Unifor Local 1996-O

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Toronto Health Care Rally

Health_Care_Rallies-Province-wide_poster

The Doug Ford government is planning to:

Cut Public Health funding & close 25 out of 35 local Public Health Units, reducing them to 10.

Close 49 out of 59 local ambulance services, reducing them to 10 & close 12 of 22 local dispatch centres.

Make real-dollar cuts to public hospital funding, even though we have the fewest hospital beds left per person of any province in Canada and a crisis of hospital overcrowding. More cuts mean more services & staff cuts, less services, longer waits, more privatization & higher death rates.

Make real dollar cuts to long-term care homes, forcing municipalities to either raise taxes or cut services for elderly & chronic care residents.

LET’S STAND TOGETHER AND INSIST THE FORD GOVERNMENT EXPAND NOT CUT OUR LOCAL HEALTH SERVICES.

NO PRIVATIZATION.
www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca

 

When

November 09, 2019 at 11:30am – 2:30pm

Where

Nathan Phillips Square
100 Queen St W
Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
Canada

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Ontario Day of Action calls for an end to Doug Ford’s Cuts

October 31, 2019 – 11:45 AM

Unifor members mobilized for a Day of Action as Doug Ford prepared to reconvene the Ontario legislature on October 28. Hundreds descended on Queen’s Park to protest the premier’s return from nearly five months of dodging public and media scrutiny throughout the federal election.

The Day of Action comes after Unifor members have been engaged in the Stop Ford Cuts campaign. The campaign continues to raise awareness of all the ways Doug Ford’s cuts have hurt families all across the province. His cuts are among the deepest in the province’s history. All told, Ford’s conservatives have cut the equivalent of $1,100 per person on everything from hospitals and schools to vital social and public services including water and food safety, and even vaccinations.

Ford has already undermined the province’s most vulnerable and precariously employed workers by cancelling dozens of planned improvements to the province’s labour legislation. He ended proactive workplace safety inspections, lowered fines for employers that violate the labour code, cancelled a fair minimum wage of $15 per hour, cut $16 million from the office responsible for preventing workplace deaths and injuries, and refuses to implement a regulation that would see employers that use temp agency workers held responsible for injuries and deaths on the job.

Millions of Ontarians are already feeling the effects of Ford’s cuts to social services and attacks on workers’ rights. He remains one of the least popular premiers in the country and voters resoundingly rejected conservative cuts in the recent federal election by defeating Andrew Scheer. However, with the resumption of the legislature Ford plans to enter the next phase of his attacks on the province’s workers.

In the wake of the federal election, workers across Ontario know they face their greatest challenge from Bill 124, a public sector wage freeze bill similar to those being introduced by conservative provincial governments all across Canada in a coordinated fashion.

The October 28 Day of Action demonstrated that workers will continue to mobilize and relentlessly pressure Ford’s conservatives to reverse course on his cuts to public services and plans to undermine workers’ rights.

Workers in Ontario also launched the Stop Ford Cuts campaign in September to fightback against the government’s conservative agenda. The campaign calls for an end to the government’s slashing of public services and municipal spending, and instead invest in public services that lift up all workers and ensure a brighter future for all.

The premier has been forced to backtrack on some of his planned cuts to autism programs, retroactive cuts to municipal funding, and more. With broad-based public support, and acts of solidarity like the October 28 Day of Action, workers across Ontario can win.

To learn more about the Stop Ford Cuts campaign visit stopfordcuts.ca

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Bell unit meetings across Quebec lay the groundwork for year of activism

Bell Meetings Quebec

Following a recent shift in activism in Unifor Bell Canada and Bell-affiliated workplaces, members in Quebec take campaign planning to the members.

Do you live in Quebec? Then the Bell Real Talk campaign is coming to a local union near you!

Unifor national representatives and Assistant to the Quebec Director, John Caluori, have already visited Unifor Locals 93,98, 77-Q, 79, and 176.

Meetings are well attended, open spaces where rank-and-file members voice concerns with their working conditions, with Bell’s business decisions, and are together, planning for a new year of heightened advocacy and campaigning.

“These meetings have proven the deep determination telecommunications members to stake out and defend decent working conditions in the face of a company that increasingly tosses its employees aside to maximize profits,” said Renaud Gagné, Unifor Quebec Director.

The Bell Real Talk campaign was launched in 2019, to unite all Bell workers facing the company’s attempts to erode good jobs, and leave current employees behind in the shift to new technology.

The effects of these tactics, paired with the deeply unfair Stacked Ranking performance management system has resulted in widespread mental health concerns for employees of Bell Canada.

Unifor represents members all across Bell’s corporate structure, from installation and technicians, to sales and clerical workers.

“Unifor members at Bell are living through a strategic attempts to chip away at their working conditions and a denial of the intense stress of the job. Bell’s intentions are no secret, it’s been stated as such by DEO George Cope and next in line Mirko Bibic,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “They may agree on this plan, but that doesn’t means that Unifor members will accept it.”

To support Bell workers, sign up for updates at Bellrealtalk.ca, or sign the petition to demand that Cope reverse the wholesale outsourcing of Wireless to the Home installations.

Visit

https://www.bellrealtalk.ca/

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Unifor reaches tentative agreement with SaskCrowns

sask11

REGINA—Unifor bargaining committees have signed tentative agreements with SaskEnergy, SaskPower, SaskTel, SaskWater, DirectWest, and SecureTek, ending a 17-day strike by nearly 5,000 workers across the province.

“Solidarity and the support from Unifor members at all six Crowns along with those who joined our picket lines from across the province were key to achieving this agreement,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “I want to thank Ian Davidson, President, Unifor Local 649, Dave Kuntz, President, Unifor Local 1-S, Penny Matheson, President, Unifor Local 2-S and Doug Lang, President, Unifor Local 820 for showing tremendous resolve and leadership to stand together and fight back against the regressive Moe government mandate to achieve a fair collective agreement.”

The details of the tentative agreements will be released following the ratification votes, which will be held this month.

Unifor members have been escalating strike action after the employers rejected the union’s offer to go to binding arbitration. On Saturday the Poplar River power plant in Coronach was behind reinforced picket lines that only granted access to essential services staff. Unifor members also picketed SaskTel dealers across the province asking customers to support locked out workers and take their business elsewhere.

“Unifor members proved that they are vital to their communities and the Saskatchewan economy,” said Chris MacDonald, Assistant to the National President.

“This was an historic and yet complicated round of bargaining and the bargaining committees will be recommending members ratify the tentative agreement reached today,” said Scott Doherty, Executive Assistant to the National President.

The members want to thank the public, and other unions and Unifor members across the country who showed support on picket lines in more than 80 locations.

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

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