Some 70 workers at GDI Services – which provides cleaning services for Durham College’s Whitby and Oshawa campuses in Ontario – went on strike on Wed., Aug. 24, 2022.
“During the pandemic, these workers were asked to put their health and lives on the line to keep educational facilities clean,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “They deserve a respectful living wage and economic dignity.”
VERNON/SALMON ARM, BC—Unifor Local 114 members at First Canada in Vernon and the Shuswap Communities, in B.C. have voted overwhelmingly to strike if a fair collective agreement cannot be negotiated in the coming weeks.
“As we saw in the Sea to Sky region, transit workers are determined to achieve collective agreements that reflect their contribution to local economies,” said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor Western Regional Director.
WINNIPEG—After Manitoba’s premier announced an increase to the minimum wage, Unifor is renewing its demand that the Government of Manitoba increase minimum wage to $15 per hour by the end of 2022.
TORONTO –Unifor’s Bell Clerical and Associated Employees Bargaining Committee ratified a four-year deal with Bell Canada on Thurs., Aug. 18, 2022.
“My congratulations to the bargaining committee for fighting for our members and for making progress during a very difficult round of bargaining,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President.
I would like to congratulate you on your recent re-election as Premier of Ontario. I write to you today to raise our grave concerns as we watch our health care system literally crumble around us.
OSHAWA—Wage gains and new positions are highlights of a new collective agreement ratified Sunday by Unifor Local 222 members working at Durham Regional Transit (DRT).
“The committee achieved improvements to transit workers’ work-life balance,” said Len Poirier, Unifor National Secretary-Treasurer. “This contract looks to the future of public transportation in Durham from the perspective of job security and improving the experience for community members.”
At Unifor’s Constitutional Convention in Toronto on August 10, 2022, Director of Unifor’s Health and Safety department Sari Sairanen presented the 2022 Bud Jimmerfield award to Marc Roussel, a Unifor member who goes above and beyond in their dedication to workplace health and safety.
HALIFAX-In the early hours of August 16, 2022, the Health Support Bargaining Unit (Unifor, NSGEU and CUPE) reached a tentative agreement with Nova Scotia Health and IWK. The bargaining committee are recommending acceptance to the membership.
WINNIPEG—The bargaining committee for Unifor members at Manitoba Hydro have signed a tentative agreement.
“Unifor members on the front-lines of gas services have earned a fair contract,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President. “Public services workers were essential to the economy during COVID-19 and their contracts must reflect that.”
Details of the tentative agreement will be released following the membership ratification votes to be held during the coming week.
Members of Unifor Local 681 have been on rotating strikes since June 17, 2022.
We all want this pandemic to be over, and life to get back to normal. I get that.
It couldn’t be clearer, however, that we are nowhere near the end. Health-care systems are at the breaking point, and some public health restrictions are being reintroduced.
As we all saw, COVID laid bare some of the worst problems facing our society: an escalating housing crisis; underfunded health care; a deep and structural racism oppressing Indigenous, Black and other marginalized people.
It’s been two years since we gathered, and even then it was an online summit. Convention 2022 opened last week with this look back at the fightbacks, the campaigns and the solidarity of our members and celebrate the work we did together.
Unifor came together this week in solidarity and strength, ensuring this union will continue to be a force to be reckoned with, National President Lana Payne said as she wrapped Unifor’s fourth Constitutional Convention.
“We have truly come together this week to move our union forward,” said Payne, the first woman to be National President.
“You have shown that it is the union - all of us together - can take on the challenges we face as workers.
The union and the employer will not be able to meet on the week of August 15-18. This delay was forced by schedule misalignment between the parties.
Your bargaining team will instead engage with the company, along with the assistance of a federal conciliator, in Halifax, Nova Scotia beginning on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.
The Bell ACL unit is still in its conciliation period. Your bargaining committee has not yet received a tentative agreement.
In keeping with Unifor’s Convention theme, “Together,” delegates showed solidarity with striking workers at the Ash Grove cement plant in Joliette, Que., who have been locked out for nearly 15 months, by marching in downtown Toronto on Thurs., Aug. 11, 2022.
Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan announced at Unifor’s Convention that all the provinces and territories now support an ILO (write out what ILO stands for in first mention) resolution on harassment in the workplace, a necessary step for the federal government to adopt the resolution.
“We’ve been working to get support of all provinces and territories for its ratification. We have that now, and I’ll be working with the Minister of Foreign Affairs as we look to move to the next stage,” O’Regan said Thursday morning.
“We have all the ingredients necessary to transition to electric vehicle manufacturing and grow our economy, while creating good union jobs and reducing Canada’s carbon footprint all at the same time,” said Lana Payne, at her first news conference as Unifor National President after yesterday’s election.
Canada’s auto sector has seen more than $16 billion in EV supply chain investments repositioning Canada as a major player in both gas-powered cars and components as well as the electric vehicles of the future.
TORONTO—Lana Payne, Unifor’s new National President will unveil a new comprehensive policy document on Canada’s auto sector at a live news conference on Zoom Thursday August 11, 2022.
TORONTO – Lana Payne has been elected as the new National President of Unifor, the first woman to hold the position.
“Today, we turn a page. Today, we move forward. Today and every day, we put our members at the heart of everything we do,” said Payne after her win was announced.
Payne was previously National Secretary-Treasurer of Unifor, and was the first woman to hold that position, as well. She defeated Executive Assistant to the President Scott Doherty and Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy.
TORONTO – Lana Payne has been elected as the new National President of Unifor, the first woman to hold the position.
Payne was previously National Secretary-Treasurer of Unifor, and was the first woman to hold that position, as well. She defeated Executive Assistant to the President Scott Doherty and Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy.
Throughout the campaign, Payne championed the need for greater transparency and accountability in the union. Delegates to Unifor’s fourth Constitutional Convention elected Payne on Wednesday.
La trabajadora de la industria automotriz y activista de los derechos laborales mexicana Alejandra Morales Reynoso ha sido galardonada por Unifor con el Premio Mandela 2022, en reconocimiento por su trabajo en la organización de un sindicato democrático en la planta General Motors de Silao, México, donde trabaja.
“Gracias por este increíble premio a la libertad, la democracia y el respeto por los derechos humanos”, dijo Reynoso el miércoles durante la Convención constitucional de Unifor al aceptar el premio.
Mexican auto worker and labour activist Alejandra Morales Reynoso has been awarded Unifor’s Nelson Mandela Award for 2022 in recognition of her work to bring a democratic union to the General Motors Silao in Mexico plant where she works.
“Thank you all for this incredible award for freedom and democracy and respect for human rights,” Reynoso said in accepting the award at Unifor’s Constitutional Convention on Wednesday.
Unifor locals are being asked to donate generously to help support the families of media workers fleeing the Taliban and left in limbo in their attempts to come to Canada.
“Next week, we mark the one-year anniversary of the fall of Kabul. We are still here, standing with the workers. We cannot leave them now,” said Rachel Pulfer, executive director of Journalists for Human Rights, or JHR, Canada’s leading media development organization, at Unifor’s fourth constitutional convention.
“Please find it in your heart step up for them in their hour of need.”
We are in a historic moment as workers stand up and take back the power from powerful companies, forming unions at companies where it was once thought workers could never organize, a leader in the first successful union drive at Amazon told Convention delegates.
“This is a turning point in the labour movement. Workers all around are motivated to join unions,” Derrick Palmer said.
“All these billion-dollar companies are starting to get unionized. And guess who is scared? The billionaires who run these companies.”
Naureen Rizvi, Unifor’s Ontario Regional Director, shared the story of Unifor’s Ontario activism and advocacy in her report to the 2022 Constitutional Convention.
Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle delivered his report to the 4th constitutional convention on Tuesday, August 9, 2022.
He began by thanking frontline workers for their service during the pandemic and noted that, in several sectors such as courier and aviation, exhaustion and overwork is still a serious problem.
Much of the union’s work in the west has centred on fightbacks against regressive governments, and McGarrigle reviewed all the ways in which Prairie premiers failed workers.
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