President’s Message Shawn Haggerty

The ongoing war on workers . . . even in a pandemic

Over the last few months, a number of members received COVID-19 diagnoses. In early May, a member from Maple Lodge Farms died as a result of the virus. On behalf of the Local Union, I offer condolences to the family of that member and send my thoughts to all those dealing with their own diagnoses as well. This pandemic is real and it has had a massive effect on our working and social lives.

As a Union, it’s our job to advocate for working people. But that advocacy can’t stop at the workplace door. Politicians and corporations have far too much control over many aspects of our members’ working lives. We don’t have the luxury of ignoring what happens at Queen’s Park, Parliament Hill, or our Municipal City and Town Halls.

And politics didn’t stop with the COVID-19 pandemic either. In fact, the pandemic has revealed the many failings of our current systems.

It's all politics when we see Doug Ford’s pandering comments calling working people heroes and the backbone of our province: as soon as he steps away from the mic, he gets right back to the profitable business of dismantling workers’ rights.

At the start of the pandemic, he told workers to stay home if they felt sick. But he’s the one who repealed paid sick days for those same workers as soon as he took office. imum wage increases as well. So, while it’s infuriating enough that most, if not all, employers have ended pandemic premiums (even though we’re still in the pandemic), remember that if Doug Ford had kept the planned increases, minimum wage would have been providing $1 more per hour by now.

Ford has also limited workers' pay in Bill 124, which limits increases for public sector workers, including members of UFCW Locals 175 & 633 in some health care and service jobs. That law says that those workers cannot receive a wage increase of more than 1% – which is below inflation – in each of the next three years. It also caps any benefit improvements to 1% per year as well.

Bill 124 interferes with bargaining rights. Your Local Union, along with more than 40 other Unions and led by the Ontario Federation of Labour, launched a Constitutional challenge against Bill 124 as a violation of workers’ collective bargaining rights which are enshrined in the freedom of association guarantee of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A decision in early June by Manitoba courts struck down similar legislation, so we are hopeful this case will have a similar outcome.

Recently, Doug Ford introduced Bill 175. If passed, the Bill would result in further privatization of parts of the health care system. The terms of this Bill were determined without any advance consultation with stakeholders in the sector. The legislation would dismantle public governance and oversight for home care; privatize our existing public and not-for-profit home care system; potentially expand private hospitals, and; repeal important existing protections for clients and the public when it comes to home and community care, including the Bill of Rights and the complaint process.

There are far greater concerns to address within our health care system, particularly when it comes to our for-profit long-term care homes. It makes no sense to move to a barely regulated, more for-profit model for our home care sector.

And when recently, news outlets reported Ford’s plan to introduce changes to statutory holiday legislation for retail stores, it was only substantial public outcry that forced Ford to retreat from the proposal.

And, all of this during a pandemic.

As I said, this crisis has exposed failings in our systems, and we’ve got a long way to go to fully recover from this pandemic in more ways than one. But know, that as long as politicians continue to try and dismantle workers’ rights, your Union will be there to fight back and protect your rights every step of the way.

In Solidarity, Shawn Haggerty

president@ufcw175.com