Share
Unifor’s Regional Directors told Canadian Council delegates about members standing up for their rights, for the needs of their communities and for a better country – as well as non-union workers joining Unifor – right across the country.
Western Region Director Joie Warnock got things started by recounting the NDP victory in Alberta in under Rachel Notley, who spoke at Unifor’s Prairie Council this year.
“We were heavily invested in the election, both in terms of our local activists working on local campaigns, but Unifor also helped to give the Alberta NDP the tools to make an historical breakthrough, the reverberations of which are still being felt around the nation,” Warnock said.
Unifor’s activism and hard work has helped the union grow, she said.
Ontario Region Director Katha Fortier reported on the deal at Metro grocery stores to improve the lives of retail workers, the largest successful organizing drive this century at Casino Rama, the work for an Ontario Registered Pension Plan, and many other initiatives.
“We are incredibly proud of the work we can get done when we work together,” Fortier said.
Fortier also pointed to the work of the Local Union Task Force, which will be holding local meetings in the fall, to build stronger locals that can better fulfil the bargaining and social goals of the union.
Atlantic Region Director Lana Payne said Unifor has been a force at both the bargaining table and in politics in Canada’s Atlantic provinces, including the fight by health workers in the province against a plan by the Nova Scotia government to force the merger of unions in the sector.
“It has been a year of Unifor building,” Payne said. “It was a year in which health care workers dug deep and stayed strong.”
Payne also congratulated the FFAW on its hard work to protect not only the rights of fishers on the east coast, but the jobs of workers in the processing plants. These efforts not only help our members, she said, it helps their communities prosper thanks to good jobs continuing to be available.
