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Needs of workers must be top priority in this election says Unifor

August 15, 2021

TORONTO – With Canadians going to the polls on September 20, Canada’s largest private sector union is urging federal parties to put workers, and the need to “BuildBackBetter” for working people at the heart of all platforms.

“Now more than ever we need to rebuild a fair, inclusive and resilient recovery that not only recalibrates Canada’s priorities, but addresses those economic failings that existed prior to COVID, that were only made worse during the pandemic,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.

Unifor is calling on all candidates to recognize the need for urgent action in the next federal Parliament on seven priorities for the union.

Unifor is calling for the next federal government to build back better to:

  • Support care work and the care economy
  • Improve income security and affordability
  • Grow good, union jobs and pass anti-scab legislation
  • Advance reconciliation and racial justice
  • Foster fair trade and international solidarity
  • Tackle climate change and protecting jobs
  • Invest in the recovery economy

On August 2, 2021, Unifor launched the union’s 2021 federal election campaign warning voters that Erin O’Toole is no friend of working people and will to take the country in the wrong direction.

The new television ad is airing on major networks in the coming weeks, along with digital ads and a new campaign website: 2021otoole.ca

“We know Conservative policies will take us backwards with cuts and more tax breaks for wealthy corporations, while working Canadians are ignored,” said Dias. “This election is too important, and we will use our voice to ensure the Conservatives remain in opposition.”

Unifor will launch a member-to-member campaign where union activists will engage with members, publish and share issues backgrounders about the union’s seven priorities, and encourage members to vote for progressive, like-minded candidates.

The union will carry out ‘get-out-the-vote’ campaigns in target ridings where members make up a substantial portion of the electorate.

“Unifor, like all unions, has a constitutional right to participate in elections and a responsibility to defend members’ interests whenever Canadians go to the polls, and this campaign was unanimously endorsed by the union’s National Executive Board,” said Dias.

In the 2019 federal election, Unifor member organizers had conversations with more than 100,000 members, and the Conservatives were defeated in 72 per cent of the 69 ridings the union targeted.

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Ontario’s healthcare system at risk as Ford government fails to address worsening health human resource crisis

August 17, 2021 – 12:00 AM

Union leaders from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario, SEIU Healthcare, and Unifor were joined by a frontline healthcare worker at a media conference on Tuesday to demand an urgent and comprehensive strategy from the Ford government to address the worsening health human resource crisis in Ontario that is leaving seniors and patients without the staffing levels they need.

Last week, the Ford government announced that new and recently hired personal support workers (PSWs) and nurses would be incentivized with up to $10,000 to work in retirement homes—an almost entirely private, for-profit system. This program ignores those working in hospital, long-term care and homecare settings, and offers no respect or appreciation to those who have spent the past 18 months risking their lives on the frontline.

This announcement comes as the temporary $3 per hour enhancement for PSWs is set to expire on August 23, 2021 – an incentive that excludes PSWs working in retirement homes and all others working in healthcare settings, including nurses, dietary, clerical, and housekeeping staff.

Healthcare workers and their unions have been sounding the alarm for years about the staffing situation facing the sector, which has become a crisis during the pandemic as more and more choose to leave their profession due poor working conditions and low wages. While urgent action is needed, the Ford government continues to make reactionary decisions that won’t solve healthcare’s recruitment and retention issues.

Quotes:

“Premier Ford’s continued failure to implement a coherent recruitment and retention strategy means that seniors and patients are going without the care they need because of dangerously low staffing levels. Burnt-out and exploited staff mean longer wait times, never ending hallway healthcare, and clinical mistakes from exhausted minds and bodies. Ontario has no comprehensive health human resource strategy. It makes no sense, it’s a mess, and our province’s healthcare workers can’t take it anymore.” – Sharleen Stewart, President, SEIU Healthcare

“Incentive programs like this, fix absolutely nothing. In fact they potentially can make things far worse. We’ve asked this government to work with us to develop a comprehensive human resource strategy that encompasses retirement homes, home care, long-term care and hospitals.” – Katha Fortier, Assistant to National President and Unifor lead health care negotiator.

“For years, retirement home operators, almost exclusively operating for profit, have exploited their workforce by intentionally driving down wages and working conditions. This latest move by the Conservatives is a shameful attempt to bail out the private operators using public funds while they continue to reap massive profits. Once again, this government has resorted to piece meal approaches rather than implementing a real wage, recruitment and workforce strategy that will put an end to the gross exploitation of the home care workforce.” – Candace Rennick, Secretary-Treasurer, CUPE Ontario

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The road is our workplace

The road is our workplace. A lack of safe places to park means that it is very difficult to check our loads and get the rest we need to stay sharp behind the wheel.

We don’t want to “drive tired”. Help support long-haul drivers in our call for more parking and a provincial plan to address the shortage.

We demand:

  1. Immediate action should be taken by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario to begin to resolve the parking shortage.
  2. Set targets for new truck parking.
  3. Priority for added parking, particularly at ONroute Service Centres.

See more from the Summary Report for a Study of Long-Haul Truck Parking & Rest Areas and Asleep at the Wheel: A critique of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation Response to SPR’s 2018 Highway Truck Parking Study and an Action Plan for Discussion.

Email your MPP

Click the link below

https://www.unifor.org/en/take-action/campaigns/road-our-workplace

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Ontario needs universal child care

Universal, affordable, high quality child care is finally within reach thanks to a new federal plan, but Ontario’s Conservatives are dragging their feet and have not signed onto the federal plan.

Parents need safe, high quality child care that meets their family’s needs. Child care workers need secure, good jobs where they can provide excellent care. And children deserve quality care.

The federal government’s national child care plan, laid out in the 2021 federal budget this past April, pledged roughly $30 billion over five years to help build a Canada-wide system of early learning and child care.

Public investments in child carepay for themselves. Women are the frontlines of the workforce, but especially during COVID-19, we saw them being pushed out and relegated to stay at home because of a lack of child care.

The plan would translate into making child care more affordable, including $10-a-day child care in regulated spaces for children under six years old by 2026, additional spaces in high-quality, not-for-profit centres and fees for regulated spaces cut in half by the end of 2022, while supporting wages and working conditions of child care workers.

But, in order for this plan to work, provinces need to get on board.

Nova Scotia and BC already signed on, making the promise of affordable, accessible, quality child care and early learning one step closer for families in those provinces.

Ontario needs to sign on to the federal government’s child care plan immediately.

Add your voice today and tell your local MPP, Premier Doug Ford and Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce that Ontario needs universal child care.

Add your voice click below to sign

https://www.unifor.org/en/take-action/campaigns/ontario-needs-universal-child-care