April 30, 2020

REGINA—Pressure is growing for Premier Scott Moe to end the Co-op Refinery lockout with binding arbitration after the Regina City Council endorsed the idea today by a near unanimous vote of 9-1.

“City councillors out-flanked the mayor to show real leadership with this extraordinary endorsement of binding arbitration,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “After Co-op snubbed the province’s mediators, a legislated solution is the best path to ending the lockout.”

Moved by councillor Andrew Stevens, the motion calls on the provincial government to seek binding arbitration to end the 147-day lockout at the Co-op Refinery. The refinery attempted to impose a final offer on Unifor Local 594 but workers voted 89 per cent against the contract. The union has already ratified the compromise proposed by two independent mediators in March 2020.

“Premier Moe’s appointment of mediators was a welcome step, but now we need the premier to follow through and impose the compromises proposed by the mediators,” said Kevin Bittman, president of Unifor Local 594.

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.

 

In temporarily replacing regular Employment Insurance benefits, the new Canada Emergency Response Benefit has provided needed support to millions, in a short amount of time.

However, the CERB has a glaring loophole that is short-changing workers from receiving additional income assistance from their employers.

Hundreds of thousands of workers in Canada have access to Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) payments when they are on layoff. These special, employer-paid benefit “top-ups” can provide hundreds of dollars, per week, to offset a worker’s loss of income.

Unlike regular EI, the CERB rules deny workers these SUB payments that many have won at the bargaining table.

There is a simple fix to this problem that Unifor already proposed in a letter to Minister Qualtrough. In order to ensure this change is made before members are denied the CERB, all affected workers must add their voices.

 

Sign The Petition…add your voice!!

Unifor members at General Motors in Oshawa are proud to be recalled from layoff to begin manufacturing urgently needed masks for health care professionals and for Canadians.

On Friday April 24, 2020, Navdeep Bains, the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry announced that General Motors had signed a letter of intent to retool part of the Oshawa Assembly plant to make fabric masks for Health Canada.

“Unifor members in Oshawa are highly skilled and ready to step up and make whatever our country needs to get through this pandemic,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “The fact that Unifor members will help GM produce as many as a million fabric masks per month is an example of what we can do when we work together.”

General Motors says work will involve two shifts of 25 each for a total of 50 workers and is expected to last one year.

“Our plant in Oshawa is a “clean” facility and makes perfect sense for it to be licensed as a medical manufacturer. We welcome more opportunities to use even more parts of the facility to help battle this pandemic,” said Colin James, President of Unifor Local 222.

The work is expected to begin in mid-May once a machine designed by General Motors is installed in Oshawa. Production of fabric masks for health care workers is already underway at GM’s facility in Warren, Michigan.

“I applaud all of the companies who have retooled to assist in these efforts to strengthen our domestic supply chain challenge. Together we are rising to the challenge,” said Bains during Friday’s news conference in Oshawa.

“Many people at GM, the federal government and our union worked very hard to obtain the speedy approvals needed to get this project rolling,” said Dias.

General Motors says it will be selling the masks to the federal government at cost.

Since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, Canada and the rest of the world has been responding to what will surely be remembered as the biggest health, social and economic crisis of our time. Providing a robust social system that includes universal access to health care is critically essential for Canada to succeed in a global economy.

However, Canada remains the only developed country with a universal health care system that has no universal prescription drug coverage.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 8 million Canadians did not have prescription drug coverage and an estimated 3 million Canadians did not take medicines prescribed by their doctors because they couldn’t afford them. In a matter of weeks, millions of Canadians have been laid off with few of them having any health care benefits to carry them through this crisis.

The time to act is now – together we need to demand universal pharmacare for everyone, regardless of income, age, or where the person works or lives.

 

Sign the petition here….

1996-O Sisters and Brothers,

 

As we continue to move through these unprecedented times, it’s important that you are kept updated on information to ensure your Health and Safety in these difficult times. President Lee Zommers as well as the rest of the Executive continues to monitor new policies from the company as well as our National Union. We are engaged in Health and safety conference calls weekly and we are providing support for our incredible health and Safety reps as well as our Co-chairs. These members have worked so diligently to ensure you remain healthy and safe at work. We are updating our social media outlets constantly including our website, Local Facebook and our new mental health; Listen up Facebook page as well as twitter. These links are located at the bottom of this email. Please visit them often.

 

It is of course understandable and very normal to be concerned and at times, you may feel overwhelmed but we all need to believe that this will end in time and life will again show normality. We are in this together!

 

We are social beings and as such, social distancing can be difficult but it is nevertheless necessary for us to remain healthy and we ask you to continue following governmental guidelines with regards to this.

 

Our members are true heroes every day in what we do. We keep our customers connected. At the end of the day you should all go home to your families with your head held very high knowing this important fact.

 

We have been engaged in our 1996-O COVID Hero campaign. On all our social media outlets, we have been featuring selfie pics of you, our 1996-O heroes. If you would like to be part of this campaign, please reply to this email with your selfie at home or at work. We want to show the country our true Heroes. These selfies will only be used once and for this purpose only. Please join the dozens of members who have already submitted theirs and send yours today.

 

Friends, although it is very difficult for the Executive to do normal visibility at our work centres and our planned BBQ’s at the moment, it is essential that you know that we are here whenever you need us. This is our continued commitment to you. We are a phone call or email away when you need us.

 

If you having difficulty with any Mental health issue, Brian Lowery, the trained local Mental health advocate and elected member of the UNIFOR ORC Health, safety and environmental committee can be reached confidentially at any time at  welistenup1996@gmail.com

  We Listen Up

We sincerely hope your families are healthy and we are confident that with this increased time with them, you will all remain strong.

In Solidarity,

Lee,  Brian,  Sanjay, Chris

Executive
Local 1996-O