Unifor salutes the exceptional courage and compassion of all paramedics on Paramedic Services Week, recognized from May 24 to May 30, 2020.

“Paramedics, as emergency medical services (EMS) personnel, bring tremendous dedication, skill, care and compassion to their jobs as first responders,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “The pandemic has shown us the courage of first responders who often perform their work in dangerous conditions, making them true heroes in our public health care system. I am very proud to stand with the EMS workers represented by our union.”

While Unifor celebrates the vital work of EMS members, the union must also sound an alarm. Last year in Ontario, the Ford government launched a direct assault on public services including EMS.

“These cuts made no sense then nor now. Doug Ford has quickly changed his tune now by thanking paramedics for their hard work, but has yet to introduce or amend legislation to better improve the working conditions of paramedics,” said Dias.

Currently, there are dangerously slow response times in rural areas due to long travel distances and cuts to funding. Urban areas also face and inadequate numbers of ambulances available due to crisis-level hospital overcrowding and paramedics continue to be stuck in long offload delays.

Unifor stands in unity and respect during Paramedic Services Week with all paramedics and remains committed to ensuring fair and equitable terms and conditions of employment in recognition of not only their care and compassion, but also the tremendous courage and dedication, skill and commitment in their service to the health of Canadians.

Download and share the Paramedic Services Week 2020 shareables and join us in thanking all Paramedics for their compassion, humanity and life-saving work in our communities.

Click here to download shareable 1

Click here to download shareable 2

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!!