Dear Members,

Mental Health Awareness Week is next week, May 6 to 12, 2024.
Earlier this year, we invited members to purchase a Mental Health Matters t-shirt to help raise awareness and break stigmas about mental illness and addiction.

Show your support!

We encourage you to wear your Mental Health Matters t-shirt, and send us a photo so we can show the hundreds of Unifor members committed to improving mental health supports and driving change in our workplaces.
The union will collect and share images on social media next week.

Didn’t order a shirt? No problem.

If you do not have a Unifor Mental Health Matters t-shirt, you can participate by wearing a black shirt, or by displaying the Mental Health Matters image available here.
Together, we will demonstrate our commitment to building better working conditions, learning how to support those struggling with mental health and addiction issues, and recommit ourselves to taking action and asking for help when we need it.

Please send photos to communications@unifor.org by May 6, 2024, or upload them directly to the Dropbox linked here.

Order your T-shirt by Wednesday, March 13, 2024 Noon:

https://www.unifor112.ca/2024-mha-tshirt/

Mental health impacts all of us. In any given year, 1 in 5 Canadians experiences a mental illness. By the time Canadians reach 40 years of age, 1 in 2 have – or have had – a mental illness.
Mental health should not be talked about just on campaign awareness days. We need to continue the conversations, continue to challenge stigma, educate our members and support members that may be struggling.
The Ontario Regional Council (ORC) Employee & Family Assistance Program (EFAP) Standing Committee is working to raise awareness of the importance of mental health, both on the job and in our personal lives, and to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health.
Show your support by purchasing and wearing an “End the Stigma, Mental Health Matters” t-shirt.

Hand-in-hand with awareness is access to information on prevention.

No workplace is immune from mental injury hazard. That is why our definition of occupational health and safety cannot be limited to the physical well-being only – it must include mental well-being as well.

With most adults spending more of their waking hours at workplace than anywhere else, addressing issues of mental health on the job is crucially important.

Together, we must keep this responsibility to ourselves and our co-workers in mind during any work activity.

Ensuring a psychologically healthy workplace (a workplace that promotes workers’ psychological well-being and actively works to prevent harm to worker psychological health) is a key function of Occupational Health and Safety Committees (OHSC).

Just like any other hazard at workplace, OHS Committees need to recognize, assess, control, evaluate, review, adjust, monitor and maintain the program.

OHSC’s need to use the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (the Standard) which identifies psychosocial risk factors (workplace factors).

No Unifor member is alone. You can access information on mental health or addiction and substance abuse here.

Additional Resources:

Mental Health Commission of Canada

• An Action Guide for Employers
• Mental Health First Aid

Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW)

• Mental Injury Prevention Tools – Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ)
• StressAssess.ca – Workplace and Personal Editions (COPSOQ III, Canadian data)

In solidarity,

Samia Hashi
Ontario Regional Director

November 29, 2023

Unifor marks December 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. On this day, we solemnly remember the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre when 14 women were killed on their Montreal campus, and all lives tragically lost to gender-based violence, and we recommit to the ongoing battle against this pervasive and deeply unjust violence.

Violence against women is not an issue that affects women alone; it is a deeply entrenched societal problem that demands collective action and staunch commitment. We understand the fight for gender equality and the eradication of violence against women are interconnected struggles, and they are at the heart of the work within our union.

Unifor is recognized internationally for its Women’s Advocate program that educates members to be a source of support for colleagues facing harassment or violence. Having a Women’s Advocate in the workplace can be lifesaving for members who are seeking help and protection. If you do not have a Women’s Advocate in your workplace, consider making it a priority at the bargaining table and discuss this with your fellow members.

We must never relent in our efforts to challenge the systems that perpetuate gender-based violence. It is crucial that we call for and actively work towards the implementation of policies and practices that ensure the safety, respect, and equitable treatment of all individuals, irrespective of their gender.

We urge all members of Unifor to join us in the critical endeavor to end violence against women. Together, we have the power to create a world where no woman lives in fear, where every woman’s dignity is respected, and where gender-based violence becomes a dark chapter in history rather than a lived reality.

It is only through collective action that we can create a just and equitable society where violence against women is an unthinkable act.

As you mark the day with vigils and events with your local, or by wearing your December 6 button, we ask that you share your photos with women@unifor.org. We will share submitted photos of members marking December 6 on our social channels to highlight your work in fighting for equality and respect.

Find printable posters and social media graphics here.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

September 30 is a national statutory holiday to recognize the widespread abuse at residential schools, honour survivors, and work for reconciliation. The event has been known as Orange Shirt Day (https://orangeshirtday.org/orange-shirt-day/)since 2013, named after the clothing taken from Phyllis (Jack) Webstad when she was six years old on her first day at residential school.

Unifor recognizes Orange Shirt Day using the slogan “Every Child Matters”—a plea to value and care for all children, something that was not the standard held by the churches administering residential schools, nor provincial governments nor the Government of Canada.

Since the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced the discovery of unmarked graves at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in May 2021, other nations have undertaken their own searches with similar appalling results.

While more recent discoveries have not received the same attention as earlier announcements, they are every bit as traumatic for the communities and the living relatives of the children who never came back from residential schools.

Announcements in 2023 of potential and confirmed childrens’ remains include:

• Star Blanket Cree Nation (Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School): https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/search-finds-remains-of-a-child-at-former-quappelle-indian-residential-school-in-saskatchewan/

• Wauzhushk Onigum Nation (St. Mary’s Indian Residential School): https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/wauzhushk-onigum-nation-finds-171-anomalies-during-search-of-st-marys-school-site/

• English River First Nation (Beauval Indian Residential School): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/english-river-first-nation-announces-more-findings-in-unmarked-graves-1.6951437

• Tseshaht Nation (Alberni Indian Residential School): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/search-possible-graves-vancouver-island-residential-school-1.6754634

• shíshálh Nation (St. Augustine’s Residential School): https://globalnews.ca/news/9639165/40-unmarked-childrens-graves-residential-school-sechelt-bc/

It is a reminder of the scale of colonial violence that still haunts survivors and their families today. Reconciliation is not possible until Every Child Matters.

Unifor encourages all members to help amplify the calls to end the impunity for those who covered up these crimes or continue to block the release of records.

Take Action

1. Unifor members can find out what first nation communities in their region are still undertaking searches, and may be in need of donations to complete the work.

2. Wear orange on September 30.

3. Register for a virtual tour of a former residential school: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/woodland-cultural-centre/events/september-27-tour-2023/ on September 27. Unifor has sponsored the suggested donation for up to 200 members to register.

4. Register for an online screening of the film Silent No More: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/woodland-cultural-centre/events/silent-no-more-september-28-2023/ on September 28. Unifor has sponsored the suggested donation for up to 200 members to register.

In solidarity,

Lana Payne

Unifor National President

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a day to celebrate and recognize the incredible contributions working women have made and continue to make in our country and around the world, and to regroup to face the challenges ahead.Since the pandemic began, we have been overwhelmed by changes to our daily lives and to the way we work. In many ways, society is forever changed and markedly different from what it was even three years ago. As we mark International Women’s Day, we are reminded that in times of societal change, we need to push for those changes to be inclusive and equity-driven, to move us closer to a more equal world. We remember that International Women’s Day is rooted in the collective action of working women who came together on March 8th for gender equality, and for social and economic justice for everyone. Today, much work remains to be done to ensure spaces are accessible to all women, non-binary, and trans equally. This includes the digital space.
The United Nations is marking IWD with their chosen theme:
DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality. In their statement, the UN says this aligns with the priority theme for the upcoming 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.

In simpler terms, we must use technology to advance gender equality.

While technology and online spaces have brought opportunities to build sisterhood in solidarity, they have also opened the door to anonymous and targeted gender-based violence and harassment.
The unrestricted sharing of information also allows misogynist groups to thrive despite their hateful messages that are harmful and hurtful to the lives of women, girls, and gender perse people.

Women are more likely to face sexual harassment, cyberstalking, cyberbullying and other forms of online abuse. This can cause fear and anxiety, limiting their ability to participate in online activities and often spills over into their lives away from technology.

Where technology can be healing and helpful is when it helps us build connections and communities. Women now have more access to resources and information, allowing them to make more informed decisions about their lives and learn from each others’ struggles and to support feminist campaigns around the world.

Women in Iran and Afghanistan are facing extreme risks to their lives as they strive to claw back their autonomy and their right to education from oppressive, authoritarian governments. Women in the United States are waging a battle to reclaim their reproductive rights following the devastating overturning of Roe v. Wade. Unifor sisters stand in solidarity with them and continue our fight for stronger legislative protections of abortion rights and better access to reproductive care here at home.

In our union’s work to combat the online harassment of journalists and media workers, we fight for gender equality.

In our union’s work to bargain gains for women in the workplace, including through pay equity and the women’s and racial justice advocate programs, we fight for gender equality.

In our union’s work to defend and expand public health care in Canada, and protect the working conditions of health care workers, we fight for gender quality.

In our union’s work to fight for good jobs and fair wages for everyone, across all sectors and in every region of the country, including on picket lines where workers are on strike or locked-out, we fight for gender equality.

In our effort to build an inclusive and representative union for everyone, we fight for gender equality.

The International Women’s Day organization is also reminding us today to #EmbraceEquity. We welcome everyone into every space and raise awareness about discrimination, in all its forms.

Today we celebrate the amazing achievements of working women who are making a positive difference in the world. Let us take the opportunity to applaud the women trailblazers, supporters, nurturers, activists and fighters in our lives, near and far, and thank them for all they do.

Together, we are building a better world for everyone.

Read this statement on our website here.

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed on March 21. This important day is an opportunity to empower people of all races, to reflect on past mistakes and work towards a future of equality. As a union, we must inspire inclusion and work to eradicate discrimination in our workplaces and our communities.

In 2023, our March 21 message is: “Our thoughts, our words, our actions.”

Women. Life. Freedom.

Around the world, including in Iran, women continue to fight for their freedom, and for fair and equitable treatment. Toronto is the city that brings the world’s struggles together, side by side, so we can support each other in solidarity and sisterhood.

Join Unifor activists on March 4 at the IWD Toronto Rally and March at 11:00 a.m. ET, 252 Bloor St. W.

Bring your flags, signs, and noisemakers as we show that we won’t stop fighting until every sister around the world can lead the life she chooses freely and without discrimination.

WHEN:         Saturday, March 4, 2023

Rally starts at 11:00 a.m. ET, march begins at 1:00 p.m. ET

WHERE:       OISE/UT, 252 Bloor St. W – look for the Unifor flags

Everyone is welcome.

This event is organized by the IWD Toronto committee and for more than 40 years has been the largest event in North America recognizing International Women’s Day.

For updates, please visit iwdtoronto.ca.

We invite you to capture your experiences at the IWD Toronto Rally and March and send photos or videos to women@unifor.org and tag @UniforWomen on Facebook and Twitter.

In solidarity and sisterhood,

Naureen Rizvi                              Tracey Ramsey
Ontario Regional Director           Women’s Department Director

As Unifor recognizes Black History Month, in 2023, our focus is empowering the next generation of Black youth.

As we reflect on Black history, Black accomplishments and the contributions of the many Black communities here in Canada and globally, we also reaffirm the collective work and collective responsibility we all have to continue to advocate to end Anti-Black racism in all institutions and society. We owe it to future generations.

This year, our message is “Black History, Black Futures.” Our focus will be featuring Black youth and all they offer in our workplaces and to broader society through skills, talents, intelligence, innovation, creativity, determination and leadership.

Black youth have made it clear – we need to listen. Young people are leading the way into the future, making demands to address climate change, exposing environmental racism, calling for reform within governments, advocating for health care, lobbying for job security, highlighting the inequalities within workplaces, combating Anti-Black racism, and offering real solutions to world issues. They are the future of activism, informed by history and ready to voice their demands for equity and justice for themselves and other workers, for all people and for the planet.

The Canadian government first recognized Black History Month in December 1995 in the House of Commons, following a motion introduced by the Hon. Dr. Jean Augustine.

As a progressive union Unifor is committed to more than statements and a month of solidarity. We must ensure physical and emotional health for all Black Canadians and continue to celebrate, appreciate and acknowledge Black communities across the country.

Unifor membership, leadership and communities will celebrate Black History meaningfully.

Below are tips to help celebrate Black History Month in a meaningful way

1. Celebrate and acknowledge Black history throughout the year
2. Celebrate Black history with everyone
3. Center Black History celebrations around diversity, inclusion and equity commitments and practices
4. If you don’t have diversity, inclusion and equity commitments and practices, create them
5. Eliminating anti-Black ideology and methods in organizations
6. Provide resources for Black businesses, culture centers, and community groups for everyone
7. Celebrate the present, not just the past
8. Do your learning at your own pace

We also ask them to recognize Black Unifor members, not only in February, but each day of the year, support Black members in roles in all levels of the union, respect and value the contributions and views of Black members in order to combat anti-Black racism and to continue to remove barriers in institutions that prevent Black members from fully participating.

We need to ensure physical and emotional health for all Black Canadians and continue to celebrate, appreciate and acknowledge Black communities across the country.

Statement on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

November 25 starts a global campaign of 16 Days of Activism for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This year’s theme is Unite: Activism to End Violence Against Women. In the spirit of unity, Unifor is raising awareness among the membership about the Signal for Help: https://canadianwomen.org/signal-for-help/, which began in 2020 as a way for women to silently show they need help and want someone to safely check in with them.

Over the next 16 days, we ask you to commit this signal to memory and teach it to 16 other people. This small action can lead to more women feeling comfortable asking for help, and help us all learn what resources are available to support women in unsafe situations.

Across Canada on December 6, 2022 we mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It has now been 33 years since the tragic murders of 14 young women at L’Université de Montréal’s École Polytechnique. These women lost their bright lives and futures in the span of 20 minutes at the hand of someone who openly declared his misogyny. We also mourn Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and all who have lost their lives to femicide and violence.
This year we will return to in-person vigils and memorials: https://www.unifor.org/news/events/national-day-remembrance-and-action-violence-against-women-0 to remember the women and girls we have lost and recommit ourselves to the fight to end gender-based violence.
Everyone, regardless of sex or gender, is called to speak up and speak out in a meaningful way against violence. Allyship is essential. Men must equally take a role alongside women in the labour movement to stop harassment when they see it and build safe workplaces and communities for all.
As a union, we make workplaces safe through collective bargaining language, and we must continue to push for better. One of the concrete ways we can take action at the bargaining table is to bargain new Women’s Advocates: https://www.unifor.org/node/7819. Women’s Advocates are one of the support systems Unifor has pioneered to ensure there is someone to turn to at work when home is not safe.

The pandemic and ongoing health crises have only intensified the impacts of violence against women and girls.
• 45% of women reported that they or a woman they know has experienced a form of violence.
• 7 in 10 women said they think that verbal or physical abuse by a partner has become more common.
• 6 in 10 felt that sexual harassment in public spaces has worsened.
• Globally, 1 in 3 women experience violence with the most recent global estimates showing that, on average, a woman or girl is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes.
As we witness a rise in anti-rights movements, including anti-feminists, we must speak up and speak out against the dangerous rhetoric that is impacting our lives.

As Unifor members and leaders, we heed the call to increase our activism to ensure feminist voices are at every table influencing policy decisions that impact our lives.

Together we will continue to push for safe workplaces and homes for all women and girls.

Learn more at unifor.org/women and canadianwomen.org/signal-for-help.
Read this statement on our website here: https://www.unifor.org/news/all-news/statement-national-day-remembrance-and-action-violence-against-women-0.

This year we mark Women’s History Month in Canada with the knowledge that gains toward equality are fragile and need vigilance to continually protect and enshrine them into the fabric of our union and country.

As we reach back into our past to share the stories of women who have been trailblazers, we learn important lessons from their struggles and triumphs that we need to continually remind ourselves of today.

On October 18, Canada commemorates Persons’ Day. This day in 1929 was when Canada’s highest court of appeal handed down the decision to include women in the legal definition of “persons”, and permitted some women to be appointed to the Senate of Canada and to more fully participate in public life. Persons’ Day was both the culmination of years of activism, and the start of many more years of work to ensure it was expanded and strengthened to include the rights of all women. Women of Indigenous or Asian heritage and descent remained excluded from this legal personhood for many more years.

Our history is full of obvious discrimination toward women of colour and Indigenous women. Canadian women were granted the right to vote in federal elections in 1918 but First Nations women could only vote at that time if they gave up their status and treaty rights. Their full right to vote federally wouldn’t happen until July 1960. These 40-plus years of exclusion must remind us that our work as trade unionists and feminists must be intersectional and focus on eliminating the additional barriers faced by Indigenous, women of colour, LGBTQ, and women with disabilities.

At the 2022 Unifor Women’s Conference we were reminded that until all women cross the line, none of us can truly celebrate without full inclusion of all women. As we make strides toward equality in the courts, in public policy and in workplaces, we must not simply extend the ladder to other women, but reach back to help each other climb.

Unifor has a proud history of advancing women’s rights and fighting for workplace improvements and then pushing provincial and federal governments to grant those same rights for all women. Our union’s ground-breaking and internationally-acclaimed Women’s Advocate Program plays a key role in changing workplace dynamics, educating workers about the challenges women face, and providing resources to support women through unfair treatment in the workplace, discrimination or harassment.

We must pay attention to the rollback of abortion rights and attacks on bodily autonomy in the United States and push to secure our rights in Canada. It was more than 50 years ago when a group of determined women from Vancouver formed the Abortion Caravan and travelled to Ottawa to land on then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s doorstep to demand abortion be removed from the criminal code. Let us draw inspiration from this, and other brave moments in history, to give us renewed energy for the fight.

Unifor represents 118,000 women, representing a third of our membership. This year we made our own mark on Canadian labour history for women by electing Lana Payne as our first woman president. We are still pushing to break through barriers and make our own working class history. More women are sitting at bargaining tables, are elected to their Local Executive Boards, and taking leadership roles. But, more can be done.

We must ask more women to run, invite more women to participate, and support more women to lead.

Together, we can make history and create a brighter, more equal future.

For Unifor, Black History Month isn’t an event we only acknowledge in February.

This year, Canada recognizes Black History Month as February and Forever: Celebrating Black History Today and Every Day.

The Canadian government first recognized Black History Month in December 1995 in the House of Commons, following a motion introduced by the Honourable Dr. Jean Augustine.

Unifor has long been advocating that it is vital to acknowledge and recognize Black members everyday.

As a union, we featured Black members from locals for the past few years and allowed the different regions to see the remarkable leadership within our union.

We are committed to more than statements and more than a month of solidarity. We know that Black Canadians have made tremendous contributions and possess the skills, talents, intelligence, innovation and determination to have meaningful impacts within Unifor, across Canada and throughout the world.

It is our daily choices and actions that matter.

This month, we ask our local unions and workplace union representatives to celebrate Black Unifor members and safely support community events.

We also ask them to recognize Black Unifor members, not only in February, but each day of the year, in order to combat anti-Black racism and to continue to remove barriers in institutions that prevent Black members from fully participating.

We need to ensure physical and emotional health for all Black Canadians and continue to celebrate, appreciate and acknowledge Black communities across the country.

Information about Black History Month events can be found here.
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