Unifor is a

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the largest private sector

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

. It was founded in 2013 as a merger of the

Canadian Auto Workers The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW; formally the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada) was one of Canada's largest and highest profile labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and ...

(CAW) and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions, and consists of 310,000 workers and associate members in industries ranging from manufacturing and media t
aviation
forestry and fishing. In January 2018, the union left the

Canadian Labour Congress The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC (french: Congrès du travail du Canada, link=no or ) is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in Canada to which most Canadian labour unions are affiliated. History Formation The CLC was ...

, Canada's

national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. In some regions, such a ...

, to become independent. The union elected

Jerry Dias Jerome P. Dias Jr. (born October 10, 1958) is a Canadian trade unionist who was elected the first national president of Unifor in August 2013 at the union’s founding convention following the merger between the Canadian Auto Workers and the Co ...

, a former union leader at de Havilland's facility in

Downsview Downsview is a neighbourhood in the north end of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in the district of North York. The area takes its name from the Downs View farm established around 1842 near the present-day intersection of Keele Street and Wils ...

, as its first president on August 31, 2013. He announced his retirement on March 12, 2022 due to health reasons.

Split from Canadian Labour Congress

On January 16, 2018, the National Executive Board of Unifor decided unanimously to discontinue affiliation with the

(CLC) and become independent. In a notice posted on their website, they stated their reasons for the split were due to CLC and its affiliates lack of action and will in addressing alleged aggressive and undemocratic tactics of US-based unions towards Canadian locals. The CLC accused Unifor of leaving the congress in order to engage in "

raiding Raiding may refer to: * The present participle of the verb Raid (disambiguation), which itself has several meanings * Raid (military) * Raid (video games), a group of video game players who join forces * Raiding, Austria, a town in Austria * Par ...

" (soliciting members of another union) following an announcement that

UNITE HERE UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with roughly 300,000 active members. The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. The union was formed in 2004 by ...

Local 75 in Toronto would leave UNITE HERE and join Unifor. CAW, one of Unifor's predecessors, had previously been expelled from the CLC in 1998 due to accusations of raiding.

Local 1285

Unifor Local 1285 (previously Canadian Auto Workers Local 1285) is a merged local that represents automotive workers in Brampton, Canada. It is the biggest private sector union local in Brampton. Unifor appeared on the Canadian broadcast of Super Bowl LIII in February 2019 to air an advertisement opposing General Motors' decision to shut the Oshawa Car Assembly factory. Unifor received a letter from General Motors (GM) Canada two days before the game demanding that the commercial and an online advertisement boycotting Mexican-manufactured GM vehicles be discontinued, claiming they were designed intentionally and maliciously to mislead Canadian consumers and permanently tarnish GM's reputation with them. Despite these requests, the campaign ran as planned, with Unifor intended to continue airing it at subsequent significant events.

Saskatchewan Crown Corporations

Most of Saskatchewan’s Provincial

Crown Corporations A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a Government, government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn Profit (econom ...

employ Unifor members. * Local 1-S represents workers at

SaskTel Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, operating as SaskTel, is a Canadian crown-owned telecommunications firm based in the province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provincial government, it provides wireline and wireless communicati ...

, Directwest, and SecurTek and is based in Regina. * Local 2-S represents workers at SaskTel and is based in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

. * Local 649 represents workers at

SaskPower Saskatchewan Power Corporation, operating as SaskPower, is the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1929 by the provincial government, it serves more than 538,000 customers and manages over $11.8 billion in assets. Sa ...

and

SaskEnergy SaskEnergy Incorporated is a Crown corporation of the Saskatchewan government which delivers natural gas to 93% of the communities in the province. The company owns 70,000 kilometres of distribution pipelines, 15,000 kilometres of transmission pi ...

. * Local 820 represents workers at

SaskWater Saskatchewan Water Corporation, operating as SaskWater, is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Saskatchewan and supplies water, wastewater and related services to municipalities, industries and farms. In turn, municipalities supply wa ...

and the

Water Security Agency Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

. On September 30, 2019, approximately 5,000 Unifor members from all of the above locals began a work-to-rule campaign after failing to negotiate new contracts with the provincial government. By October 4, the job action had escalated into a strike, as all of those workers walked off the job and began picketing, with the exception of those workers working essential roles such as 911 operators, power outage dispatchers, and natural gas leak responders.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Canada, Organized labour International Metalworkers' Federation International Transport Workers' Federation General unions Trade unions in Canada International Federation of Journalists Trade unions established in 2013 2013 establishments in Ontario Organizations based in Toronto