November 27, 2024

 

December 3 marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), a day to recognize the vital contributions of persons with disabilities in our workplaces, communities and unions.

This year’s theme, “Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future,” serves as a reminder that inclusion is not just about removing barriers but about creating opportunities for leadership and influence.

Workers with disabilities have always been integral to labour and social movements and it is our collective responsibility to ensure their voices are heard and their rights protected.

Unifor locals can play a pivotal role in this effort. We encourage all locals to take concrete steps to foster greater inclusion and accessibility, including:

• Reviewing collective agreements in conjunction with workers with lived experience to ensure they include provisions that accommodate workers with diverse abilities, such as flexibility for caregiving, modified work arrangements and accessibility measures.
• Establishing Workers with disAbilities committees to provide spaces for advocacy, leadership and the development of inclusive practices. These committees empower workers with disabilities to engage fully in union activities and help shape the priorities of their locals.
• Creating spaces for mentoring and encouraging workers with diverse abilities to run for leadership positions, ensuring their voices are represented at every decision-making table.
• Using the Inclusive Practices Toolkit when planning membership meetings, ratifications, and other union events. Simple steps like providing accessible locations, offering closed captioning and distributing materials in alternative formats can make a significant difference.
• Sharing educational resources, such as the Workers with disAbilities video at local meetings to spark conversations and raise awareness about the experiences of workers with disabilities.

Our union will continue to push employers to do their part in providing a workplace that is accessible to all workers. Accessibility in the workplace must go beyond compliance; it should be rooted in respect and equity. Employers must actively work to eliminate physical, technological, and systemic barriers and create environments where all workers can contribute their skills and leadership.

Our union is proud of the work of the Workers with disAbilities Committees, whose leadership and advocacy have been instrumental in driving these conversations forward. Their work exemplifies the power of collective action in breaking down barriers and amplifying voices that have too often been sidelined.

This year, as we reflect on the theme of IDPD, we challenge ourselves and our communities to move beyond awareness and commit to tangible actions that support the leadership and participation of workers with disabilities. Only by doing so can we achieve an inclusive and sustainable future where no one is left behind.

Together, let’s continue building a union and a society that values and celebrates the contributions of all workers.

Every year in the lead up to the holiday season, countless Ontarians look forward to gathering with their family and friends to share food, presents, and good company. For those forced into poverty by work injury or illness and related disabilities, comfort and joy is not so easy to come by.

Decades of cuts to injured worker benefits through practices like ‘deeming’ (pretending an injured worker has a job that they cannot get, and cutting their benefits), massive denial rates (especially in psychological injuries and occupational illness), cuts to healthcare, and ignoring the diagnoses and advice of an injured worker’s actual treating doctors have left many permanently injured and ill workers in financial and emotional ruin. These practices have created massive surpluses for the WSIB. Heading into a potential spring election, injured workers had begun to wonder out loud if some of their decimated benefits would be restored with all of the extra money the Compensation Board brags about having in their bank.

Imagine the shock, when WSIB announced that instead of restoring decades of cuts to injured workers, they are simply handing $2.5 BILLION to the very employers who have left workers injured, ill, and fighting for claim approvals.

Join injured workers in communities across Ontario to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Injured and ill workers and allies will gather on December 9, 2024, to present the Minister of Labour with a clear list of what that money should and could be spent on to address the very basic needs of legitimately injured and ill workers first, before simply handing it over to employers.

Toronto Demonstration

What:            Join injured workers in Toronto as we rally & deliver our demands for 2025
When:           Monday, December 09, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. ET
Where:         Ministry of Labour, 400 University Avenue, Toronto, ON

 

Thunder Bay Demonstration

What:             Join injured workers in Thunder Bay as we rally & deliver our demands for 2025
When:            Monday, December 09, 2024, from 12:00 p.m. ET
Where:          MPP Kevin Holland’s Office – 774 James St. N., Thunder Bay, Ontario

 

Windsor Demonstration

What:             Join injured workers in Windsor as we rally & deliver our demands for 2025
When:           Monday, December 09, 2024, from 4:00 p.m ET
Where:          Windsor WSIB Office – 2485 Ouellette Ave, Windsor, Ontario

 

Study after study show that permanently injured and ill workers face poverty, stigma, and a cascading set of health effects that can cause people to lose their homes, their families, and the lives they once knew. Instead of addressing this known problem, the WSIB has chosen to make wealthy employers $2.5 billion wealthier as they head into 2025.

Please stand with the Unifor Health, Safety and Environment Department, the Ontario Regional Council Workers’ Compensation Benefits Committee, and injured and ill workers on December 9.

November 28, 2024

 

The 2024 Make Amazon Pay days of resistance will take place November 29 to December 3. Led by UNI Global Union, the event is a coordinated protest of Amazon’s anti-worker and anti-democratic business practices.

Unifor is encouraging members to take part in a social media action on Friday, November 29 to raise the profile of the united resistance to Amazon’s poor treatment of workers. On Friday, share some of these messages across your social media channels:

• From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, workers and allies across 30+ countries unite to say: Enough is enough. It’s time to #MakeAmazonPay. Join us in demanding fair wages, union rights, environmental responsibility, and tax justice!
• Amazon has spent untold millions trying to silence workers and crush unions. This Black Friday, workers across the globe are standing up. The fight for fair wages and safe working conditions will NOT be silenced. #MakeAmazonPay
• Amazon workers are organizing for better pay, safer workplaces, and union rights. From Germany to Bangladesh to Canada,  the fight is global. Today, we all stand together to #MakeAmazonPay.

Download the shareable graphic. 

Workers at Amazon facilities have taken courageous steps to form a union with Unifor at several locations in Canada. On November 29, you can support them and Make Amazon Pay!

November 25, 2024

 

November 25 starts the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) which ends on December 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. As a union, we have dedicated our activism to end GBV since the devastation of the Montreal Massacre which took the lives of 14 women at Ecole Polytechnique in Quebec, simply because they were women.

This day holds profound significance for us as all workers can commit to the fight against all forms of gender-based violence, both inside and outside of our workplaces.

For these 16 Days of Activism, Unifor is highlighting the power and resilience of sisters in the union who stand united with our allies in the fight against violence. Across Unifor workplaces, the union has bargained 628 union women who serve as Women’s Advocates to support our members in leaving abusive relationships. In the past year alone, Unifor members gained 113 newly bargained Advocates. It is clear the role is needed more than ever and is a strategic focus of bargaining committees across Unifor locals.

At the intersection of one or more identities, including women, Indigenous and racialized people, those with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, youth and newcomers, we know that rates of GBV are disproportionately higher. As reported by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, 2019, Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be murdered or missing than other women in Canada, and according to Statistics Canada, Indigenous women are far more likely to experience physical assault than non-Indigenous women. Unifor is actively advocating for the implementation of the 231 Calls for Justice to end violence against Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirited people.

Gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, devastates countless lives each year. It is beyond time for us to properly call it what it is: an epidemic.

Unifor has been pushing for legislation to do just that, and our union will continue this push in the year to come. Unifor National President Lana Payne is writing to Premiers of all provinces yet to recognise IPV as an epidemic, asking them to take the important step of making this declaration.

Unifor has been a part of recent success in Nova Scotia, where members helped push forward groundbreaking IPV epidemic legislation. The NDP introduced it, the conservative premier first rejected it then passed it that same day after speaking with Atlantic Regional Director Jennifer Murray and Unifor women in the legislature.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, Murray joined Atlantic Regional Council Women’s Committee and executive members to meet with government Ministers to stress the importance of declaring intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic in Newfoundland and Labrador. Unifor sent a message to Premier Furey that we expect action.

Although Ontario led the way with the introduction of Private Member’s Bill 173, An Act to Declare Intimate Partner Violence an Epidemic, the Bill is stalled out after Second Reading. In April 2024, Ontario Regional Council Director, Samia Hashi joined Unifor Women’s Director, Tracey Ramsey, ORC Women’s Committee members and staff at Queen’s Park for the second reading. More than 200 survivors, families of victims, service providers and advocates filled the galleries to send a clear message that workers want this legislation passed. More than 130 Unifor women met in Windsor on November 25 to plan for our next steps for this campaign. Join the call to action by sending Premier Ford a message today- It’s time to pass Bill 173.

In British Columbia, Unifor joined a coalition of advocates, experts and concerned service providers who support survivors of gender-based violence. Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle is supporting the efforts of the British Columbia Regional Council Chairperson, Women’s Committee members and liaison who have signed onto a letter from a broad-based Coalition to Premier Eby calling for a declaration of gender-based violence as an epidemic in the province.

In the Prairies, the PRC Chairperson, Women’s Committee members and liaisons are strategizing around how Unifor can push for the same declaration in Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Every region has been deeply impacted and is looking to bring IPV legislation to their province.

Ending gender-based violence requires relentless action. Unifor encourages all members to keep showing up, to speak out in their communities, to educate others, and to stand firmly beside every survivor. Unions demonstrate the power of collective action, and together, workers will continue to push for changes required to bring this epidemic to an end.

In preparation for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on December 6, members can download and print posters to display on bulletin boards, in lunchrooms, union offices and more.

Download digital copies of the poster and social media graphics. 

If you are interested in bargaining a Women’s Advocate, please reach out to women@unifor.org for support.

Why are we calling for IPV to be declared an epidemic and why does it matter? These declarations are essential to allocate resources, establish protections and prioritize safety. This work is just beginning and Unifor is a deeply committed partner that has always stood against violence of all forms.

Funding remains devastatingly low and inadequate to support those seeking to flee violent situations. Unifor is providing $175,000 in funding to 74 shelters across the country in December to help fill in the gaps. This funding adds to the work of our outstanding Local Union and Regional Women’s Committees who continue to fundraise to support frontline service providers. Shelters remain in dire need of core funding, and the union will continue to advocate for a fulsome government commitment as we lend support where desperately needed.

Unifor will continue to fight, to advocate, and to hold politicians accountable. Because every woman deserves to live and work in safety, and together, our union is determined to make it happen.

November 25, 2024

 

MONTREAL – Unifor members of Council 4000 and Local 100 at Canadian National Railway (CN Rail) have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action, with 96% of Local 100 members and 97% of Council 4000 members supporting the mandate, preparing to take action should an agreement not be reached by January 1, 2025.

“This overwhelming vote sends a clear message to CN that our members are united and prepared to take action to achieve the fair treatment and respect they deserve,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “Our members have had enough of concessions that erode their rights and livelihoods and they are standing strong to demand a contract that reflects their value and the critical role they play in CN’s success.”

The decisive vote underscores the frustration and determination of CN workers who have been advocating for job security, fair compensation and improved working conditions.

“CN has profited enormously from the dedication and hard work of our members,” said Quebec Director Daniel Cloutier. “Yet it continues to dismiss their most basic needs. Our members are sending a unified message that they expect the employer to show meaningful progress at the bargaining table.”

Negotiations with CN will resume in Montreal from November 25 to December 8.

Council 4000 represents over 3,300 workers in customer service, clerical roles and mechanical operations. Local 100 represents approximately 2,100 workers, including mechanics and heavy equipment operators. Both bargaining committees continue to stand firm in their demand for a fair collective.