Waving flags and chanting, “public health care,” Unifor members braved the -30C windchill to march in Thunder Bay to send a strong message to the Ontario government to stop cutting services and privatizing health care.

Over 100 Unifor members, along with supporters from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), rallied Feb. 24 in front of St. Joseph Care Group on Algoma St. N. as a precursor to Unifor’s two-day Northern Ontario Leadership Meeting (NOLM).

“There’s no question in my mind, if we turn over the ownership and control of our public hospitals to the private-for-profit clinics, we will lose our single-tier public health care system in this country,” said Kelly-Anne Orr, Unifor Assistant to the National Officers.

“We will not be able to stop user fees and we will not be able control the industry. We already face the most impossible challenge – to regulate for-profit in the long-term care industry and if we allow this to happen, it will be the peril of our foundation of our principles of our health care system: the right to equal access based on need and not based on how wealthy you are.”

Orr said Ontario Premier Doug Ford is rolling out a coordinated campaign, mass-marketed with the message that patients will only pay with their health card, that staff will not be transferred from public hospitals and that patients will have faster access to health care.

“It’s all untrue,” she said. “These messages are designed to confuse and soften public opposition. There is no question that there is a coordinated movement in Ontario, among all the Conservative-led provinces in this country, to privatize health care. We’ve seen it with Mike Harris privatizing home care and long-term care and now, the Ford government is finishing it off by privatizing the public hospitals.”

Representatives from the Thunder Bay Health Coalition, ONA, SEIU, as well as NDP Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Lise Vaugeois spoke at the demonstration.

“[The Ford government] are setting things up so that large, multi-national corporations can come in here and make money off people when they are most vulnerable, it’s criminal,” said Vaugeois.

“They keep talking about the thousands of nurses they’ve hired. Have we seen any of those? Not one. [Health care workers] are so understaffed and exhausted, they’ve seen their peers leave because the government has refused to remove Bill 124 and hire the staff needed and pay them respectful wages.”

The spotlight on Ontario and Canada’s health care crisis continued at the Unifor Northern Ontario Leadership Meeting, which took place Feb. 24-25 in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Ontario Regional Director Naureen Rizvi kept the conversation on health care privatization and the need to mobilize not just union members, but their families and communities.

“People don’t care about the word, ‘privatization,’ not when they have to get to a doctor, not when they’re waiting for surgery for two years, not when their loved ones or children or spouses need care or access,” said Rizvi.

“As long as they don’t get charged, they’re golden. But we know that over time, privatization is going to destroy the system. And you will have charges, you just have to look down south to know that’s the case.”

She added the end result is that the health care system built on equal access which Canadians pride themselves on crumbles.

Later, Rizvi, Orr, and Unifor Local 229 President Kari Jefford expanded on the health care issue during a fireside chat, where members shared their own experiences.

“There is a huge opportunity for us to get gains,” said Jefford. “We get calls from members who are in crisis, who are angry, who are suffering…workers are tired and burnt out. It doesn’t matter what sector you’re in, people are feeling that. People don’t mobilize when they’re content, we can mobilize people when they’re angry.”

In her address to the participants at NOLM, Ontario Regional Council Chair Shinade Allder acknowledged that while February is Black History Month there are opportunities to celebrate and teach Black history year-round.

Allder spoke about how local Black Indigenous Workers of Colour (BIWOC) standing committee members have been involved in new programming that empowers Black youth, providing them skills taught by Black and Indigenous community leaders.

Unifor National Secretary-Treasurer Len Poirier told the NOLM participants that over 80,000 members have collective agreements that are expiring this year – the union’s 10th anniversary.

He also reiterated the union’s criticism of the Bank of Canada interest rate increases, as well as companies who are “drowning in profit” on the backs of workers.

“It should come as no surprise the sectors with the strongest increase in profits were also the source of the fastest price increases – products like gasoline, groceries, mortgages and building materials,” said Poirier.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know we have a big problem when so much of our economy is going to rich shareholders rather than the workers.”

Retiring Unifor National Representative Gary Bragnalo said it was inspiring to see that NOLM has grown to the size it is, with members coming to attend from all over Ontario.

“Without [leadership] support, we wouldn’t be here, telling the stories and talking about what’s going on in our workplaces, so we could all get together,” he said.

 

Bill C-228, An Act to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985, would amend bankruptcy and insolvency legislation to give “super-priority” to funding the deficit of a pension plan.

“For too long workers have witnessed employers paying out corporate bonuses or paying creditors after declaring bankruptcy, all while the company’s own pension deficit is allowed to go unfunded. This often forces already-retired workers into poverty as their pension benefits are slashed,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President. “It doesn’t have to be this way. All the Senate needs to do is to pass Bill C-228 as-is, which already received unanimous support in the House of Commons.”

Take action to protect pensions.

Les MacDonald, Unifor National Executive Board Retirees Representative, presented to the Senate committee on Feb. 15, 2023. He asked the Senators to respect retirees and pass the bill into law.

“In bargaining, pensions are a large portion of monetary conversations. Members end up making immediate sacrifices to their present wages in order to earn long-term, guaranteed retirement benefits. However, the current BIA and CCAA statutes do not offer any protections that can provide peace of mind at retirement for a pension that is being drawn particularly from a single employer defined benefit pension plan,” said MacDonald to the Senate committee.

Currently, if an employer has a defined-benefit pension plan and declares bankruptcy or insolvency, the plan needs to be wound up so that all pension assets are paid out. Pension plans may suffer from wind up deficits, a term that calculates the amount of additional money needed to fund the benefits to 100% for retirees on the date of wind up. Bill C-228 will put any outstanding amounts due to the pension fund wind up ahead of secured creditors, regardless whether the corporate entity declares bankruptcy or restructuring.

MacDonald drew on examples from Unifor’s own history and membership, where bankruptcy and insolvency of a company led to disastrous effects for retired workers, including the well-publicized Sears Canada bankruptcy.

“Eddie Lampert, Sears Canada’s largest shareholder, landlord and supplier doled out $6 billion dollars to buy back shares and dividends from 2005 onwards to profit himself, yet the company continued to carry a $260 million pension deficit that would have been extinguished easily, had Bill C-228 been the law in 2017.

“By end of Dec 2015, Sears reported 14,015 retirees with an average annual lifetime pension of only 5,141 Canadian dollars, literally $428 per month. While Unifor wasted no effort in representing our Sears retirees in insolvency, they were forced to settle with a 30% cut to these already low benefits,” MacDonald added.

Retirees earn their pensions during their working career. These deferred wages must be guaranteed, especially where the employer has every ability to pay their own pension deficits.

Add your name to the Congress of Union Retirees of Canada’s petition in support of this Bill, and tell the Senators to protect pensions.

Members of Unifor Local 1996-O voted 100% in favour of a new collective agreement that secures better benefits and significant wage increases.

The 4-year deal, retroactive to January 7, 2023, delivers 3.25% wage increases in each year of the contract.

“With better pay, benefits, and the security to continue working from home, BTS clerical members have a great contract that they can rely on for the next several years,” said Lee Zommers, Unifor Local 1996-O President. “Not only will members see the difference in wage increases, but they now have access to improved retirement security at the end of their careers.”

Additional highlights of the deal include:

• Anti-Racism Advocate
• Introduction of a DC pension plan with increased employer contributions
• More full-time positions including 1-time ratification upgrades
• Improved work-life balance

The contract covers approximately 50 Bell Technical Solutions clerical workers, members of Local 1996-O.

About Unifor

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector representing 315,000 members, 160,000 of whom live and work in Ontario. Unifor members work in health care, long-term care, the auto sector, public transit vehicle manufacturing, transportation, energy, gaming, hospitality and more. Unifor is pleased to provide input into Ontario’s 2023 provincial budget and recommends that government immediately implement the items below.

Public Services

Unifor is growing increasingly alarmed by the current government’s actions towards Ontario’s public services. The continued starvation of public services, even in the face of windfall tax revenue, is incredibly disappointing and short sighted. Unifor recommends that government reverse their actions and instead reinvigorate Ontario’s public services to build a strong foundation for workers and families today and in the future.

Child Care

• Ensure that the expansion of publicly funded, $10 a days child care focuses on not-for-profit spaces; and
• Establish an effective workforce strategy for the child care sector that includes:
  • Salary scale starting at $25 per hour for all child care workers and $30 per hour for Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs);
  • Benefits and pensions;
  • Paid sick days;
  • Professional development time;
  • Paid programming time.

Health Care and Long-Term Care

• Reverse the recent decision to open up more surgeries to private clinics, including future plans to expand this beyond cataracts;

• Institute additional health care measures to address compensation and staffing levels such as:
  • Repeal Bill 124;
  • create a plan with an accountable timeline to reach wage parity across hospitals, long-term care and home care; and
  • require a ratio of at least 70% full-time staff in hospitals and long-term care.

• Phase out for-profit long-term care homes and transition toward community-based, publicly-owned or non-profit homes; and
• Make sure the 4 hour standard of care is mandatory at each long-term care facility and hold homes accountable for meeting the standard.

Pharmacare

• Enter negotiations with the Federal Government to implement a publicly funded Provincial pharmacare program providing all Ontarians access to free prescription medications.

Public Transit

• Ensure adequate and permanent provincial funding to maintain and expand high quality, affordable public transit service and infrastructure; prohibit the use of public funds to reduce and eliminate municipal transit routes while replacing them with private micro-transit (e.g. Uber, Lyft) services; and
• Ensure that public transit vehicle procurement requires the maximum amount of Canadian Content possible to sustain and create good jobs across the province.

Support for Workers

• Continue the work of raising the minimum wage and ensure essential service workers are paid according to the value they bring to society:
  • Raise the minimum wage to 60% of the median wage for full-time workers. Based on this benchmark, Ontario’s 2022 minimum wage would be $18; and
  • Provide additional funding to increase the wages of low-wage workers in the broader public sector including child care workers, social service workers, health care workers, and education sector workers.
• Introduce 10 permanent paid sick days with additional days provided to workers, as required for isolation or quarantine periods during a public health crisis. Paid-sick days must be universally accessible, flexible, employer paid and not require a doctor’s note;
• Hire more workplace health and safety inspectors to ensure health and safety laws and regulations are being followed and workplaces are safe; and
• Introduce legislation that enables card-based union certification.

Invest in Labour Adjustment Programs

• Ensure adequate and permanent provincial funding to maintain and expand adjustment advisory program (AAP) agreements across the province when workers are faced with a workplace closure;
• Continue to set-up action centres and labour adjustment committees through AAP partnerships with unions to ensure a holistic, peer-to-peer focused, collaborative approach to labour adjustment; and
• Utilize AAP agreements and partnerships to create a dedicated auto industry labour market adjustment program for autoworkers affected by job displacement resulting from a shift to ZEV or other significant technological changes.

Auto Strategy and Electric Vehicles

• Collaborate with federal and municipal governments in a comprehensive and targeted auto development strategy that implements Unifor’s 29 recommendations in its policy program “Navigating the Road Ahead” and facilitates investments in zero emission vehicle (ZEV) assembly programs, battery cell production and other critical component parts alongside internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle and powertrain programs;
• Continue investing in EV infrastructure, including charging stations (that support the benchmark target of 1 charger for every 10 on-road electric vehicles) as well as the expansion of clean and renewable sources of energy to bolster the provincial power system;
• Re-establish consumer purchasing incentives for ZEVs, coordinated with the forthcoming introduction of Canadian-made all-electric passenger vehicles;
• Provide targeted support to identified at-risk auto parts suppliers, enabling them to retool operations, and retrain workers to participate in the growing ZEV supply chain; and
• Coordinate, with the federal government, the delivery of a constellation of job transition supports for autoworkers affected by job displacement resulting from a shift to ZEVs. These supports would include tailored income maintenance, labour market readiness and skills upgrading (including through AAP agreements), relocation assistance, early retirement bridging, and other supports necessary to successful labour market adjustment.

Ease the School Bus Driver Shortage

• Provide additional permanent government funding to support school bus driver hiring and retention, increase the number of buses and routes, and increase resources such as paid adult school bus monitors to assist drivers that transport younger children or students with extra needs.

Improve WSIB

• Repeal the change to WSIB that allows the Board to return premiums to employers. Government must undertake meaningful consultation with all stakeholders on the entire workers compensation system, including benefit coverage levels and how claims are processed. Recommendations for improving the system include:
  • Increase the loss of earnings benefit to 90% and restore the 5% reduction;
  • Match the inflation rate applied to injured workers’ Loss of Earnings to the rate of increase of the CPI;
  • Restore the loss of retirement income benefit ratio to 105% contribution; and
  • Provide greater coverage for mental stress injuries and occupational diseases.
• Provide additional payments to families of workers who have suffered a workplace fatality;
• Provide funding to reopen access to the office of the worker advisor to unionized workers so that all injured workers can access support without discrimination; and
• Make retirement homes a Schedule 1 employer for the purpose of WSIB so retirement home workers are covered in the event of injury.

Anti-Racism

• Provide increased funding towards the development of community-based programs and initiatives to combat racism and Islamophobia in the province, as well providing additional resources to support the work of Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate, as they look to implement a renewed Anti-Racism Strategic Plan; and
• Establish and resource a provincial Task Force, comprised of key political, labour, academic and community stakeholders, to develop and implement a plan to curb increasing rates of hate crimes against Black, Indigenous and people of colour in Ontario, including crimes stemming from Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.