About 5,000 workers for six Crown corporations and one Crown agency, who are all members of Unifor, went on strike Friday morning, October 4th. Later that day at 4 PM, Unifor members rallied outside of the Saskatchewan Party convention, including local national Unifor leadership Simon Enoch, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Continue reading5,000 Unifor Crown workers on Strike in Saskatchewan
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If you were to believe Jerry Dias, president of Unifor Canada, you’d conclude the Northern Pulp issue is easily resolved. 350 direct jobs will be lost if the Northern Pulp plant in Pictou County closes, and 2,700 full time spinoff jobs will also be gone. That was the message Dias delivered at a press conference Continue readingNorthern Pulp and Unifor
Read Part 1 of this look into the conditions of long term care in Ontario here. By Zaid Noorsumar On Jan. 23, 2007, 73-year-old Betty Moseley-Williams testified to the legislative standing committee about Bill 140, the Long-term Care Homes Act. Moseley-Williams, who had worked as a nurse for 50 years, harkened back to a conversation Continue readingIs it Time to Care Yet?
By Kevin Taghabon “General Motors is not the solution. General Motors is the problem,” loud applause followed autoworker Tony Leah’s declaration at the front of the room at IBEW Hall. His speech was part of an event, Nationalize General Motors: Oshawa’s Green New Deal. The evening served as the first organizing meeting for a grassroots Continue readingNationalize GM
By Sam Gindin Following an aggressive public relations campaign in which union officials questioned GM’s loyalty to ‘Canadian taxpayers’, General Motors has apparently agreed to keep its Oshawa facility partially open. No official announcement has yet been made, but there are rumours of a revised plan to retain 600-700 workers by investing $100-million to stamp Continue readingGM Oshawa: Lowered expectations, unexplored opportunities
General Motors has announced it will end production at five North American plants, just a decade after the company received billions of dollars in U.S. and Canadian taxpayer money and won sweeping concessions from auto unions as part of the bailout. All told, about 6,700 hourly and salaried employees stand to lose their jobs as Continue readingWhy we occupied our General Motors factory in Oshawa
By Gerard Di Trolio, David Bush and Doug Nesbitt The announcement on Sunday night that GM will close their Oshawa plant at the end of 2019 is devastating news for the thousands of autoworkers and their families in Oshawa. Site of the 1937 strike against against GM that marked the first big breakthrough of industrial Continue readingBuckle up: GM declares war on Oshawa
By Nora Loreto On day 597 of a lockout of workers by D-J Composites in Gander, N.L., Unifor Local 597 hosted a barbeque to boost morale. It was earlier this summer, and the lockout had almost reached two years. Iggy Oram, plant chair, told the crowd there wasn’t much that the 32 aerospace workers could Continue readingNaming and shaming scab labour
Since April 27, over 350 miners in Goderich, Ontario have been on strike. The union, Unifor Local 16-0, is fighting against concessions demanded by Compass Minerals which owns the salt mine, the world’s largest. The town of 8,000 and surrounding area has rallied to the miners’ cause. Lawn signs supporting the workers have popped up Continue readingWeekend Video: The Battle of Goderich
By Bruce Allen About a hundred autoworkers, led by workers from Toyota, and their supporters rallied in front of Queen’s Park in Toronto on April 22. They were protesting the Liberal government’s decision to allow an “exception” for the auto industry for personal emergency leave (PEL) days. The exemption was brought into effect in January 2017. Continue readingToyota autoworkers take on Liberal’s ESA exemption
By James Napier Unifor claims to be the “largest private sector union” in Canada. It would be more accurate to describe them as the largest union-raiding organization in Canada. Unifor now spends more time and money raiding other unions than they do organizing un-organized workers. Almost 60% of “new” members in the first 3 months Continue readingRaiding over organizing for Unifor?