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TORONTO — Some workers at General Motors’ Oshawa, Ont., assembly plant will be offered retirement incentives of up to $150,000 as the automaker prepares to cut most jobs at the plant. That’s according to a bulletin posted by Unifor Local 222, which represents about 2,600 hourly workers at Oshawa. The bulletin also notes production of the Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac XTS sedans will end there in October, later than the initial summer timeframe offered by GM Canada. Pickup final assembly will end “on or before” Dec. 31, though the bulletin notes that GM would “provide written notice should there be any extensions.” Learn more

General Motors Canada says it will invest $170 million in its Oshawa, Ont., plant to transition the facility from manufacturing vehicles to stamping, sub-assembly and autonomous vehicle testing. GM Canada president Travis Hester says the move will save 300 of 2,600 union jobs at the plant. Hester made the announcement this morning in Toronto alongside Unifor national president Jerry Dias at a news conference. He said the transformed plant will have the potential to grow and attract more jobs as the facility attracts new customers. Learn more

The national president of Unifor will meet with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles officials to discuss the Windsor Assembly Plant. CTV Windsor has learned Jerry Dias has a private meeting scheduled for Wednesday with top brass from FCA. The union will not say who Dias will meet, nor will it comment on the subject of the meeting and where it will be held. Learn more

Unifor leaders are in shock after Fiat Chrysler announced they are cutting the third shift at Windsor Assembly Plant this fall. Unifor president Jerry Dias told CTV News Channel Friday that the union knew that sales were “softening,” but the move by Chrysler was a surprise. “This is pretty drastic,” he said, adding that conversations with Chrysler had been positive even up until last week. “There was no indication that they were going to do something this dramatic.” The company had “always talked about” adding another vehicle to the production line at the Windsor plant to deal with declining sales, he said. In 2015, the plant underwent $2-billion in upgrades to start building the Chrysler Pacifica. The upgrades installed give the plant “a lot of options” for what it can produce beyond the minivans, said Dias. Learn more

Thousands of employees will be affected by a temporary plant closure in Brampton.    Earlier this week, FCA Canada announced that the Brampton Fiat Chrysler Assembly plant will temporarily shut down for two weeks this spring. According to Detroit News, FCA said it would idle its plants in Windsor and Brampton for the first two weeks of April “to align production with demand.”  After that announcement, FCA announced that it would be eliminating Windsor Assembly Plant jobs.  The union representing the affected workers has expressed outrage at the news.  Learn more

TORONTO — Unifor says it has suspended a media campaign against General Motors amid productive talks with the automaker on the future of the company’s assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont.   The union says the company has been clear it won’t extend vehicle manufacturing at the Oshawa plant beyond the end of the year, but that there is potential to transform operations to maintain some jobs.   Union president Jerry Dias, who sat down Tuesday with senior GM officials in Detroit, said a deal could be reached within weeks while declining to offer details.   Learn more

TORONTO, Feb. 26, 2019 /CNW/ – Ontario’s largest union in the private sector expresses deep concern for the proposed amalgamation of healthcare oversight and delivery into an unaccountable partisan agency.   Learn more

Each week throughout Black History Month we will profile a members from across the country, highlighting their activist contributions and those who inspired them.   Learn more

OTTAWA — Four Canadian unions helped fund a private delegation to observe the Venezuelan presidential election last year, even as Canada, the United States and President Nicolas Maduro’s opponents decried the results as illegitimate.   Learn more

ST. JOHN’S, Feb. 1, 2019 /CNW/ – Unifor is donating $20,000 to the Community Food Sharing Association in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador after a fire wiped out its entire stock at the warehouse that supplies many area food banks.   “We have been a strong supporter of the Food Sharing Association and, like so many, we wanted to assist during this most difficult time. As a social union we understand the importance of social justice first and foremost, but also in supporting each other during times like these,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias.   Learn more

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The CEO of General Motors will be invited to Ottawa to explain the company’s decision to close its plant in Oshawa. Windsor West MP Brian Masse, who is the New Democratic Party’s industry and auto critic, introduced a motion at the federal government’s Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.   Read Full Article >>

TORONTO, Jan. 30, 2019 /CNW/ – Canada’s largest union in the private sector supports the rights of all people to access public mental health care free from barriers.   “To mark Bell Let’s Talk Day, I encourage all people in Canada to demand strengthened access to mental health services through our public health care systems,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “Across the country, health care is in crisis. We must unite to protect this public good.”   Read Full Article >>

With a deal set to expire in March, talks for a new collective bargaining agreement between unions and SaskTel kicked off Tuesday in Regina.   But just before that, the national leader of Unifor made it clear they won’t take a government mandated deal.   The province, said Jerry Dias, has mandated crowns give zero percent wage increases in the first two years of a deal, one percent in the third and two in the fourth, something they refuse to accept.   Read Full Article >>

The union representing General Motors workers in Oshawa, Ont., is urging Canadians to boycott purchasing vehicles made in Mexico.   “It is an announcement that we have done everything possible to avoid making,” Unifor national president Jerry Dias said during a news conference in Toronto Friday morning.   “We are announcing we are launching a major campaign urging Canadians and American consumers not to buy GM vehicles that are shipping from Mexico. This is over 600,000 vehicles a year that are shipping from Mexico to Canada and the United States.” Read Full Article >>

The head of Unifor has ruled out a potential boycott of General Motors in the campaign to save the Oshawa Assembly Plant. Speaking at a union rally in front of GM Canada’s Oshawa office, Unifor president Jerry Dias says the union will never call for an outright boycott of GM products.   Read Full Article >>

DETROIT — Unifor Canada said the Ontario and federal governments are new allies in its fight against General Motors Co.’s decision to close its assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont.   Read Full Article >>

TORONTO — Ontario and federal politicians have walked away empty-handed from meetings with General Motors about the company’s plans to close the Oshawa Assembly Plant.   Read Full Article >>

The future of the General Motors Oshawa assembly plant is in talks again on the first day of the 2019 North American International Auto Show.   Unifor National President Jerry Dias has met with Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal minister of innovation, science and economic development, Navdeep Bains, about GM. Read Full Article >>

The jobs of 2,200 Unifor members are on the line with thousands of additional spin off jobs at risk as General Motors (GM) announces restructuring with no product allocated to the Oshawa Assembly Plant past December, 2019. Unless this decision is reversed the plant, which has been manufacturing in Oshawa for 100 years, will close.   Two U.S. assembly plants and two smaller U.S. transmission operations are also threatened but Oshawa will bear the brunt as it accounts for 45 per cent of the workers affected by the restructuring plans.   Read Full Article >>

The head of the union representing General Motors Co. workers in Oshawa, Ont. is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to do everything possible to save the assembly plant, warning that the U.S. automaker is heading for a complete divestment in Canada.   “GM is leaving Canada. It’s only a matter of time, so we need to stop it today,” Jerry Dias, Unifor’s national president, said in a press conference Tuesday after meeting with Trudeau and a number of federal ministers in Ottawa.   Read Full Article >>

OTTAWA – The federal government says it’s looking at all options to mitigate the economic impacts of General Motors announcing the definite closure of its operations in Oshawa, Ont., and is vowing to help the thousands of Canadians who will be out a job.   “We are deeply disappointed. This is disappointing news. This is a critical sector for our economy. There are many suppliers, many academic institutions, many employees that rely on this sector,” Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains told reporters in the House of Commons foyer Monday morning.   Read Full Article >>

TORONTO, Nov. 19, 2018 /CNW/ – Unifor expresses grave concern following a vote by members of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party voicing support for the removal of gender identity from Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum.   “This shameful resolution shows that Doug Ford would rather appease a small faction of his party than uphold the human rights of trans students in Ontario,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “Ford’s Government has already enacted this transphobia by repealing comprehensive sex ed.”   Read Full Article >>

TORONTO, Nov, 15, 2018 /CNW/ – The Progressive Conservative’s fall economic update is a clear signal that austerity measures are coming to Ontario.   “Doug Ford’s economic plan won’t lift Ontario working families out of poverty, it will take them back to the days of Mike Harris,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “Like Harris, Doug Ford is hiding austerity measures under the guise of efficiencies.”   Today’s economic statement introduced the Low-income Families and Individuals Tax Credit which gives minimum wage workers a maximum tax benefit of $850 per year, which is far less than the scrapped $15 minimum wage increase.   Read Full Article >>

The skilled trades need an upgrade.   So said the provincial government in proposing major changes — contained in a labour reform bill introduced last week — that will reduce apprenticeship ratios, phase-out trades with low demand and begin the “orderly wind down” of the Ontario College of Trades, a regulatory body for the profession that was a first in North America.   Read Full Article >>

TORONTO, Oct. 23, 2018 /CNW/ – Unifor condemns the provincial government’s plan to claw back workers’ rights and protections.   “Fair scheduling, equal pay for equal work, paid sick days. These rights are not frivolous – they are practical, minimum standard for fairness. Standards that help grow good jobs and keep workers safe,” Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “This Act is a direct attack on millions of workers, backed up by an imaginary crisis.”   The proposed legislation caves to demands by big business, including eliminating protection for part-time and temporary workers to be paid fairly, cancelling the promised increase to $15 an hour minimum wage, slashing paid leave for workers who experience illness and crisis.   Read Full Article >>

TORONTO, Oct. 11, 2018 /CNW/ – Unifor is supporting Oxfam and Save the Children’s disaster relief efforts in Indonesia with a combined $70,000 donation.   “The scale of the damage from the earthquake and tsunami is massive,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “Save the Children Canada and Oxfam Canada are working with their Indonesian partners to provide vital aid, alleviate suffering and prevent further loss of life from spread of disease.”   On September 28, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Sulawesi region, triggering a powerful tsunami. More than 2,000 have been killed, with the death toll expected to climb, as an estimated 5,000 people remain missing, feared buried or swept away.   Read Full Article >>

Canada and the U.S. have announced a tentative new trilateral trade deal with Mexico that includes some key concessions on issues of import to both countries — and also a reworked name: the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).   “USMCA will give our workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses a high-standard trade agreement that will result in freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in our region,” Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a joint statement released late Sunday.   Read Full Article >>

TORONTO, Sept. 17, 2018 /CNW/ – Unifor warns that rushed debate on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) legislation hurts Canada’s trade position at a crucial point in NAFTA negotiations.   “The CPTPP includes loose cultural protection, an expansion of foreign imports in supply-managed industries as well as weak and unenforceable labour standards – key issues that Canada is fighting for at the NAFTA negotiating table,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “How do we tell the U.S. and Mexico that we won’t surrender Canadian markets, reduce labour standards and open ourselves up to massive job loss when that is exactly what we are in the process of doing with ten other nations?”   Read Full Article >>

HALIFAX, Sept. 5, 2018 /CNW/ – Unifor welcomes the establishment of an expert advisory panel on Nova Scotia’s long-term care system.   “The system is under-funded. Workers, most of whom are women, earn low to modest wages. The funding cuts by the McNeil government have made it harder for a system that was already challenged to deliver high quality care,” said Lana Payne, Unifor’s Atlantic Regional Director.   “Workers are stressed to the max, working short staffed, and worried about their patients and residents, most of whom are seniors.”   The panel was announced today by Health Minister Randy Delorey.   Read Full Article >>

OTTAWA, Aug. 30, 2018 /CNW/ – The federal government’s plans to modernize labour standards in the federal jurisdiction can’t happen fast enough says Unifor, after a report on government consultations was released today.   “It is good to see that they are listening to workers and understand that labour standards created in the 1960’s do not work for today’s gig economy with far too many precarious, part-time workers,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.   Read Full Article >>

HALIFAX, Aug. 19, 2018 /CNW/ – Unifor donated $80,000 to the Mi’Kmaw Friendship Centre through a fundraiser and Canadian Community Fund.   The union also pledged that members who work in the skilled trades would donate their skills to help in the hard work of building a vibrant community centre.   “Unifor unites with Indigenous people in the ongoing struggle against intergenerational violence and colonialism,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “Members from coast to coast to coast came together in this fundraiser to support the life-altering work of the Mi’Kmaw Friendship Centre.”   The fundraiser last night was part of Unifor’s ongoing support of truth and reconciliation as members from across the country gathered in Halifax for the union’s annual Canadian Council this weekend at the Convention Centre.   The Mi’Kmaw Friendship Centre serves as a focal point for the Halifax Indigenous community, providing programs that support Indigenous health, justice, employment, and education and offers a space to gather for community functions and events.   Read Full Article >>

Unifor members from across Canada are on Parliament Hill to lobby MPs for an expansion of public services, including national child care and pharmacare programs, and action on climate change.   “To continue to push for progressive change, the work of Unifor never stops and our members are vigilant in lobbying and speaking up for all workers and families right across Canada,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “Public services are the best way to ensure the needs of all are met and the federal government must put words in to action.”   As part of its effort to bring the concerns of working people to MPs this week, Canada’s largest union in the private sector has more than sixty union members representing different sectors, workplaces and regions in Ottawa. On Thursday, May 24, in a series of scheduled meetings with government and opposition MPs, Unifor members will deliver a message about the importance of investing in public services to ensure access and universality for all working families.   Read Full Article >>

TORONTO, May 4, 2018 /CNW/ – Unifor is calling on the Ontario government to increase Canadian content requirements in transit vehicles obtained through public procurement.   “It just makes sense to ensure that the purchase of public transport vehicles is linked to maintaining jobs here in Ontario,” said President of Unifor Local 1075 Dominic Pasqualino, representing 1,100 Bombardier workers in Thunder Bay, Ontario. “We have highly trained, dedicated people producing a good product whose jobs are at risk, while work is contracted out of the province and out of the country.”   Unifor representatives expressed concern about the future of good manufacturing jobs in a meeting with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne this week, as current contracts with the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and Metrolinx are scheduled to be completed at the Thunder Bay plant by the end of next year.   “Unifor took the message that government policy levers, such as procurement and increased Canadian content, can and should be used to protect and expand good paying jobs in Ontario and prevent outsourcing to low wage jurisdictions,”said Shane Wark, Assistant to the Unifor National President.   Through direct and indirect employment, Bombardier accounts for 7.5 per cent of private sector employment in Thunder Bay, with one out of thirteen jobs linked to the plant.   Read Full Article >>

Canvassing in elections is exciting, sometimes awkward, and absolutely vital to the success of campaigns.   To kick start Unifor’s member to member campaign, twenty-four members from ridings across Ontario gathered in Toronto for two days of training.  The organizers participated in sessions that offered tools and resources on how to have doorstep conversations with union members as part of the Make it Count campaign that will gear up when the writ drops next week.   The training follows a directive that was approved by members at the December 2017 Ontario Regional Council and is part of Unifor’s plan to campaign to, “elect a progressive government that respects trade union rights and the role of the labour movement.”   The adopted recommendation also called on local union leadership to work actively to mobilize members to vote on June 7.   “There’s too much at stake in this election, with conservative threats to public services like healthcare and squashing the rollout of the $15 an hour minimum wage,” commented Naureen Rizvi, Ontario Regional Director. “Unifor volunteers and organizers will put in the work in order to turn the tide.”   Unifor’s Make it Count campaign asks all Unifor members to not settle, but to unite and demand a more progressive province for all of us.   Currently, the Progressive Conservatives are ahead in all provincial polls even though the party’s leader has expressed support and interest in implementing anti-worker, anti-woman policies and threatens the public services that we all rely on.   Denise Hammond, Director of Communications, reminded members that polling looked similar leading up to the 2014 election, with Tim Hudak ahead, but Unifor mobilized to stop the conservatives then and union members can do it again with Doug Ford.   Read Full Article >>

TORONTO, March 27, 2018 /CNW/ – The Ontario Liberal’s last budget before the June 2018 provincial election must address inequality and the crisis in care, says Unifor.   “Workers are looking for a provincial budget that builds off the advances that we have won in recent years and refuses to shy away from universal public programs that will build a more equitable society,” said Naureen Rizvi, Unifor Ontario Regional Director.   “We have lobbied for legislation that raises wages and protects the most vulnerable members of our society but we’re not done yet, and Unifor members are not ready to slow down.” In a pre-budget submission, Unifor proposed solutions that would address Ontario’s health care crisis and improve conditions for working families including; Establishing a minimum standard of care in long-term-care including four hours of daily direct care, Restoring hospital funding with a multi-year increase of five per cent per year, Widening access to pharmaceuticals through a universal pharmacare program, and Ensuring that families have access to public child care and that no one is turned away because of cost.   Read Full Article >>

The member of Unifor’s executive board which voted in favour of splitting with the Canadian Labour Congress says members do not need to be concerned.   Dave Cassidy, who is the national chair of the committee on skilled trades and the secretary-treasurer of Unifor Local 444 in Windsor, says the dispute is over the rights of workers to choose which union will represent them.   He says the issue goes back to a move by the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 to transfer members to Unifor. The ATU Local 113 represents transit workers in Toronto. The ATU fired Bob Kinnear saying he had violated his oath of office. It characterized the move as “underhanded” and “secretive”.   Under Article 4 of the Canadian Labour Congress’s constitution the issue should have gone for a review, but instead, the union was placed in trusteeship.   Read Full Article >>

OTTAWA—Canada has made a bold offer to accept a controversial U.S. demand at the NAFTA talks about how to resolve commercial trade disputes, the Star has learned.

It involves the current binding trade dispute settlement process used to resolve lawsuits by investor companies against North American governments. Binational tribunals adjudicate complaints, and their rulings are final.

The U.S. wants it to become an “opt-in” system or, as one Canadian official called it, a voluntary system.

Canadian officials say the U.S. has signalled it would “opt out” of the system while expecting its two partners would still “opt in” the binational tribunals that decide complaints by companies who feel harmed by government regulations.

But Canada has effectively said “wait a minute.”

Instead, the Canadian team has proposed that Canada and Mexico would agree to a dispute settlement process between their two countries alone — to be outlined in an annex to the NAFTA, according to a Canadian official who spoke to the Star on a background basis.

In effect, Canadian NAFTA negotiators are taking a gamble on whether the Americans can take “yes” for an answer when it comes to rewriting NAFTA rules.

Read Full Article >>