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“Solidarity is the story of the pandemic.”
In her compelling address to Ontario Regional Council – the first since just three months before the pandemic began – Ontario Regional Director Naureen Rizvi reflected on the change the world and labour industry faced during that time.
“The last two years were very difficult for everyone,” Rizvi told the online meeting.
“Others suffered great loss and many found the 24 months that passed to be difficult and lonely. I want to remind you that today, you are with family. This is your union – you are amongst those who fought for and beside you, who are care you are well and are amongst us today.”
Rizvi acknowledged she could not start without recognizing the soldiers forced to the battlefields and the innocent plight of families and children displaced or casualties of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has “shocked and horrified the world.”
Unifor’s National Executive Board quickly moved on a donation to the Red Cross to “deliver that hope for a better life and a better world,” she said. In all, $150,000 was donated from the NEB, the Social Justice Fund and regional councils.
Rizvi said the union worked hard to support a “frightened and sometimes grieving and traumatized membership,” during the pandemic. Sectors such as gaming shut down, overworked health care workers found a lack of PPE and retail chains colluded to offer temporary pandemic pay increases and then only to snatch it back when it was politically possible.
“Not on our watch – we called it out publicly and saw these employers have to defend themselves,” she said. “All workers need fair pay forever, but it’s become hard to rely on forever. We are all more than exhausted and hear this from our members every day – it’s hard.”
Rizvi applauded Unifor for crafting a firm policy on vaccination and said vaccine mandates, testing, pre-screening, masking are still critical safety measures. Nearly 12 million – or roughly 80% – of Ontarians have received at least two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to date “and that’s something worth celebrating.”
With the Ontario provincial election set for June 2, 2022, it gives Unifor less than three months to execute a targeted campaign to protect members and prevent Conservative Premier Doug Ford from winning a second majority government.
“We spent the first two years of his government’s term constantly protesting, rallying and marching together,” said Rizvi. “One of his first moves as premier was rolling back labour laws, cutting minimum wage and paid sick days. To match budget cuts, he then went after front line workers directly.”
Bill 124 caps the wages of health and education workers and all members of the broader public service, she said, while giving exemptions to the lucky few, such as himself, his MPPs and police and firefighters. Rizvi said Ford is what’s standing between parents and affordable, quality child care in Ontario.
“Every other province has signed up, while our child care fees remain the highest in the country,” she said. “This government just took $1.5 billon in WSIB funds and wrote cheques to employers, money which belongs to injured workers and their families. And we can’t ignore the $1-billion payout to cancel and refund licence plate fees while minimum wage workers quitting dangerous and difficult jobs in troves cannot get a raise.”
Rizvi said Unifor continues to offer workers hope.
“To unite more than 300,000 workers across over 19 different sectors is a feat in itself,” she said. “I know this is going to be an important feat for our union and our members remain together.”
In a moving cheque presentation, Ontario Regional Council donated $150,000 towards The Imagine Build, an initiative – partnering with the Oneida Nation of the Thames Band Council – to build four accessible and affordable houses for families along the eastern shore of the Thames River south of London, Ont.
Mandi Fields of the Imagine Build said she became friends with an Indigenous man named Ray John Jr., who faced leg amputation surgery and during his recovery, she learned he was living with his wife and two sons in a 500-square-foot home, heated by a stove. They had been on an Oneida housing wait list for 20 years with 47 other families.
“This is the day I saw everything and now, I can no longer unsee,” she told the council.
Unifor locals then contributed more donations during ORC, with the amount totalling more than $200,000. The union’s skilled trades offered support for the building projects.
“Our members understand that reconciliation has to be more than just putting on an orange shirt,” said Unifor Local 27 Secretary-Treasurer Jim Wilkes. “We have to do more and sometimes, we have to donate our time and money to really make the change to establish relationships, build bridges and change lives."
Fields, choked up after hearing about the donations tally, said, “We all know what having a home means I’ve never experienced something good like this for so long. This is not about throwing up houses and walking away – this is about reconciliation.”
Day One of ORC ended with a push on mobilizing union members and the public to vote the Doug Ford government out of power.
Unifor researcher Kaylie Tiessen provided a refresher on all the good, bad and ugly the Ontario Conservatives have done over the past four years, including bringing on a $15-an-hour minimum wage (somewhat good), budget cuts in almost every ministry (bad) and the Open for Business Act in 2018 removed paid sick days and ended equal pay for equal work, among other things (ugly).
Josh Coles, Unifor's Political Action Director, said there is already a strong game plan leading up to Ontario's election on June 2.
"We're planning on a massive Unifor pushback on Doug Ford," he said.
"In short, our strategy is this. We’re going to raise the level of political debate Ontarians have never seen before. We, frankly, are going to #FireFord.”
