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In just five years since its founding, Unifor has organized more than 20,000 workers across Canada, in every sector of the economy and in every province and territory.
“Unifor was founded to be a different kind of union to meet the challenges of ever-changing workplaces,” Kellie Scanlan, Director of Organizing, says in a video commemorating the 20,000-member milestone.
“We organize all workers to build power, reaching even smaller workplaces once thought to be impossible.”
The video was released at the recent Canadian Council meeting in Halifax, where workers from a number of the newly organized workplaces attended their first national Unifor meeting.
“The day we started approaching people, it took only three weeks to get cards signed,” Chantal Desruisseaux, a seals molder at Cooper-Standard in Sherbrook, Quebec, said in the video.
The 235 workers at the auto parts manufacturer joined Unifor in January of this year. Other workplaces featured in the video include an educational centre, telecommunication, school bus service and hospitality.
“Unifor has totally opened my eyes in a very different way,” said Hira Khan, a school bus driver in Pickering, Ontario.
Unifor has grown quickly in the school bus sector over the past couple of years as the system for awarding school bus contract has cut compensation for drivers, making it tougher to recruit new drivers.
Jian Lui with Calm Air in Manitoba said that joining a union that made human rights a priority was important to her.
In New Brunswick, Darlene Somers helped bring Unifor to the Rodd Hotel Resort in Miramichi last year, part of a growing presence for Unifor in the hospitality sector.
“I never dreamt that a restaurant could be unionized, and I have worked in the industry for years,” she said in the video.
