Women

From October 4 – 7, 2026 nearly 400 people gathered at Unifor’s Family Education Centre in Port Elgin, Ontario for Unifor’s National Women’s Conference. 

On Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, Unifor joined early childhood educators, parents, labour leaders, and community advocates on the lawn of Queen’s Park in Toronto for the Care Counts Rally for Early Learning and Child Care. 

The action amplified the call for Premier Doug Ford and the Ontario government to step up with necessary provincial funding for early learning and child care.

Unifor representatives, alongside labour leaders from across the federally regulated private and public sectors, met with the Federal Pay Equity Commissioner Lori Straznicky on Sept. 24, 2026, at the Canadian Labour Congress’s offices in Ottawa. 

The meeting gave workers’ representatives a chance to connect and share feedback on the implementation of the federal Pay Equity Act.

Speaking to a room of nearly 400 at Unifor’s National Women’s Conference in Port Elgin, Ont., teacher and TikToker Joanna Johnson opened the event with a keynote address that tapped into the strength of women and the truth they must wield, framing the conversations that would follow over the coming days. 

“We’re afraid of telling the truth because we’re afraid it will limit our progress and our access.”

Unifor members and leadership along with advocates and government officials gathered at the Unifor Halifax Regional office on Friday evening to celebrate the Nova Scotia launch of We’re Here For You Canada, a national organization providing trauma-informed comfort kits to survivors of sexual violence and intimate partner violence (IPV). 

The Honourable Rob Lantz, M.L.A. 

Chair, Council of the Federation 

Premier of Prince Edward Island

Dear Premiers,

Re: Premiers response to gender-based and intimate partner violence

I am writing to you collectively in advance of the 2026 Summer Meeting of the Council of the Federation to urge nationwide solidarity in declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic.

On June 24 at the New Westminster Office, more than 100 Unifor members, survivors and community front line service providers participated in an Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Symposium hosted by the B.C. Regional Women's Committee and the Unifor Women's Department.

After decades of advocacy by pay equity groups, including Unifor, workers in New Brunswick secured a major victory on June 12 with the passage of the Pay Transparency Act. The new law aims to advance pay equity by identifying and addressing gender pay gaps across the province.

In the short-term, the legislation expands pay transparency to many public sector workers, with a commitment to expand it to the private and care sectors by 2028.