Unifor Local 672 SGS Canada Inc. workers voted 89% to ratify a new three-year collective agreement Dec. 14, 2021 in Sarnia, Ont.
“Congratulations to Local 672,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “The bargaining team needs to be applauded for never wavering on their principles and negotiating a solid collective agreement for the membership.”
SGS Canada provides inspection, verification, testing and certification services for industrial enterprises on a contract basis.
Unifor’s hospitality and gaming sector met virtually this past week to review the sector’s accomplishments and remaining economic challenges.
“Unifor warned that the hospitality and gaming sector would be hit first, hit hardest and take the longest to recover,” Unifor National President Jerry Dias told the council. “Sadly, what we predicted proved all too accurate.”
For the first year of COVID-19, virtually every gaming sector worker in the country was laid off. At hotels and restaurants, lay off rates were between 80% and 100%.
To: Local union presidents, recording secretaries, treasurers, NEB, national staff
Re: A holiday message to our Unifor family
We can hardly believe that it is mid-December and that 2021 is about to come to a close. We have all had a busy, tiring, eventful year that was full of both challenges and victories.
As we end another year under the cloud of this pandemic, we reflect on our new normal and the many ways your unwavering solidarity persevered. Workers fought back this year, and in many cases, they won.
OTTAWA – Unifor is kicking off a weeklong federal lobby to communicate urgent repairs needed to fix Canada’s broken Employment Insurance (EI) system.
“There is no time to waste when it comes to fixing EI. Workers across the country are running out of benefits and running into barriers with a program that seems more determined to punish them instead of help them,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.
TORONTO–Health care workers at eleven long-term care facilities will begin escalating community actions across southwestern Ontario after talks with employers broke off.  
TORONTO- Unifor wrote to Ontario’s Labour Minister following a disappointing report from the government’s Ontario Workforce Recovery Advisory Committee (OWRAC).
To mark the 32nd anniversary of the Montreal Massacre and the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women on December 6, Unifor – through its Social Justice Fund – donated $2,000 to 79 shelters across Canada, totalling $158,000.
“Local shelters provide life-saving assistance as frontline providers of crisis services to women and children who are living with domestic violence,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias.
Every year, Unifor observes Human Rights Day on December 10, the day the United Nations General assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Unifor is a union for everyone, and in doing so, we are asking all members to “Work together for change.”
Unifor members from the media sector have been meeting online with Members of Parliament, including Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, pushing the need for big tech firms to pay their fair share to support local news.
“Journalism is vital to the functioning of our democracy, and yet the entire sector is in crisis as big tech firms claim 90% of digital ad dollars,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias, who led the delegation meeting with Rodriguez.
“There has been a lot of talk, but now is the time for action.”
After more than a month on the picket line, striking shelter workers bring their struggle to the wider Napanee and Kingston community with a new radio ad.
Thirty-two years ago, they were training to be chemical and mechanical engineers and nurses. One was a budget clerk at École Polytechnique's finance department.
During Unifor’s online vigil, held December 6, 2021 – the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Elimination of Violence Against Women – the names of the 13 students and one worker at École Polytechnique were read aloud to remember the horrific gender-based violent massacre in 1989.
“They were killed simply because they were women,” said Lisa Kelly, Unifor’s Women’s Department Director.
Originally published in the Quesnel Observer, Campbell River Mirror and Williams Lake Tribune Dec 6, 2021
Before the ‘atmospheric river’ rained down on southern B.C, – causing historic flooding, washing away highways and cutting off entire communities – another environmental and economic disaster was already unfolding.
Unifor Local 914 members have voted 97% in favour of a new four-year collective agreement, ending a two-week strike at the Clean Harbors waste treatment facility in Sarnia.
“We would like to thank the membership, and the nearby locals and Unifor National staff who came to our picket line, and supported us throughout this strike to make this deal possible,” said Tom Rinker, President of Unifor 914, which represents 76 members at the plant.
Unifor Local 27 in London, Ontario has partnered with the Oneida Nation of the Thames on the Imagine Build project to build affordable housing.
“The Imagine Build is everything reconciliation is meant to represent. An acknowledgement of the past with a solid solution to make life better for Indigenous people in the future,” said Brian Chapman, Unifor Local 27 President.
On the 50th anniversary of Fish Food and Allied Workers’ Union (FFAW-Unifor), retired local president Earle McCurdy has published a new book reviewing the storied and proud history of one of the East Coast’s most powerful political forces.
Come hell or high water, licensed practical nurse Josephine Barron will make it into work to take care of her patients.
Even if it means hopping on a fishing boat or being transported by helicopter.
Barron, the Unit Chair for Buchanan Memorial Hospital (Unifor Local 4600), said because of huge amounts of rainfall in Cape Breton, N.S. beginning Tuesday, November 23, 2021, her usual 20-minute commute to Buchanan Memorial Hospital in Neils Harbour became a 4.5-hour drive from Ingonish as roads were washed out.
In a recent decision, Quebec’s Administrative Labour Tribunal found that Ash Grove - CRH Canada contravened the Labour Code by using replacement workers during its lock-out of Unifor Local 177 members at its Joliette cement plant that began May 22.
SARNIA—The bargaining committee for more than 70 Unifor members doing the dangerous work of treating toxic waste have reached a tentative collective agreement with the employer at Clean Harbors.
“Unifor Local 914 members went to the picket line to uphold the principles of equity in the workplace,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “Solidarity and collective action matter. Thank you to all of the Unifor members that helped pressure the employer to do the right thing.”
December 3, 2021 is the International Day of Persons Living with Disabilities. Unifor recognizes the important contributions of people of diverse abilities and remains committed to building a more inclusive, accessible world for all. The pandemic has had a tremendous impact on workers, but it has also shone light on the limitations of how work is arranged. There are opportunities to rethink and redesign how we work to increase participation of people with disabilities in the workplace, in union life and in leadership roles in workplaces and in unions.
Click, pay, wait, and the package you ordered appears at the door within days – sometimes overnight.
That’s the wonder of modern online shopping that many will partake in this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. From the comfort of our couch, we can finish our Christmas lists.
The 15th Quebec Council was held virtually in November, with nearly 250 people participating.
Quebec Director Renaud Gagné kicked things off with an overview of the major files that have kept the union busy over the past months and weeks. This was followed by presentations on the negative repercussions for health and safety of the adoption of Bill 59 as well as on issues related to violence against women.
Unifor Local 1015 Canadian Linen workers voted 80% to ratify a four-year collective agreement Friday, November 26, 2021 in Dartmouth, N.S.
“Congratulations to the members of Local 1015,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “The bargaining team represented workers’ values and priorities and negotiated the best collective agreement for the membership.”
The term of the new agreement is retroactive to January 1, 2021 and expires on January 1, 2024.
Inflation continues to be a very hot topic, both in public policy conversations and around the bargaining table. This third blog in the research department’s “Focus on Inflation Series’ looks more closely at worker wages and the effect inflation is having on purchasing power.
This month, FFAW/Unifor celebrated 50 years of trade unionism for the workers of Newfoundland and Labrador. For 50 years, my local union has been confronting power, defying the odds, sharing the wealth and building solidarity.
Here are, in writing, some of the words I shared with the welcoming audience at the recent celebration.
Thirty years after going to work for the working women and men represented by FFAW, there was no way to know where it would lead me.
VANCOUVER—Container truck drivers at Aheer Transportation and Prudential Transportation could be on strike as soon as December 3, 2021 after 72-hours notice was served today by Unifor.
“Unifor will not let Aheer and Prudential escape their responsibilities to workers,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “The pattern collective agreement negotiated this summer is fair and reasonable. There will be no exemptions for greedy employers.”
TORONTO — Unifor Locals at Enbridge Gas Inc. have filed an application at the Ontario Labour Relations Board and filed a grievance in order to defend bargaining unit rights after learning that Enbridge Inc. is contracting out union work to a wholly-owned subsidiary.
“We will fight for union rights for all energy workers who have been cheated out of better wages and benefits,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “Enbridge cannot continue to use smoke and mirrors to create a shadow workforce doing the same work under a different name.”
Accessibility
Documents can be requested in alternative/accessible formats by emailing communications@unifor.org
