BTS/Unifor Ratification meetings and Tentative Agreement Documents and Benefit booklet

Sisters and Brothers,

These meetings are scheduled for personal time not company time, evening meetings are for those working day shift. The morning meeting are for those scheduled afternoons, if you are scheduled to work on all the dates and times listed below reach out to the local.

Please see the below schedule for ratification meetings previously posted.

Don’t forget to download the 2 links below to view the agreement and benefits booklet

BTS Ontario Bargaining – Ratification meetings

BTS 2022 Bargaining Bulletin 8 May 19 ENG_Page_1

BTS 2022 Bargaining Bulletin 8 May 19 ENG_Page_2

To Join the BTS Zoom Ratification Meeting, please click the link below:

https://unifor.zoom.us/j/94409247394?pwd=b0hCNGpYbDF3YkNaVHVNNnFRN3o3UT09

Download or view the Tentative Agreement Highlights

Highlights – BTS 2022 Final for Ratification

Download and view the benefits booklet

BTS_Union_ONT_Benefits EN_with 65_80 ER paid

What is 5G, and why is Canada banning Huawei from its telecom networks?

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/huawei-5g-explainer-1.6461391

The federal government is banning China’s Huawei Technologies from involvement in Canada’s 5G wireless network. Here’s a primer on what led up to this decision and what you need to know about this next-generation wireless technology:

What is 5G?

5G technology gives Canadians faster phone and internet connections and provides vast data capacity amid growth in innovations and increased demand.

The technology that supports the network has been redesigned from previous generations. 5G relies on multiple antennas to move signals around, bouncing them quickly between locations. Phone users aren’t going to notice the boost in speed if they’re making a call, surfing the internet or using an online app because the difference is about 100 milliseconds, but that difference is noticeable at a larger scale.

The antennas are also smaller and can be placed in more locations like buildings or street lights. Rogers Communications Inc., Bell Canada parent BCE Inc., and Telus Corp. have been expanding their 5G networks over the past few years, beginning in major cities.

 

Read more click the source link above

Unifor Personal Support Worker Day Statement 2022

In celebration of Personal Support Worker Day on May 19, 2022 Unifor salutes the contributions of the thousands of Unifor members who work as Personal Support Workers (PSWs) in Ontario, and Continuing Care Assistants (CCAs) in Nova Scotia.

PSW’s and CCAs have been on the front lines putting themselves in danger ever day by providing care for others during this unprecedented pandemic. In many health care facilities, PSW’s have been the backbone, providing care throughout the pandemic. There were thousands of PSW’s and CCA’s who contracted this disease as they worked through an unimaginable humanitarian crisis, especially in the long-term care sector.

“These workers deserve better as they continue to serve our most vulnerable, despite being overworked and undervalued by governments and employers,” said Katha Fortier, Assistant to Unifor National President and lead health care negotiator. “The conditions of work and the conditions of care are intertwined and this pandemic has further exposed the shameful working and living conditions that still continue every day due to insufficient government funding.”

PSWs and CCAs are incredible caregivers who try to make sure our loved ones are healthy and safe. This pandemic has further exposed the unjust working conditions these workers face every day due to insufficient government investment and continuous cost-cutting.

“Currently it’s a 4 hour target and  the health and safety of residents and workers are on the line it is inhumane not to provide the resources needed to provide care with respect and dignity for our seniors,” said Andy Savela, Unifor Health Care Director.

Unifor continues to call on provincial governments to implement a mandated, enforceable and measurable 4 hour minimum care standard.

Building community by ensuring streaming services don’t continue to get a free ride

First published in the National Post on May 17, 2022

Whenever I see old friends, the same thing happens. After the hugs and handshakes, or maybe elbow bumps, we get down to the real business of reconnecting. We start catching up — recounting the stories of our lives since the last time we were together, sharing news about our families and the latest on what’s happening in our communities.

We share photos, sometimes videos. We find common ground. And occasionally we disagree, as friends sometimes do. Through it all, however, our ties are strengthened and our connections grow. All communities need this. It’s how communities are built.

As a country, that community is built largely by the stories we tell in TV shows and movies, and through the stories told in local and national news broadcasts. Yet that is increasingly threatened, as streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon drown out Canadian broadcasters, without paying their fair share for the development of Canadian stories.

Building a national community was the inspiration behind the Broadcasting Act back in 1936. Canada was big and growing, and its people were moving around to find work in unprecedented ways. New technologies, such as radio and cinema, were taking off, telling the stories that held our communities together as much as they informed and entertained us.

Yet Canada’s fledgling broadcast industry was being overwhelmed by much-larger American interests, and subsequent versions of the Broadcasting Act tried to re-balance the scale. The same happened as the act was updated over the years to recognize even newer technologies such as television, where I built my career with CTV.

Today, another wildly overdue update to the act is needed to protect Canadian content from being drowned out by new foreign streaming services. These streaming services were able to breeze their way onto our screens while being completely exempt from regulation under the Broadcasting Act, simply because they are transmitted over the internet instead of over the air or through cable.

It’s a difference without meaning, and it is undermining the ability of Canadians to see and hear the Canadian stories that tie us together as a nation.

The trucker convoy, the rise of the right, the vitriol we see every day on social media, have shown us what happens when we fail to build community and allow our differences to define us. When we stop talking and listening to each other, we stop being a community. We need to fix this, and with a few small tweaks to Bill C-11, we could take some of the steps needed to do just that.

Bill C-11, which replaces the old Bill C-10 that was introduced in the previous Parliament, is heading to committee — the next step in becoming law and fulfilling a promise of the Liberal government to address the inequities threatening Canadian broadcast media.

The bill would remove the exemption for streaming services. This would re-balance the scales in the face of a new technology, and is long overdue. User-generated content shared on social media is not covered by the bill.

By being included in the Broadcasting Act, streaming services will finally be put on a level playing field with traditional Canadian broadcasters, and forced to contribute to Canadian content. Until now, they have been given a free ride — able to compete directly with Canadian broadcasters, without having to pay their fair share to support the industry in this country or to support the news media sector, as traditional broadcasters must do.

Bringing these giant streamers into the regulatory system will bring new money and new support for Canadian content and Canadian creators, but it’s missing one thing: support for local news.

Local news is on life support in this country. We saw a 23 per cent drop in television jobs between 2014 and 2020, and the impact is seen in the diminished local news coverage across the country. Bringing streamers into the Broadcasting Act can help to address this decline.

In 2009, the CRTC created a news fund to help support local news, as the business model for broadcasters was changing. That was good, but five years later, a new CRTC commissioner eliminated the fund, throwing local news into crisis.

Amending Bill C-11 to include a similar fund to support local news and local reporters, partially paid for by the Big Tech companies that now dominate the television market, would offer the stable solution this country needs. Then we can get back to re-building our communities by telling Canadian stories.

Randy Kitt is the director of media at Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union.

LOCAL 1996-O EXECUTIVE ELECTIONS 2022

Sisters and Brothers:
As per our National Constitution and the decision by the National Union dated March 17, 2015, whereby changing 1996-O Executive election dates to be held no later than July 31 in any given election year.
In light of this National Union decision, Nomination forms are now open from May 24 2022 – May 31 2022 17:00hrs.

Please download Nomination Form Executive Officer 2022  here and follow the instructions provided in the fine print on the form. Please also visit the union boards for nomination forms.

 

In Solidarity,

Local 1996-O