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Toronto City Council must support paid sick days for all

Dear Board Members,

Re: Support for paid sick days

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic grow increasingly dire for Ontarians, including frontline

workers, each day. This pandemic has shone a spotlight on the structural deficiencies in Canada’s social infrastructure, glaring gaps in legislative standards and deep-rooted inequities.

GM-CAMI Bargaining Update #3

Unifor Local 88’s bargaining committee, representing workers at the CAMI Assembly Plant reached a tentative agreement with General Motors today that includes a $1 billion investment to build Canada's first all-electric commercial vehicle. 

Read Unifor's media release about the tentative agreement here.

GM-CAMI Bargaining Update #2

Unifor Local 88 members,

Your Master Bargaining Committee continues to make progress in our negotiations with General motors, meeting throughout the day yesterday, overnight and well in to the morning. Please note that the Committee has set an internal deadline for today Thursday, January 14, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. to reach a tentative settlement with the company.

Your patience is greatly appreciated, particularly as the union continues to work under the expanded public health restrictions recently introduced by the Ontario government.

Ontario must better protect workers from the crisis that lays ahead

Dear Premier Ford and Minister McNaughton,

Following yesterday’s media conferences announcing Ontario’s COVID-19 modelling and your government’s response to the dire projections, our offices were flooded with messages from workers who are outraged and frightened at the seeming lack of tangible action offered.

Ontario’s workers heard loud and clear that without a major shift, ICUs that are not yet overrun will be filled with COVID-19 patients by the end of January. We were told to expect 50 to 100 deaths per day between now and the end of February.

Letter to Premier Ford & Minister Lecce on Emergency Child Care Eligibility

Dear Premier Ford & Minister Lecce,

The expansion of eligibility to include more frontline workers for the province’s emergency child care program on January 9 is a welcome acknowledgment of the wide range of brave people who are keeping our society going in this difficult time. In the context of extended school closures, this was a sensible step.

However, we encourage the expansion of this list to further capture those who continue to keep our economy going and also need the assistance during this challenging time. This would include workers such as:

GM-CAMI Bargaining Update #1

Unifor Local 88 members,

As all members are aware, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a significant public health threat. New and heightened public health restrictions have compelled us to transform the way our union bargains with General Motors and how we will hold our upcoming ratification meeting. The circumstances are far from ideal.

Unifor condemns attacks on journalists

Written on a door in the U.S. Capitol Building was a chilling warning about the dangerous state of journalism today: “Murder the media.” A Texas woman took to social media threatening the mob would move on to the news media after they stormed the Capitol.

RailLine Volume 8, Issue 1 - Bargaining Update

Members,

This past week, your union met VIA Rail at the table, primarily addressing the major concessions tabled against members covered under Agreements 1 and 2.

On advice of the Conciliator, both parties agreed to an extension of the conciliation period for Local 100.

This extension is critical to Local 100 negotiations. The entire monetary package is affected by Agreement 1 and 2 bargaining and by the concessions that the company has levelled against our union sisters and brothers in Council 4000.

Information Bulletin #5

Sisters and Brothers,

Negotiations with the Company continued this week via Zoom. The Union and the Company have finished exchanging proposals and completed negotiations of the non-monetary demands. Due to the provincial lockdown we will continue to meet via Zoom next week and begin monetary discussions. The Committee will keep you updated as the process unfolds.

In Solidarity,

Your Bargaining Committee

Building Back Better in 2021

By Jerry Dias

At the beginning of the pandemic, Unifor made two broad demands of government.

The first was to protect public health and ensure all workers had access to sick leave and immediate income assistance. The second was to build an economic stimulus package big and bold enough to speed Canadas economic recovery and build the Canada so many of us believe is possible.

Unifor mourns Sheila Yakovishin, PSW in Windsor LTC home, lost to COVID-19

WINDSOR – Unifor, its Local 2458, and the wider Windsor community began the New Year in mourning of health care worker and fellow union member Sheila Yakovishin, 60.

“On behalf of our union, I express the deepest condolences to Sheila’s family and all those who knew and loved her. Unifor mourns with you, as we decry her preventable death,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.