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The Unifor Good Jobs Summit will be one of the defining events in the union’s first year, Unifor economist Jim Stanford told the Ontario Regional Council.
“Canada needs the Good Jobs Summit,” Stanford said. “There aren’t enough jobs, and the jobs we do have are getting worse.
Delegates unanimously endorsed a recommendation that all locals in Ontario commit to taking part in the summit, to be held Oct 4-5, 2014, in Toronto, and commit to sponsoring pre-summit forums and other events in their communities.
Noting the fast growth of precarious work in Canada, and a recent United Way study that found that half of all jobs in the Toronto and Hamilton areas are precarious in some way, Stanford said Unifor is putting the summit together because governments have not.
There will be months of events across Canada leading up to the summit, building support for the event and talking to Canadians about how to build an economy that offers young people something better than precarious employment and an uncertain future.
“This won’t just be a two-day conference in Toronto,” Stanford said.
Putting the unemployed back to work will help lift the economy, since it will mean people will have money to spend and will be paying taxes so governments can fund the programs Canadians want, Stanford said.
