HALIFAX-Unifor members at Bell Aliant reached a tentative agreement with the company on September 9, 2022.
“I want to congratulate the members and the bargaining committee for their solidarity and perseverance through these long and important negotiations,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President.
Details of the collective agreement will only be released pending ratification by members of the bargaining unit. Local unions will hold ratification votes in the coming weeks.
Unifor has become a signatory to the Reproductive Justice Manifesto, coordinated by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, the AccessBC Campaign for free prescription contraception, the BC Humanist Association, Options for Sexual Health, and the University of British Columbia Social Justice Centre.
HALIFAX-Health Support workers have ratified a new collective agreement with the Nova Scotia Health Authority and the IWK, with the largest increases for the lowest-paid workers whose wage scales will now reach $20 per hour.
With the ratification of their very first collective agreement, workers at Cabot Manufacturing in Point Tupper, Nova Scotia are looking forward to a more reasonable pay structure and greater health and safety measures.
“The group at Cabot Manufacturing is a great example of the recent resurgence in workers unionizing to better protect and enforce their rights at work,” said Jennifer Murray, Unifor Atlantic Regional Director. “I send my congratulations to the bargaining committee for the strong work in achieving this solid first agreement.”
TORONTO —GDI Services has served illegal layoff notices to 70 Durham College campus cleaners, locking out the workers after they began strike action on August 24, 2022.
“This callous and illegal move by GDI is designed to intimidate workers, who are predominantly low-paid women,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “The company also threatened workers by telling them they would only keep their jobs if they cross their own picket line. Unifor will not allow our members to be bullied. Not now. Not ever.”
TORONTO —Unifor members from across the Greater Toronto Area will join striking GDI Services workers on picket lines at Durham College campuses on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.
“GDI is using scab workers to perform the cleaning duties of the workers who maintained health standards for students and faculty during the pandemic,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “These workers earn $16.05 an hour and are fighting for economic justice. Unifor will not tolerate the use of scabs and will utilize the full power of our union to support our striking members.”
HALIFAX- Unifor members at Bell Aliant are heading into the final days of bargaining Tuesday September 6, 2022.
“Unifor members at Bell Aliant have kept Atlantic Canadian connected. Their dedication to their work and solidarity across the region is strong,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President. “What better time to push Bell for a great contract than the week of Labour Day, when workers across our union are celebrating successes and committing to push for progress.”
TORONTO —Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, celebrates worker empowerment as members across the country gather to mark Labour Day.
“Unifor is celebrating the fighting spirit that workers are courageously displaying across our union, across the country and all over the world,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “We work our entire lives as trade union activists for the kind of moment we find ourselves in right now. A moment where we can build worker power.”
There is no question that the pandemic has created a new workscape.
Despite a textbook scenario for workers to demand better from their bosses, wages remain low – relative to rising inflation – benefits are meagre and pension plans elusive.
Despite ballooning profits and claims of labour shortages, most workers still find themselves on the losing end.
TORONTO- Unifor National President Lana Payne wrote to Minister Alghabra today to offer clear solutions to the issues plaguing Canada’s airports with cancellations and delays.
“Aviation workers are listening intently to government, and so far the Minister has not shared an accurate description of the problem or common sense solutions. Aviation employers have cut jobs and continue to drive down wages in the industry, and it’s up to the federal government to change the rules to protect workers and travelers,” said Payne.
Honourable Omar Alghabra, P.C., M.P. Minister of Transport
Dear Minister Alghabra,
I am writing today to discuss the grave situation that continues to unfold at Canada’s airports.
Your deposition at the Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities on August 19 2022 was eye opening. The narrative of the opposition that nothing has been done to alleviate the issue is simply not true. The government narrative that enough has been done is not true either.
Montreal, August 31, 2022 – To the sound of whistles and trumpets, more than a hundred members of Quebec and Ontario local unions, FTQ-affiliated unions, FTQ regional councils as well as Alexandre Boulerice, NDP MP for Rosemont-La Petit-Patrie, gathered yesterday morning in front of Bell Media’s offices in Montreal, in support of workers at Bell Technical Solutions.
TORONTO––Loomis Express workers in eight provinces have reached a tentative agreement with the company, avoiding a strike set to begin after midnight tonight.
“This tentative agreement leverages the power of a national union to set and raise standards across the country while allowing for provincial nuances in the operations," said Lana Payne, Unifor National President."I congratulate the bargaining committee for coming together to reach a deal that addresses key concerns of members.”
MABE retirees, or MABE scorned as they like to be called, gathered in front of the former MABE plant in Montreal on August 25 to mark the sad anniversary of their former employer's bankruptcy. Locals from the greater Montreal area also joined to show them that they are not alone in their fight and that their Unifor family is behind them.
Retirees and active employees lost the equivalent of 22% of their pension as well as the protection of group insurance and life insurance due to the bankruptcy in August 2014.
TORONTO–Loomis Express workers in eight provinces have served strike notice, with almost 1,500 Unifor members set to begin legal strike action in their respective time zones at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday August 31, 2022.
“This is yet another example of a huge corporation squeezing employees by shuffling work between subsidiaries or contracting out to avoid providing workers with decent full-time jobs,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President. “These members work in the fast-growing courier sector but many remain limited to precarious part-time work.”
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.
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