TORONTO – The union representing 12,000 Canadian journalists and media workers welcomes Finance Minister Bill Mourneau’s announcement of $600 million in aid for financially struggling news organizations.
“The new labour tax credit for local journalism is what’s been needed to help save local news,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor’s National President.
TORONTO- Unifor calls for increased opposition to the PC’s anti-worker agenda following adoption of Bill 47.
“Since the PCs tabled this Bill, the workers of Ontario have made it undeniably clear what our position is. Bill 47 was designed to steal the rights and benefits of working people, and hand them back to big business as profits,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “PC MPPs were asked to do the right thing and vote no, but instead they turned their backs on the people of Ontario.”
Unifor members from across British Columbia are gathering at the Hyatt Regency Hotel to discuss current issues in workers’ rights and make strategic plans for the year ahead.
“From fighting for a higher minimum wage to tireless work for electoral reform in British Columbia, our members are leaders on the front lines of change,” said Joie Warnock, Unifor Western Regional Director.
DRYDEN – More than 500 Unifor members in the Dryden-based Domtar Pulp Mill and Woodlands operations have voted overwhelmingly in favour of new four-year collective agreements.
“Unifor has made it a priority to raise and equalize standards in the pulp and paper sector,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “I’m pleased to say that both of these contracts achieve the Eastern Canada Pulp and Paper Pattern established by our union in April.”
Unifor unites with a growing movement around the world in acknowledging November 20 as the Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR). November 20 is a day of mourning, as our union comes together to recognize those whose lives have been taken due to anti-trans violence.
We mourn the lives lost and stand alongside trans members and their families as they seek to live with the dignity, safety and freedom that we all need and deserve.
Trans rights are human rights. No person should be subject to discrimination, intimidation or violence because of their gender expression or identity.
Members of Unifor Local 4003 who drive trucks to transport containers for Canadian National Transportation Limited are holding an information picket protesting unacceptable working conditions at the Brampton rail yard.
“This protest is about access to sanitary washrooms and respect in the workplace,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “Our members have had enough and are taking a stand against this employer.”
TORONTO – Unifor denounces cuts to Francophone services, after confirmation that Premier Doug Ford will stand by his government’s decision to abolish the Office of the French Language Services Commissioner and cancel plans to build a Francophone university.
TORONTO – Unifor expresses grave concern following a vote by members of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party voicing support for the removal of gender identity from Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum.
“This shameful resolution shows that Doug Ford would rather appease a small faction of his party than uphold the human rights of trans students in Ontario,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “Ford’s Government has already enacted this transphobia by repealing comprehensive sex-ed.”
TORONTO—Unifor members at the Delta Hotels Toronto Airport & Conference Centre are the fifth Local 7575 unit to negotiate significant improvements this fall.
“We are making significant progress turning more precarious casual and part-time jobs into full-time jobs,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “Now that Doug Ford is stripping workers of basic rights, creating secure full-time work in Ontario’s hospitality industry is even more important.”
Fish harvesters are expressing their frustration with what they feel is a lack of respect and consideration from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Science branch when it comes to engagement and consultation.
TORONTO – The Progressive Conservative’s fall economic update is a clear signal that austerity measures are coming to Ontario.
“Doug Ford’s economic plan won’t lift Ontario working families out of poverty, it will take them back to the days of Mike Harris,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “Like Harris, Doug Ford is hiding austerity measures under the guise of efficiencies.”
The Nova Scotia Council of Nursing Unions (NSNU, NSGEU, CUPE and Unifor) and the Employer group have completed collective bargaining and are referring all remaining matters in dispute to Arbitrator William Kaplan. Mr. Kaplan was named as mediator-arbitrator for all Acute Care, collective agreements in an agreement that was ratified by a large majority of workers in May of this year.
Unifor meets with NS Minister of Natural Resources
Atlantic Regional Director Lana Payne, Executive Assistant to the President Scott Doherty and members of Unifor Local 440 from Northern Pulp travelled to Halifax for a meeting with Nova Scotia Minister of Natural Resources Iain Rankin.
TORONTO – Unionized workers at The Globe and Mail could be on strike by midnight Wednesday as they seek pension protection and an end to a pay gap between male and female employees.
“There is no excuse for a pay gap between women and men at a newspaper that considers itself Canada’s paper of record,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor’s National President.
More than 140 union leaders and activists from several countries gathered for the first ever North American Solidarity Project Conference at Unifor’s family education centre this weekend.
MISSISSAUGA—Nestlé’s subsidiary Purina will force at least 87 Canadians out of work when the GTA pet food manufacturer moves operations to the United States in 2019.
“There’s no reason for Nestlé to close this facility,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “Generations of Canadians have worked at Purina since 1967 and now politics is forcing people out of work.”
