Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is an epidemic. Tell your provincial representative to immediately declare Intimate Partner Violence an Epidemic.

After decades of activism, the fight against intimate partner violence is gaining momentum and we need your support to continue moving this fight forward.

Declaring IPV an epidemic is important because it: 

• Highlights how widespread intimate partner violence is
• Addresses the health and social impacts including physical injuries, mental health issues, substance abuse, and even death
• Allows our healthcare systems and other organizations to dedicate more funding, research and social services to ending violence
• Increases public awareness
• Fights stigma
• Gives public services the mandate to build up prevention tools, not just crisis response

A  bill to declare IPV an epidemic was introduced in the Nova Scotia legislature on September 12, 2024 and, with the support of Unifor, it was passed immediately and unanimously.

New Brunswick passed a unanimous motion on June 5, 2025, two days after Unifor hosted an IPV Symposium with frontline service providers.

That same day, the Ontario NDP re-introduced legislation to declare IPV an epidemic — but your support is needed to move it through the legislative process.

In British Columbia We’ve joined a coalition calling the on BC government to declare Gender-Based Violence an epidemic. Sign the BC petition here.

All provinces can and must declare IPV an epidemic.

Please take a moment now to tell your provincial representative to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic!

TORONTO– Unifor is encouraged by new federal government support measures for the forestry and steel industries, both of which have been hard-hit by the ongoing U.S. trade war.

“Our forestry and steel communities have been pushed to the brink by the trade war. These new measures are a welcome step, but they must translate into immediate supports that stabilize jobs today while preparing our industries for the future,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “Building with Canadian lumber and steel is how we protect jobs, strengthen our economy, and push back against unfair U.S. trade tactics.”

Funding to expand the use of Canadian softwood lumber in housing, and prioritizing projects that can begin within 12 months, will sustain forestry jobs while also contributing to solutions to the affordable housing crisis.

The union welcomes the increase to the Work-Sharing replacement rate as an important start but calls for the measure to be extended to broader Employment Insurance reforms by increasing the income replacement rate to 75%, raising the ceiling on insurable earnings, and eliminating harsh disqualification rules.

Unifor expects the newly announced Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force to include labour representation to advocate for worker-forward policies that protect good, unionized jobs and help grow the sector by seizing new opportunities.

“The creation of a forestry sector transformation task force and enhanced Work-Sharing income replacement are both measures that Unifor has long sought to support forestry workers across Quebec and Canada, from pulp mills to homebuilding,” said Unifor Quebec Director Daniel Cloutier. ”Unifor will keep pushing for every tool needed to defend good jobs and build a more sustainable forestry sector.”

Unifor supports the implementation of a Buy Canadian Policy but calls for a lower threshold to more effectively support jobs across multiple industries and reiterates the need to develop industrial strategies for all sectors under attack. The union also urges corporate Canada to step up and show real patriotism by investing in and supporting Canadian jobs.

The reduction of freight rates to move steel and lumber across the country will further strengthen domestic supply chains by making it more affordable to utilize rail and expand east-west trade. Canada must build a cost-effective transport system that also supports the workers who move our goods, affordability can never come at the expense of workers through suppression of wages or undermining safety.

In the steel sector, the union applauds added protections, including reduced tariff-rate quota levels, stronger border measures to prevent foreign steel dumping, and a global 25% tariff on imported derivative products, all essential to protecting downstream manufacturing jobs.

“Tightening quotas and enforcing tougher penalties are needed actions to make clear that our steel sector is not up for grabs,” said Payne. “Unifor members stand united in this fight. If the U.S. wants to keep escalating this trade war, then Canada must be prepared to respond just as forcefully to safeguard our jobs, our resources, and our industries.”

The Honourable Steven MacKinnon, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Transport

The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Finance

Ministers,

I write to you today on behalf of Unifor’s 320,000 members across Canada, including 17,000 in the air transportation sector. Unifor members in air transportation work in baggage handling, customer service, aircraft maintenance, piloting, airport operations, air navigation services and air traffic control.  As a voice for working people, we advocate for policies that protect jobs, improve working conditions, and strengthen the air transportation industry.

Unifor opposes the privatization of airports in Canada.

We also oppose any policy that encourages airport authorities to further pursue subleases, subcontracts, and subsidiaries to invite private investors and pension fund ownership. Our view is that these financialization programs, as well as others, will simply provide monopoly rent-seeking opportunities without creating value for the public or the commercial interests using the airport.

Millions of Canadians travel through airports in this country. They do so for work, to visit family, vacations, and  other activities that require travel. We strongly believe that airports should operate for the interests of those who rely on affordable air transport, not of shareholders.

If there is a desire to support increased pension fund investment in Canada, policy should support investment in industrial production not simply through gifting of public goods.

Our members understand from direct experience that the privatization of public infrastructure poses a threat to their livelihoods and the resiliency of that infrastructure.

A policy of privatization will jeopardize the stable, unionized employment that forms the foundation of our safe and efficient aviation sector. Private operators, including pension funds, will inevitably seek to increase their profits at the expense of the public and workers. Downward pressure on wages, the erosion of job security, and a reduction in health and safety standards for the lowest paid workers will be the result.

Privatization of these assets does not create new value, instead it establishes what amounts to a shadow tax on Canadians, subsidizing the profits of investors through fees or substandard service.

There are many examples around the world of the consequences of airport privatization. In the United Kingdom it has led to escalating fees for consumers with the regulators forced to undo fee increases after public outcry and a degradation of service quality.

Instead of strengthening our national transport system, this policy will result in a further erosion of public control and Canadian sovereignty over our most critical infrastructure.

Canada’s airports are vital economic hubs and public assets. They require public investment and democratic stewardship, not divestment to private interests.

We call on the government to reject this policy. We urge you, instead, to engage with unions and municipalities to develop a strategy for investing in our public airports for the benefit of all Canadians.

We request a meeting with you and/or your office, and are always available, to discuss this matter further.

Sincerely,

Lana Payne
National President, Unifor 

Unifor Québec members, supported by a large delegation of Unifor members from Ontario, gathered in Montréal on November 29 as part of a major inter-union rally that brought together more than 50,000 people to denounce the attacks by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) on union rights and democracy, notably through Bill 3.

Bill 3, introduced by the CAQ government, seeks to directly interfere in the internal operations of unions by imposing new, costly administrative and financial requirements. Beyond the financial burden, the bill gives the state an unprecedented level of oversight into how unions are managed, how they allocate their resources and how they organize their activities. It forces unions to dedicate time and energy to red tape instead of defending members, undermines internal union democracy by second-guessing decisions made by elected leadership, and opens the door to political interference in the life of workers’ organizations. In practice, Bill 3 diverts millions of dollars in union dues to accounting firms, weakens unions’ independence and seeks to restrict their ability to organize and intervene in the public arena.

“The CAQ is waging a full-scale offensive against unions, public services and democratic counter-powers,” said Daniel Cloutier, Unifor Québec Director. “With Bill 3, the government is trying to directly interfere in how unions operate. Québec is a unionized society that won its rights through solidarity and collective struggles. What we are defending today is not just a contract or a single law: it is the very idea that workers have the right to organize, to challenge and to fully participate in democratic life.”

For Unifor, the fight underway in Québec goes far beyond the province’s borders.

“The CAQ’s assault is an attack on the strongest democratic force working people have. Let me be clear: if any government thinks it can dismantle trade union rights and silence workers, they will have to come through us,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “Unifor stands ready to defend our trade union rights, our members, and our union from this egregious Bill.”

The broad inter-union front that took to the streets of Montréal shows that, beyond affiliations, Québec’s labour movement is united in defending freedom of association, union autonomy and the right of workers’ organizations to determine their own structures and operations.

Unifor thanks everyone who took part in the inter-union rally, as well as the members who travelled long distances to be there. The union reaffirms its determination to fight Bill 3 and all of the CAQ’s measures that restrict union action and weaken democracy in Québec and across the country.