Unifor Local 302 President’s Report- November 28, 2022

As many of you may already know Lisa Tucker has been offered an opportunity to go and work for the National Union, as a National Rep. Although happy for the opportunity this brings her, we are sad to see her go, as Lisa has represented Members of this Local for over 22 years and that kind of Leadership cannot be replaced. We wish her well and know that she is not gone, but just working for our Union in a different capacity. Good luck Lisa, you’re going to be missed and we know you’ll be great in your new role.

On Tuesday November 1, 2022, the 13th annual “Shine the Light on Woman Abuse” event was held in Victoria Park with the lighting of the Tree of Hope. This year’s event focused primarily on the themes of coercive control and filicide. Coercive control is “a pattern of behavior intended to isolate, humiliate, and exploit a woman, while filicide is the deliberate act of a parent killing a child”. The Shine the Light on Woman Abuse campaign is the brainchild of the London Abused Women’s Center. The campaign which began in 2020 as a small grassroots movement has become an internationally recognized awareness campaign, exposing men’s violence against women worldwide. The campaign was further recognized with Londoner’s wearing purple “Let it Shine” t-shirts on Tuesday November 15, 2022.

The December 6th memorial, a National Day of Remembrance and Action to End Violence Against Women, will be held at Local 636 this year. They are located at 126 Beale Street; Woodstock and they start at 7:00pm.

On December 31st the Ford Government tabled legislation (Bill 28) to pre-emptively stop a strike and impose a new contract on the 55,000 CUPE workers across Ontario. The Ford Government also imposed the “Not Withstanding Clause” to protect the legislation against any legal challenges. This was described in the press as the “Nuclear Approach” by the Government. Friends, this was an unprecedented attack on free Collective Bargaining and our collective democratic rights, which affected all workers.

This banded 17 Unions across Ontario to stand behind CUPE at a press conference in Toronto, which caused the Ford Government to withdraw Bill 28 in its entirety.

CUPE disregarded the Legislation prior to its withdrawal and walked off the job on November 4th with other Unions alongside of them, including over 50 Members from Unifor Local 302’s Education sector.

The BIWOC Committee met November 21st here at the Local for their first meeting along with Members from other area Locals.

Negotiations

Upcoming: Caressant Care Bonnie Place, Vision Retirement, Chelsey Park Service, and Chelsey Park RPN.

Ongoing: Avon Maitland District School Board, Waterloo Catholic District School Board, Pinehaven Nursing Home.

Ratified: Revera Dover Cliffs, Elmwood, and McGarrell, Chartwell London, and Longworth Retirement Home.

Tentative: Chartwell Parkhill and Caressant Care Courtland.

Arbitrations: Currently we don’t have anything scheduled.

We continued our tradition of Christmas shopping for families at Trafalgar Public School, and this year we shopped for 9 families, with 22 children.

You still have until December 4th to utilize your Columbia pass at the Columbia outlet. They were sent out as a separate mailout earlier this month.

In Solidarity,

Kevin Phillips

President

Unifor Local 302