By Gavin McGarrigle, Western Regional Director and Linda MacNeil, Atlantic Regional Director
The speed and depth of the economic downturn inflicted by the COVID-19 crisis has been unprecedented. The Canadian economy took a 9% hit to its gross domestic product in March 2020 and the labour market shed over a million jobs. The numbers for April and May are likely to be even worse.
Across Canada, long term care facilities are emerging as epicentres of the COVID-19 pandemic, with half the country’s pandemic deaths occurring in such facilities.
We’ve all heard the horrific stories coming out of Bobcaygen and Dorval of long term care facilities overrun with COVID-19, and patients and grandparents dying alone and separated from their family in time of need. Police are investigating the situation in Dorval.
On the afternoon of Saturday March 28, timing that leaves no doubt he was seeking to avoid as much media scrutiny as possible, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s government emailed school boards announcing a 14 per cent cut to the education system.
After school boards are done scrambling with the change, Kenney’s new education cut could translate into 20,000 layoffs of education assistants and other support staff that help make Alberta’s schools high-quality.
We have all seen the incredible images of young families holding up babies to closed windows at long term care facilities, showing new grandchildren to residents under lockdown.
Older children hold up bristol board signs reading “We love you, Grandma” as residents and family members press their hands to opposite sides the glass.
As heartwarming as these images are, there is a sadness to them because of the important emotional connection that is lost and so important to the health of long-term care residents.
We’re calling relatives and neighbours to check in on them, reaching into the pantry to make groceries last just a little longer, and relying on health care workers to help us navigate the new world of isolation, screening, and care.
For me, it means negotiating for Unifor members over the phone instead of across the table and talking to news networks by Skype from my kitchen.
For too many, the COVID-19 crisis means sudden layoff and isolation.
This year the annual United Nations’ World Water Day comes at a pivotal moment for Canada. Defending freshwater resources has been a growing concern for Indigenous communities—and for good reason. Safe drinking water is a human right, but it is far from something that many remote First Nations can take for granted.
There are at least 61 long-term and dozens more short-term drinking water advisories in effect for Indigenous communities across Canada. Some communities haven’t had access to safe drinking water for decades.
We are living in unprecedented times, and the window to flatten the curve is closing fast, and so is the opportunity to minimize the economic fallout of a pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic presents a tremendous challenge – both to human health and to the economy.
The solution to protecting our health, by closing the border and asking Canadians to stay home, is a wise move to prevent the spread, but it will have a swift and devastating effect on businesses who will be forced to issue massive layoffs or reduce hours.
On March 8 we celebrate, we mourn and we double down on our determination to do more.
International Women’s Day this year comes on the 50th anniversary of two important events – the abortion caravan to Ottawa and the Royal Commission on the Status of Women.
These landmarks are worth celebrating, even as we recognize the work that still needs to be done.
Members of Unifor’s predecessor unions were involved in the caravan, which began in Vancouver and made its way to Ottawa to push back against changes to Canada’s Criminal Code on abortion.
Premier Jason Kenney’s second budget sends a clear message to working people that they don’t matter. His 2020 budget doesn’t create jobs, it kills them, while exposing Alberta’s most vulnerable to even more insecurity.
Kenney is doubling down on the same austerity strategy that has failed to produce results in Alberta or anywhere else in the world. His massive spending cuts coupled with tax breaks for the rich are the last thing Alberta needs.
By now, the entire country is aware of the ten week long lockout at the Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) refinery in Regina. What fewer people know is the length to which the company has worked to prolong it. It has deftly used numerous systemic advantages to try to break our union. FCL has been let off the hook time and again. It has to stop.
On December 5, 2019, FCL locked out 730 members of Unifor Local 594 after walking back on its promise to keep workers’ pensions in place.
