by

The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Statement on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

November 25 starts a global campaign of 16 Days of Activism for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This year’s theme is Unite: Activism to End Violence Against Women. In the spirit of unity, Unifor is raising awareness among the membership about the Signal for Help, which began in 2020 as a way for women to silently show they need help and want someone to safely check in with them.

Over the next 16 days, we ask you to commit this signal to memory and teach it to 16 other people. This small action can lead to more women feeling comfortable asking for help, and help us all learn what resources are available to support women in unsafe situations.

Across Canada on December 6, 2022 we mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It has now been 33 years since the tragic murders of 14 young women at L’Université de Montréal’s École Polytechnique. These women lost their bright lives and futures in the span of 20 minutes at the hand of someone who openly declared his misogyny. We also mourn Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and all who have lost their lives to femicide and violence.

This year we will return to in-person vigils and memorials to remember the women and girls we have lost and recommit ourselves to the fight to end gender-based violence.

Everyone, regardless of sex or gender, is called to speak up and speak out in a meaningful way against violence. Allyship is essential. Men must equally take a role alongside women in the labour movement to stop harassment when they see it and build safe workplaces and communities for all.

As a union, we make workplaces safe through collective bargaining language, and we must continue to push for better. One of the concrete ways we can take action at the bargaining table is to bargain new Women’s Advocates. Women’s Advocates are one of the support systems Unifor has pioneered to ensure there is someone to turn to at work when home is not safe.

The pandemic and ongoing health crises have only intensified the impacts of violence against women and girls.

  • 45% of women reported that they or a woman they know has experienced a form of violence.
  • 7 in 10 women said they think that verbal or physical abuse by a partner has become more common.
  • 6 in 10 felt that sexual harassment in public spaces has worsened.
  • Globally, 1 in 3 women experience violence with the most recent global estimates showing that, on average, a woman or girl is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes.

As we witness a rise in anti-rights movements, including anti-feminists, we must speak up and speak out against the dangerous rhetoric that is impacting our lives.

As Unifor members and leaders, we heed the call to increase our activism to ensure feminist voices are at every table influencing policy decisions that impact our lives.

Together we will continue to push for safe workplaces and homes for all women and girls.

Learn more at unifor.org/women and canadianwomen.org/signal-for-help.

Read this statement on our website here.

by

Court strikes down Ontario’s wage suppressing Bill 124

Ontario Superior Court finds Bill 124 unconstitutionally removed workers’ rights

 

 

TORONTO – Unifor celebrates today’s decision by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, which ruled that Premier Ford’s Bill 124 unduly infringes on workers’ rights.

“Today’s decision is a victory for not only public sector workers and unions across Ontario, but also for every Ontarian who relies on our public services,” Lana Payne, Unifor National President. “For the past four years, workers fought back against this wage suppression bill through direct action, lobbying, and sharing personal experiences. When workers organize for justice, we can win.”

The union urges Premier Ford to respect this decision and the Charter and make up for the wrongs of Bill 124, instead of choosing to appeal the decision of the Superior Court of Justice.

“This decisive ruling needs to be a learning lesson for the Ford government. Even majority governments need to respect workers’ rights and listen to people,” said Naureen Rizvi, Unifor Ontario Regional Director. “Public sector workers risked their lives for us during the pandemic and this wage suppression law made their lives harder and drove many from the sector. With this ruling I want to assure workers that we are shifting of focus on seeking remedies from the Ontario government.”

Unifor, alongside 40+ other unions and associations (including the OFL, OSSTF, ETFO, OECTA, ONA, OPSEU, the Society and PWU) filed a Notice of Application on August 28, 2020 with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The unions argued that Bill 124 breaches the right to free collective bargaining under the freedom of association guarantee in s. 2(d) and the right to strike under the freedom of expression guarantee in s. 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court held hearings from September 12-21, 2022.

Unifor represents approximately 18,155 members’ working in health care, education and social services sectors across Ontario who are affected by Bill 124.

by

Bell’s customer first approach delivers industry leading CCTS improvements

Source: https://www.bce.ca/news-and-media/releases?page=1&month=&year=&perpage=25

CCTS annual report shows Bell’s share of total complaints decreased for 7th consecutive year

MONTRÉAL, Nov. 30, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ – Bell continues to lead national telecom service providers in reducing its share of consumer complaints, according to the 2021-2022 Annual Report from the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS). While complaints to the CCTS as a whole decreased by 25%, Bell again outpaced national competitors with an impressive 38% decrease.

In the 2021-2022 CCTS report, which covers the period from August 1, 2021 to July 31, 2022, Bell’s overall share of complaints has decreased to 17.2%, down 3.5 percentage points, which was the largest decline among national providers.

“Our impressive CCTS results highlight the positive effects of our team’s commitment to delivering customer-first service experiences,” said Mirko Bibic, President and CEO of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada. “I am so proud of the progress we’ve made to match our accelerated broadband network expansion investments with enhancements to our customer service processes and digital self-serve platforms. We recognize that the journey continues and we strive every day to make it easier for our customers to do business with Bell. Thank you to #TeamBell for clearly making a difference.”

Bell is continuously working to improve our systems and processes to offer our customers a complete service experience on their own terms – whether they connect through our stores, by phone or our award-winning digital channels. This includes creating a new dedicated queue to support Mandarin and Cantonese customers in their own language to produce a more personal sales and service experience for many new Canadians.

 

Click the source link above for the full article as well as BCE media news releases

 

by

MediaKind Mediaroom Play Powers Latest Generation of Bell Canada’s Fibe TV Service

Source: https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/mediakind-mediaroom-play-powers-latest-generation-of-bell-canadas-fibe-tv-service

 

FRISCO, Texas—MediaKind’s Mediaroom Play platform now delivers more services, including VOD streaming television and movies from over 1,000 content owners and 7,000-plus apps from the Google Play Store, to TV viewers in Canada, the company reports.

Using Mediaroom Play, service providers can deliver live TV, on-demand shows and movies, Cloud PVR via MediaKind’s Video Storage and Processing Platform (VSPP), apps, voice remote and search in the same platform. Offering access to the Google Play Store enables Mediaroom Play users to access Android TV…..

 

CLICK ON THE SOURCE LINK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

by

Unifor attends air sector recovery summit in Ottawa

 

Unifor addressed key industry concerns including understaffing, a living wage at airports for all aviation workers, an end to contract flipping, introduction of successorship rights, and proper training and true protection for the harassment endured by workers on the job at the federal government’s National Summit on the Recovery of the Air Sector on Nov. 24, 2022 in Ottawa.

“It’s no secret that all industries were impacted by the pandemic and the aviation industry was among the hardest-hit,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “Now is the time to bring ideas to the table about how we pave the way forward.”

The summit encouraged government departments and agencies to work with industry partners – including airports, airlines, industry associations, unions and consumer groups – to discuss critical issues facing aviation and the future of the air sector in Canada.

Unifor Director of Airlines Leslie Dias was one of three labour representatives that contributed to the discussion.

Participants spoke about a number of critical challenges in the aviation sector, including COVID-19 lessons learned and challenges for the future, supporting digital transformation, managing costs and infrastructure and integrated management of services at airports, including through data management and transparency, accountability and passenger rights.

“There is a tremendous amount of focus on automation and digitization to create a better passenger journey,” said Dias. “There seems to be a glazing over of what the key issue is that caused the disruptive summer and what will continue to plague the industry unless that is addressed – that is the shortage of labour.”

Unifor called for strategic long-term planning to ensure there are appropriate numbers of workers in higher-skilled positions, such as air traffic control, pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers. Due to the years of training to qualify and be certified to do this work, Nav Canada and airlines need to address the current shortages and plan properly for attrition now.

“For the traditionally lower paid work, employers have to get their heads out of the sand that this is a short-term problem and that they can continue to hire while underpaying the workers,” Dias continued.

“The problems experienced in the past six months are not going away. Workers are no longer willing to work for minimum wage, with minimal training and little support, while working precarious schedules, and being on the receiving end of passengers’ wrath over issues they have no control over when flights do not operate as expected.”

The union also called on the government to treat Nav Canada as an essential service and ensure plans are put in place to ensure it is properly staffed to meet the needs of today and tomorrow. Unifor also stressed the need to ensure the Temporary Foreign Worker program is not exploited at the expense of Canadian workers, including pilots.