Government and Democracy

Hon. Monte McNaughton
Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development
400 University Avenue, 14th Floor
Toronto, ON M7A 1T7

Dear Minister McNaughton,

Unifor members from the media sector have been meeting online with Members of Parliament, including Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, pushing the need for big tech firms to pay their fair share to support local news. 

“Journalism is vital to the functioning of our democracy, and yet the entire sector is in crisis as big tech firms claim 90% of digital ad dollars,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias, who led the delegation meeting with Rodriguez.

“There has been a lot of talk, but now is the time for action.”

OTTAWA – Unifor applauds the introduction of legislation to provide 10 paid sick days for all federal private sector workers.

“Today is a day of leadership, and shows what can be done when you are aggressive and progressive… It’s about the millions of Canadians who are depending on provincial governments to pass comparable legislation,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President at today’s announcement with the federal Minister of Labour, Seamus O’Regan.

Originally published in The Hill Times

The past 20 months have been devastating for Canada’s aerospace workers.

Analysts agree that even though air traffic is slowly filling the skies again, the aerospace industry isn’t in the clear yet. Not by a long shot.

By: Angelo DiCaro, Unifor Director of Research

Ontario’s recent decision to raise the provincial wage floor to $15 (including for servers) caught many by surprise. The governing Progressive Conservatives campaigned to scrap this exact pay hike when they ran for government back in 2018. Nonetheless, the 65-cent increase is welcome news and – once again – sparks a conversation on the need for living wages across the country.

TORONTO- New legislation to set a $15 minimum wage in Ontario will help the province’s lowest-paid workers and raise wages for thousands of Unifor members with minimum wage plus clauses in their collective agreements.

“Workers on the frontlines of our retail, wholesale, gaming, warehousing and broader service sectors who are paid a fraction of their worth will see this increase directly,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “I’m glad this government has reversed course and has now decided to raise workers’ wages.”

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in favour of workers in a precedent-setting case about the method employers must use to maintain proxy pay equity for their predominantly female workforce.

By Sune Sandbeck, National Representative, Research Department

The debate over what to do about inflation has been heating up over the past few months. With the annual growth in the consumer price index (CPI) reaching 4.4% in September, calls are growing louder for the Bank to accelerate its plans to increase interest rates.