TORONTO—Government investment in the clean economy, including electric vehicle production, is necessary to secure good paying jobs and a prosperous future for Canada’s auto sector, says Unifor.

“The scale of the transition to electric vehicle production cannot be overstated, with fierce competition around the world for facilities and the long-term employment that comes with them,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne.

“The federal government’s latest investment shows that Canada is willing to put money and vision into a bold industrial strategy. Securing the VW battery plant is a historic win but it’s vital that workers share in this investment with good paying union jobs.”

The federal government will invest up to $13.2 billion over ten years in Volkswagen’s first North American gigafactory, an EV battery cell plant to be built in St. Thomas, Ontario. The Ontario government has committed $500 million in direct incentives to the company in addition to funds to support local infrastructure.

In addition to capital cost subsidies, Volkswagen and its battery company PowerCo SE will receive production subsidies tied to plant production volumes.

“Unifor has long advocated that government investments must be conditional on continued production, but the company’s obligations shouldn’t end there,” said Payne. “VW is a new addition to the Canadian auto footprint and we fully expect the company to uphold our work standards and to respect their workers’ right to organize.”

The VW battery plant is just one of recent major electric vehicle investments. In 2020 bargaining with the Detroit Three automakers, Unifor brought the message that ‘The Future is Made in Canada’. With investment as a top priority the union secured more than $6 billion in combined commitments from Ford, GM and Stellantis.

In March 2022, Stellantis and LG announced a joint venture to build a lithium-ion battery plant in Windsor, Ontario.

In December 2022, the first BrightDrop all-electric delivery van rolled off the retooled GM CAMI assembly line in Ingersoll, Ontario.

In February of this year, it was announced that Unifor members at the General Motors (GM) St. Catharines Propulsion Plant will be the first Detroit Three facility in Canada to produce electric vehicle propulsion systems.

Last week, Ford Motor Company announced site transformation plans for Oakville that include both vehicle and battery assembly and the renaming of the facility to the Oakville Electric Vehicle Complex.

Unifor will enter negotiations with Detroit Three automakers later this year.

Unifor previously unveiled its set of 29 recommendations for governments and automakers in its auto policy document, Navigating the Road Ahead: Rebuilding Canada’s powerhouse auto sector.

Mental Health Awareness Week will take place May 1-May 7, as part of a national campaign by the Canadian Mental Health Association.

The Ontario Regional Council Employee & Family Assistance Program (EFAP) Standing Committee is working to raise awareness of the importance of mental health, both on the job and in our personal lives, and to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health.

Earlier this year, the Ontario EFAP committee promoted the sale of a Unifor End the Stigma t-shirt. The response was tremendous. Those who purchased the t-shirt are asked to wear it throughout the week of May 1st to show your support.

Take a photo of you wearing your shirt or holding a print-out of the graphic and share it with communications@unifor.org.

Download the graphics here.

*Please note the order deadline has now passed.

OHS Committees Take Action!

Hand-in-hand with awareness is access to information on prevention.

No workplace is immune from mental injury hazard. That is why our definition of occupational health and safety cannot be limited to physical well-being only; it must include mental well-being as well.

With most adults spending more of their waking hours at their workplace than anywhere else, addressing issues of mental health on the job is crucially important.

Together, we must keep this responsibility to ourselves and to our co-workers in mind during any work activity.

Ensuring a psychologically healthy workplace (a workplace that promotes workers’ psychological well-being and actively works to prevent harm to worker psychological health) is a key function of Occupational Health and Safety Committees (OHSC).

Just like any other hazard at workplace, OHS Committees need to recognize, assess, control, evaluate, review, adjust, monitor and maintain the program.

OHSC’s need to use the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (the Standard) which identifies psychosocial risk factors (workplace factors).

No Unifor member is alone. You can access information on mental health or addiction and substance abuse here.

Additional Resources:

Mental Health Commission of Canada

An Action Guide for Employers: http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/media/3050

Mental Health First Aid: https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.ca

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)

Health and Safety Fact Sheets for Mental Health
https://www.ccohs.ca/topics/wellness/mentalhealth/

Courses and E-Learning (some are free!)
https://www.ccohs.ca/topics/wellness/mentalhealth/#ctgt_wb-auto-4

Workplace mental health posters
https://www.ccohs.ca/topics/wellness/mentalhealth/#ctgt_wb-auto-5

Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW)

Mental Injury Prevention Tools –Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) http://www.ohcow.on.ca/edit/files/mip/UsingCOPSOQ.pdf

StressAssess.ca -Workplace and Personal Editions (COPSOQ III, Canadian data) https://stressassess.ca

TORONTO-It would take the average Canadian supermarket worker 340 years to earn Loblaw CEO Galen Weston’s 2022 total compensation of $11.79 million, says Unifor.

“It is twisted that any analysis can find that billionaire grocery baron Galen Weston needs even more money when Loblaw refuses to pay many of its front-line workers a living wage and continues to deny full-time jobs.,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President. “I understand the pressures that come with leadership, and you cannot for a second convince me that such an increase for one of Canada’s richest people is justified.”

According to Statistics Canada, the average grocery worker in Canada earned $18.97 per hour in 2022. Working a full 35-hour week, with annual earnings of $34,525, it would take more than 340 years to earn his 2022 earnings of $11.79 million.

“It is unjust to divert more money out of the pockets of workers under the notion of needing to incentivize Weston to continue working for his own family business,” said Sharon Walsh, Unifor Retail Sector Director. “Workers in his stores can’t afford the groceries they sell anymore, yet it seems that culturally we are fine with the idea of paying one person the equivalent of generations of workers’ wages in one year, every year.”

Weston received a whopping 55% raise last year on his Loblaw earnings alone. Loblaw also doled out millions more to both CFO Richard Dufresne, whose total compensation went from $1.8 million in 2021 to more than $5.4 million last year, and COO Robert Sawyer, whose total compensation was hiked from $7.4 million in 2021 to just over $9.3 million in 2022.

Compensation increases for the other major grocers are similarly out of touch with workers’ earnings.

Metro CEO Eric La Flèche was paid $5.3 million in total compensation in 2022, up from 2021 earnings of just over five million. Empire Company, which operates Safeway, Sobey’s, FreshCo, Foodland and other grocery brands, paid its CEO Michael Medline more than $8.6 million in total compensation last year, up from just over $7.4 million the year before.

“This year, Unifor grocery workers are at the bargaining table with Loblaw, Metro and Sobeys among others. Let’s see if these companies are as generous with their frontline workers as they are to their executives. We’re putting grocery barons on notice that they cannot continue to pay poverty wages with part-time status for full-time work,” said Payne.

Unifor represents 20,000 workers in Canada’s retail sector, including in supermarkets and warehouses owned and affiliated with Loblaw, Metro and Sobeys.