Earlier this week, it was revealed that some masks sent by the Province and Shared Health to workers were more than 10 years old and well beyond their expiry date. In some cases, there have been reports from workers of headaches caused by an odour and skin irritation while wearing the masks.

Toronto – November 12, 2020 – As the union for food workers, UFCW Canada will be observing this year’s International Fast Food Workers Day on November 17, and our union is encouraging members, activists, and allies to show their support for fast food workers by participating in the global day of action on social media.

Toronto – November 12, 2020 – As the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, UFCW Canada has launched a new health and safety resource aimed at helping workers protect themselves from the coronavirus.

LabourStart headline - Source: BBC

November 8 to 14 is Medical Radiation Technology Week and we salute all of our MAHCP members in this field. Thank you!

Medical radiation technologists (MRTs) work within four disciplines: radiological technology, nuclear medicine, radiation therapy or magnetic resonance imaging.

This year, the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists is using MRT Week as the springboard for a new national awareness campaign. You can help AMPLIFY and EXPAND the reach of this campaign by helping us to SHARE this material online via this link.

For more information, also please visit the Manitoba Association of Medical Radiation Technologists website.

By Doug Nesbitt But the hardest thing I’ll ask you, if you will only try Is take your children by their hands and look into their eyes And there you’ll see the answer you should have seen before If you’ll win the wars at home, there’ll be no fighting anymore– final verse of Phil Ochs’ Continue readingIf we’ll win the wars at home

Toronto – November 10, 2020 – UFCW Locals 175 & 633 members working at Breakaway Addiction Services in Toronto have ratified a new, three-year collective agreement that provides additional vacation, language improvements, and more.

MAHCP is very proud to announce the addition of Tania Wiebe to our Labour Relations team!

Wiebe has worked in community health in various capacities since 2002, including over 10 years as a program coordinator at Nine Circles Community Health Centre and seven years as a board member of Sexuality Education Resource Centre.

Her work at these centres was focused on HIV/STBBI prevention and education, healthy sexuality, and harm reduction. During her time as a program coordinator, Wiebe was a member of her workplace Labour Management Committee and also a Shop Steward (similar to Member Advocate for MAHCP).

She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and a Certificate in Public Policy and Administration, both from the University of Winnipeg.

In her spare time, Wiebe enjoys listening to music, watching and reading a fair bit of news, and running when it’s not winter.

LabourStart headline - Source: Jacobin

MGEU President, Michelle Gawronsky, issued a statement in response to the news that a Manitoba Health Care Worker has died from COVID-19.

Today, November 9, 2020, MAHCP President Bob Moroz once again called on the Manitoba Government to take immediate steps to bolster supports, staffing and protections for Allied Health Professionals who are putting themselves and their families at risk to serve Manitobans.

The open letter to Health, Seniors and Active Living Minister Cameron Friesen is available here.

MAHCP statement on health care worker death related to Victoria General Hospital outbreak:

Today, we learned the devastating news that a fellow health care worker, a member of CUPE, has died related to the COVID-19 outbreak at Victoria General Hospital.

First and foremost, I’d like to convey our deepest condolences on behalf of MAHCP to the family and friends of this Manitoban, as well as to the entire CUPE family in our province and across Canada.

While we may work in different parts of the health care system, we are all health care and we all care about each other, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic that has become so deadly in our province.

We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our CUPE colleagues and all health care unions in our call for the immediate implementation of increased health and safety measures that will keep all health care workers safe across the entire system.

Not one more death will we accept. Not one more death.

In Solidarity,

Bob Moroz

MAHCP President

Toronto – November 9, 2020 – Attention all UFCW Canada members in Ontario: Are you a grocery store cashier, store clerk, or shelf stocker? If so, we want to hear from you. Take part in a remote research study conducted by the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and receive compensation for your participation.

November 9, 2020

TORONTO—Unifor members at General Motors in St. Catharines, Oshawa and Woodstock have voted 85 per cent to ratify a new three-year collective agreement that includes significant investments, job security and economic gains.

“This contract solidifies and boldly builds on GM’s Canadian footprint, with a $1.3 billion dollar investment that brings 1,700 jobs to Oshawa plus more than $109 million to in-source new transmission work for the Corvette and support continued V8 engine production in St. Catharines,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.

“Jobs at all three Canadian sites are secure for the life of this agreement, including at the Woodstock Parts Distribution Centre, which will also see upgrades,” added Dias.

Oshawa will be the only GM plant capable of producing both light and heavy trucks, and St. Catharines will produce the engines for those pick-ups.

“After Ford and FCA, this amounts to a hat trick worth almost $5 billion dollars,” said Dias.

The Ford deal reached in September includes $1.95 billion in investments to bring battery electric vehicle production to Oakville and a new engine derivative to Windsor and the Fiat Chrysler agreement includes more than $1.5 billion in investment in a state-of-the-art platform to build both Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles and Battery Electric Vehicles.

All three contracts include support from both the federal and Ontario government.

“I want to thank both levels of government for supporting us. We went into bargaining in the middle of a pandemic, facing great uncertainty. Now we can proudly say these three contracts will breathe new life into Canada’s auto sector,” said Dias.

“I want to thank the members for their support because our solidarity proves that if we stick together, we are a powerful force and we can achieve gains and job security for all members,” said Tim McKinnon, Unifor’s GM Master Bargaining Committee Chair. “There is a future for the auto industry, and that future is ‘Made in Canada.’”

The new three year GM agreement follows a historic pattern setting deal first reached with Ford that includes five per cent increases to hourly rates, a $7,250 productivity and quality bonus, a total of $4,000 in inflation protection bonuses, improved benefits, shift premiums, and restoration of the 20 per cent wage differential for skilled trades.

In addition to several other gains in benefits, Unifor and GM have also agreed to create an anti-racism action plan, establish a new Racial Justice Advocate in the workplace, and the company will also provide up to 10 paid days of domestic violence leave.

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.

For media inquiries or to arrange interviews via Facetime, Zoom, or Skype please contact David Molenhuis, Unifor National Communications Representative at david.molenhuis@unifor.org or 416-575-7453 (cell).

November 07, 2020

ST. JOHN’S–Today Unifor received a final offer to 1,400 striking Dominion workers from Loblaw Companies Limited (Loblaw Co.) through the provincially appointed mediator Wayne Fowler.

The bargaining committee has agreed to present the final offer to the members of Unifor 597 for ratification votes.

Details of the offer will be presented to members on Monday, when voting will begin. A full meeting schedule will be provided to members tomorrow.

The ratification votes will take place at picket lines across the province during the week of November 9, 2020.

Pickets will continue during the ratification process.

Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector and represents 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.

For media inquiries or to arrange a Skype, Zoom or Facetime interview please contact Unifor Communications Representative Kathleen O’Keefe at kathleen.okeefe@unifor.org or 416-896-3303 (cell).

November 07, 2020

ST. JOHN’S–The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador has again refused to grant Weston Foods Canada Ltd. an emergency injunction against a secondary picket by striking Dominion workers at the company’s bakery in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland.

“Weston Foods has repeatedly tried to use the courts to stop this peaceful secondary picket and has once again been denied,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “Which begs the question - why is the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary intent on enforcing an injunction that doesn’t exist?”

On November 6, 2020, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) broke up the picket at the Weston bakery for the second time, threatening striking workers with arrest. The RNC action took place the day after Unifor filed a civil action against the force for violating the rights of workers at the same picket location on October 27, 2020. In the Statement of Claim the union seeks damages and a declaration that Charter rights were breached.

The company’s requests for an emergency injunction against picketing at the bakery location was refused by the court on November 3 and again on November 6. The bakery is owned by George Weston Ltd., which also operates Dominion’s parent company Loblaw Companies Limited.

On October 26, Loblaw Companies Limited was denied a blanket injunction to prevent the workers from picketing at approximately 50 locations owned by or connected to the company.

“The police have doubled down on being the personal security for Loblaw Co.,” said Dias. “If the court sees no legal reason to issue an emergency injunction to stop picketing then why is the RNC threatening to charge workers picketing in a driveway with Highway Traffic Act and Criminal Code of Canada charges?” asked Dias.

Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector and represents 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.

For media inquiries or to arrange a Skype, Zoom or Facetime interview please contact Unifor Communications Representative Kathleen O’Keefe at kathleen.okeefe@unifor.org or 416-896-3303 (cell).

Toronto – November 7, 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted working people of colour, and addressing the institutional racism that has led to this outcome must be at the centre of any just COVID-19 recovery.

LabourStart headline - Source: AFL-CIO