August 22, 2020

ST. JOHN’S– Unifor Local 597 members at Dominion grocery stores across Newfoundland will begin strike action at 10:01 p.m. Saturday August 22, 2020.

“Our Dominion members do not take this decision lightly. They would much rather be serving their communities but as frontline workers they felt they could not accept the contract put forth by the company,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias.

The workers, who have been without a contract since October 2019, voted to overwhelmingly reject the contract offer from Dominion’s parent company Loblaw Companies Limited.

“There were gains in some areas but in the end the monetary offer fell short, last month Dominion clawed back two dollars an hour pandemic pay from their workers then offered just half of that back over the entire life of the three-year contract,” said Dias.

In 2019, Dominion eliminated more than 60 full-time positions at Newfoundland stores. Currently more than 80 % of the workers are part-time, with low pay and limited access to benefits, and have not received a pay raise since the spring of 2018.

“These are the very workers who supported us all during this pandemic and I hope that the public will support them now,” said Unifor Local 597 President Carolyn Wrice.

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector and represents 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.

TORONTO—An expert report released today by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters paints a grim future for Canadian democracy, predicting more newsrooms to close as broadcasters bleed revenue to foreign giants such as Facebook, Netflix and Google.

“The COVID-recession is poised to kill off more media jobs at TV and radio stations, and it’s time for urgent action by the federal government, which we have been saying for years,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “Our newspapers are already in a downward spiral, so the question is who is going to be left watching the politicians and the powerful to preserve our democracy.”

The detailed report prepared by respected media expert Ken Goldstein found the COVID crisis may vapourize $1 billion in broadcasters’ expected ad revenue in the next two years. He projects the continuation of massive business losses leading to closures of radio and TV stations across the country. Rural stations and independently owned news organizations are especially at risk according to the report. Radio stations have experienced revenue drops of 63% while television ad revenue is down 44% as advertisers conserve cash due to the pandemic.

“COVID has sped up the unravelling of media’s business model, thanks to Google and Facebook sucking ad dollars out of Canada,” said Dias. “Just in television local news, we’ve seen a 23 per cent decline in editorial and operations jobs since 2014. The numbers in print journalism are worse, more like 44 per cent.”

The key insight of the report is not only that small independent stations are in peril, but radio and TV outlets owned by big media companies like Bell, Rogers, Quebecor and Corus are losing their ability to transfer profits from sports and entertainment programming to cover losses in their perennially unprofitable news operations that Canadians rely on, especially during a pandemic. Western and Atlantic provinces are home to the greatest number of unprofitable TV stations which makes them vulnerable, and more at risk of closing predicts the report.

Dias is again calling for the federal government to deliver short-term financial relief to Canadian media outlets, and long-term solutions to stop the erosion of the advertising revenues that pay the bills to fund local journalism.

“The place to start for the federal government is by implementing the recommendations of the report of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Reform committee tabled last January,” said Dias.

The report calls for sweeping reform, and companies like Netflix would have to invest in Canadian content.

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.

August 19, 2020

 

TO: ALL BTS LOCALS AND NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES

 

 

Brothers and Sisters,

 

Re: BTS BULLETIN

 

As you all are aware we have been met with many challenges this year with our employer. The COVID-19 World Pandemic and its impact to the workload has been amongst the more notable problems. Across Ontario we have seen our members experience a significant loss of work due to the workload falling short of the regular forecast adding unforeseen financial stress for many. As a result of the low workload volume, members who would have normally been banking  hours in their TGP banks to use when we slow in the winter have had very little opportunity to do that this year. Overtime as we know has been in short supply and not nearly as abundant as in past years and as such, the current average for TGP banked hours is around 6 days or less. The positive side to that if any is that we have not experienced the forcing of unwanted overtime around Ontario either.

 

In discussions with the Employer we have been told that the expected forecast beyond the Student Inward season will be lower than earlier anticipated, and as such we recognize that this will be a big concern for the RPT members in the province should the hours drop to the minimum guarantee under article 16.04 e) ii for the period October 15th 2020 to May 15th 2021 of only 2 days per pay period.

 

As we go forward entering in to what should be one of our busiest periods of the year, we felt that the membership should be aware of the projected realities of the load beyond the Student Inward. We also suggest that members may want to take the opportunity to work all the hours they can get, including the overtime hours while they are available since by all indicators we are setting up for a slow winter. Ultimately this is a decision that each person will make based on their own situations. As a committee we felt that providing the information to allow members  to make informed decisions was required.

 

We would also remind you that in March of this year an Averaging of Hours Agreement with the Employer was signed to allow members to work beyond the Canada Labour Code limit of 48 hours per week. This will allow employees to work much more overtime now while it’s available than they would be permitted to with this agreement in place. Having said that, please remember that only you can choose to work beyond 48 hours in a week, the employer cannot force, compel or pressure you into working beyond. Only you can make that choice.

Please share this information with all your membership in your Locals.

 

In Solidarity,

Your Bargaining Committee

c.c.       Chris MacDonald

August 19, 2020

 

TO: ALL BTS LOCALS AND NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES

 

 

Brothers and Sisters,

 

RE: STUDENT HOURS

 

On our last provincial update call held on July 30th 2020, we explained a number of issues we were having with the Company regarding students receiving hours of work that they were not entitled to work under the terms of the Collective Agreement. Additionally, we are aware now that a number of students have graduated since April of this year and will continue into December, some of which have now become RPT employees via the recent postings around Ontario.

 

We continue to discuss the issue of what was done and our view that damages should be paid  to RPT employees in the province where this has happened. The Company is currently reviewing what we have put forward to them and have not yet came back with a final position. We asked on the call that those Locals who have students, look within your respective Locals to identify if this happened and to quantify any potential damages your members would be looking at.

 

Having said that, it appears to the Committee that the Employer is stalling out discussions with the Union as a potential delay tactic and as such we suggest that the Locals who have identify grievable issues in relation to the student hours to proceed with the filing of these grievances.

 

When the Company has gotten back to us and discussions have concluded we will advise you of their final position.

 

In Solidarity,

Your Bargaining Committee

 

c.c.       Chris MacDonald