs.

“Rather than taking their ball and going home, the Company needs to return to the table and make every effort to reach an agreement that works for both parties, not just MDA,” added Payne. “If we can make the Canadarm3, surely we can reach a collective agreement.”

Despite the union’s attempts to continue negotiations with MDA Space, the company has failed to agree to further bargaining dates.