Unifor discussed the crisis in long-term care in a meeting with Ontario Long-term Care Minister Rod Phillips on August 9, 2021.

“I extended my challenge to spend a shift in a long-term care home to Minister Phillips,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “We need to fix the crisis in long-term care and hopefully spending a shift with me will help push the government to make progressive changes for residents and workers.”

Unifor secured the meeting to raise important issues facing Ontario health care workers, outline key concerns and share the union’s recommendations after sending a letter to Minister Phillips.

Dias was joined at the meeting by Assistant to National President Katha Fortier, President of Local 302 Nancy McMurphy and Unifor Director of Health Care Andy Savela. The Unifor delegation raised the following issues to the Minister:

• The failure of for-profit care.
• The need to move immediately to four hours of daily care per resident.
• Lack of any action from most operators, including creating full-time work or any meaningful effort to increase staffing or address the staffing crisis.
• The trauma experienced by many of our members working in long-term care and the immediate need to focus on retention.
• The need to require operators to provide 70% full-time work.
• Growing use of the sub-classification of PSW’s that have been created by many employers.
• Lack of transparency from operators in reporting hours of care as well as percentage of full-time workers, use and cost of agency workers and reliance and cost of overtime.
• No plan to attract the thousands of PSW’s who have left the sector to return with decent working conditions.
• Emergency orders that still override our members’ collective agreement rights and are simply used to compensate for lack of staff.
• Fair pay for ALL LTC workers.
• For-profit operators fight to deny employees maintenance of proxy pay equity as well as the efforts from Bass and Associates to supress wages over the last decade.
• Concerns with OPSWA as a legitimate representative for PSW’s.
• General concerns on pandemic pay, leaving other workers behind and issues raised in this letter to Premier Ford
• Retirement home challenges. (while this falls under the MOH, many residents in retirement homes are actually waiting for LTC)

“The crisis in long-term care existed long before COVID-19 in terms of proper staffing levels, the number of full-time jobs, the ability to earn a living wage and the ability to provide residents with the amount of daily care that they require,” said Dias. “We stressed to Minister Philips that residents and workers cannot wait years for policies, including four hours of daily care, to be implemented. Clear action is needed and it’s needed now,” said Dias.

The Minister noted that he has been attending surprise inspections with compliance officers regularly in nursing homes, speaking directly with the inspectors and the staff.

The Minister and his staff indicated that their immediate priorities include enforcement and transparency, but also said that they anticipate significant issues with timing and still envision a multi-year process. They did clearly state that the four hours of care will only include direct care from nurses and PSW’s. They also stated they are working on a plan to extricate the sector from the emergency orders but did not give a firm timeline.  The government indicated legislation on the four hours of care could be expected mid-fall and that Unifor is welcome to participate in that process. They do have plans to include transparency on several items including resident and family satisfaction, hours of care and fulltime work.

Unifor is expressing solidarity with the people and workers of Afghanistan, as news reports continue to paint a dire and desperate situation for the country’s people. Over the past few weeks, the Taliban have advanced across Afghanistan, which has caused a rise in violence and threats against citizens.

“Our hearts are with the people and workers in Afghanistan, as well as their family members here in Canada and across the world,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “In such times, our world can feel so small, and our lives connected – our solidarity is needed with those facing violence.”

Decades of military presence in Afghanistan have resulted in millions of displaced people, including many who have come to Canada as refugees. Unifor joins thousands of Canadians with loved ones in Afghanistan in calling on the government to continue providing direct support for people seeking to leave Afghanistan, as well as open up safe asylum routes for people wishing to come to Canada.

“It is our responsibility, as a country who participated in the war in Afghanistan, to welcome and offer safe asylum to those fleeing its consequences regardless of if they have worked with Canada,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National Secretary-Treasurer. “The Taliban may say they have changed, but their recent actions remind Afghans of the same repressive regime of the past. Our thoughts go out especially to women and girls on the ground in Afghanistan as the situation evolves.”

Unifor also encourages all candidates running in the Canadian federal election to address the situation in Afghanistan and pledge support. Unifor members are encouraged to contact their local candidates and encourage them to be in solidarity with the people and workers of Afghanistan.

In solidarity, Unifor National and Unifor’s Social Justice fund are donating $10,000 to International Media Support in support of Afghanistan’s journalists.

Earlier this week, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) launched an international solidarity campaign with Afghan journalists as the threat of violence grows and media are forced to close in the wake of the Taliban taking control of large parts of the country. Unifor supports this campaign and encourages workers in Canada to amplify the campaign

August 15, 2021

TORONTO – With Canadians going to the polls on September 20, Canada’s largest private sector union is urging federal parties to put workers, and the need to “BuildBackBetter” for working people at the heart of all platforms.

“Now more than ever we need to rebuild a fair, inclusive and resilient recovery that not only recalibrates Canada’s priorities, but addresses those economic failings that existed prior to COVID, that were only made worse during the pandemic,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.

Unifor is calling on all candidates to recognize the need for urgent action in the next federal Parliament on seven priorities for the union.

Unifor is calling for the next federal government to build back better to:

• Support care work and the care economy
• Improve income security and affordability
• Grow good, union jobs and pass anti-scab legislation
• Advance reconciliation and racial justice
• Foster fair trade and international solidarity
• Tackle climate change and protecting jobs
• Invest in the recovery economy

On August 2, 2021, Unifor launched the union’s 2021 federal election campaign warning voters that Erin O’Toole is no friend of working people and will to take the country in the wrong direction.

The new television ad is airing on major networks in the coming weeks, along with digital ads and a new campaign website: 2021otoole.ca

“We know Conservative policies will take us backwards with cuts and more tax breaks for wealthy corporations, while working Canadians are ignored,” said Dias. “This election is too important, and we will use our voice to ensure the Conservatives remain in opposition.”

Unifor will launch a member-to-member campaign where union activists will engage with members, publish and share issues backgrounders about the union’s seven priorities, and encourage members to vote for progressive, like-minded candidates.

The union will carry out ‘get-out-the-vote’ campaigns in target ridings where members make up a substantial portion of the electorate.

“Unifor, like all unions, has a constitutional right to participate in elections and a responsibility to defend members’ interests whenever Canadians go to the polls, and this campaign was unanimously endorsed by the union’s National Executive Board,” said Dias.

In the 2019 federal election, Unifor member organizers had conversations with more than 100,000 members, and the Conservatives were defeated in 72 per cent of the 69 ridings the union targeted.