Unifor Local 1996-O

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Public support for My Crowns campaign continues to grow

The public support for the My Crowns continues to win the hearts and minds of the people of Saskatchewan.

In a recent online poll by the Regina Leader-Post, more than 80% of respondents said they support striking Crown workers (more than 3,700 people voted).

This result comes on the heels of a more scientific poll conducted for Unifor by AngusReid that showed 89% of respondents in Saskatchewan believe workers should get wage increases of at least inflation.

These figures should be no surprise: Crown workers are extremely valuable to the Saskatchewan economy and make important contributions in every community across the province.  The crowns generated over 400 million dollars to the Government of Saskatchewan.

This has been our message from day one. Crown workers deserve better than zeros and good crown jobs should remain in the province not be shipped elsewhere. We have taken this message to the people of Saskatchewan, and it is  paying off.

We made every attempt at the bargaining table with a callous government, so now Unifor is all in on a strike to demonstrate our commitment to fairness.

Here’s what “all in” has looked like so far, with much more to come:

  • Opinion polling and graphics for sharing online
  • 22 Videos since October 3, 2019 with more than 1.2 million views
  • Newspaper advertisements
  • Billboards
  • Bus ads
  • Radio ads
  • Twitter ads
  • Facebook ads
  • Television ads
  • Media conferences
  • Social media shareables
  • Visits from the National President
  • Two rallies, including a massive show of force at Queensbury
  • Unprecedented shut-downs of SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy and DirectWest  locations
  • Daily media coverage (more than 500 media hits in past three months)
  • Solidarity meetings with other unions
  • Editorials in the newspaper
  • Campaign-branded t-shirts, hats, buttons, and more
  • On social media, we have more than 3 million impressions

It is clear that we are winning the battle for the hearts and minds of our communities.  We cannot and will not rest on our accomplishments. Unifor will continue to organize mass actions until an agreement is reached.

There is no predicting when this dispute will be over, but the pressure we’re putting on the Moe Government is increasing and the polling above shows that our message is sinking in.

For more information, visit www.myCrowns.ca

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Ford Nation under community occupation

October 16, 2019

TORONTO—Today labour activists from across Ontario occupied Doug Ford’s office to demand action from the provincial government to prevent workplace death and injuries at Fiera Foods.

“Desperate times call for extreme measures and the situation at Fiera Foods is certainly desperate,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “We are calling on the Doug Ford government to protect precarious workers like those at Fiera Foods and we won’t take silence as an answer.”

Unifor is joining an occupation of the Doug Ford’s constituency office led by the Workers’ Action Centre and Jane Finch Action Against Poverty. The action comes after the tragic deaths of Amina Diaby in 2017 and Enrico Miranda last month at Fiera Foods in Toronto. A solidarity rally was also held on October 2 where community organizations and labour unions expressed outrage at the lack of government response to the conditions at the factory.

“Two workers have died on Premier Doug Ford’s watch at Fiera Foods and they may very well still be alive today if his government had acted to prevent their deaths,” said Naureen Rizvi, Unifor Ontario Director. “We have no choice but to escalate the situation to draw out the Premier from wherever he is currently hiding.”

In 2018, the previous Liberal government amended the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act to allow regulations to be introduced that would make employers such as Fiera Foods responsible for workplace injuries and deaths when employing temporary employment agency workers. To date no regulations have been introduced since Doug Ford came to power. The organizations occupying Doug Ford’s constituency office are jointly calling on the government to enact such a regulation.

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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Canada celebrates Persons Day

Staement

Each October 18, Canada celebrates Persons Day. This year marks 70 years since women were declared persons under the constitution and some women gained the right to be appointed to public office including the Senate of Canada.

Although women’s participation in political life has grown since then, Canada continues to lag behind most OECD countries for number of women in parliament. This exclusion of women in decision-making positions has an impact on women’s equality.

We must continue to campaign for the rights of women in society and reject the attacks on longstanding wins that women and other equity-seeking groups have gained in this country. Critical issues such as reproductive rights, child care programs, pay equity and paid domestic violence leave risk being rolled back through the rise of conservative governments. Using the lens of intersectionality, we can see that loss of these rights can compound barriers for women of colour, indigenous women, trans women and women with disabilities.

Unifor is hard at work mobilizing our members to ensure that we continue to see progress for women and other equity-seeking groups and continue to build on the gains of the last 70 years.

The legal inclusion of women as persons is an empty victory if it does not come with the structural framework needed to achieve equity. Electing progressive governments is key to this goal.

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Action required to support Workers at Fiera Foods

NR

Dear members,

You may have heard the tragic news that a worker, Enrico Miranda, a husband and father of two children, was killed while working at the Toronto industrial bakery Fiera Foods. This is the fifth such death of a temp agency worker at Fiera Foods and its affiliated companies since 1999.

Fiera Foods primarily employs temp agency workers who are among the most vulnerable and precariously employed in the country.

On October 2, Unifor and several other labour unions and community groups mobilized to hold a solidarity action to demand justice for Enrico Miranda and the four other workers killed at Fiera Foods properties. Management cancelled the shifts to prevent workers and the community from coming together in solidarity. It is unclear whether the employer will pay these workers for the cancelled shifts.

I am requesting that all members across Ontario send out messages today over social media to Fiera Foods, Minister McNaughton, and Doug Ford. Please use the sample tweets below to express your own outrage.

@Fordnation @MonteMcNaughton #FieraFoods Management cancelled shifts so workers could not bear witness to community outrage. They deserve to be paid and management should face criminal charges in the death of the workers. Kill a worker. Go to jail! #canlab #onpoli

#FieraFoods must pay workers for shifts cancelled during the protest to call for #JusticeforEnrico – the 5th worker to lose his life at Fiera @fordnation @MonteMcNaughton

In solidarity,

Naureen Rizvi
Ontario Director

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