TORONTO —
The head of Canada’s largest private sector labour union has a blunt message for Unifor staff: Get vaccinated or find another job.
The union recently advised its 425 staff membersthat they will be placed on an unpaid leave of absence until they get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“And if they don’t get vaccinated within a reasonable period of time, well then that’s fine,” said Jerry Dias. “They can work for another organization. I’m not messing around with this.”
Dias also has a warning for Unifor members who are holding out against being vaccinated, saying they could end up losing their jobs if their employer adopts a vaccine mandate.
“If people are terminated because they make the decision that they’re not going to be vaccinated, then our lawyers are saying to us that they will stay terminated,” Dias said in an interview.
The growing number of vaccine mandates in the public and private sectors have exposed a fault line in Canada’s labour movement.
Canadian National Railway Co. and WestJet Airlines are among the latest large employers to announce their vaccination policies, following an Aug. 13 directive from Ottawa that requires all employees in federally regulated industries to be vaccinated.
Both railways and airlines are members of that group, which also includes banks, telecommunications companies and employees of Crown corporations.
Montreal-based CN will require all employees in Canada, contractors, consultants, agents, suppliers and anyone who accesses its Canadian properties to be vaccinated as of Nov. 1. It said requests for medical or religious exemptions will be considered on an individual basis.
Calgary-based WestJet’s mandate is effective Oct. 30. The airline said it will accommodate employees who are unable to be vaccinated but those who fail to attest their vaccination status by Sept. 24 or achieve full-vaccination status by Oct. 30 will face unpaid leave or termination.
Like Air Canada, WestJet is not providing COVID-19 testing as an alternative to vaccination.
Unifor’s executive committee voted unanimously to support vaccine mandates, and Ontario unions for elementary and secondary teachers have voiced their support for mandatory vaccinations in schools.
A pro-mandate position in the context of a pandemic is not surprising given the union’s duty to protect the health and safety of its members, says Alison Braley-Rattai, assistant professor of labour studies at Brock University.
“In a different context, however, that could change,” she wrote in an email.
“For example, if your employer wanted you to be vaccinated against some non-transmissible disease to reduce the risk of you being absent from work due to illness, a union would likely oppose such a policy.”
Whether employees should face job loss is also an open question given that we don’t know how things will look a year from now, she said.
“A union could readily argue that termination is an extreme response to a mandate that may end up being temporary, and that the worst thing one should face is a temporary unpaid leave.”
Unions opposed to vaccine mandates include the Toronto Police Association and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, which represents public transit workers in Toronto and the York Region.
Police association president Jon Reid said it will “make every effort to protect all of our members and therefore, does not support this mandatory vaccination announcement or mandatory disclosure.”
ATU local 113 president Carlos Santos pushed back against the Toronto Transit Commission’s mandatory vaccination policy.
The union has urged members not to disclose any private medical information to the country’s largest transit authority.
“ATU Local 113 opposes this policy, and we will fight to defend your right to make your own personal health decisions and protect your private medical information,” Santos said in a letter to members on the union’s website.
Santos added that the union will oppose any discipline imposed on members.
However, Dias said the labour movement should be candid with people about whether unions can actually block terminations.
“I think there’s a lot of unions out there that frankly don’t have the political will to be honest,” he said, adding that the union isn’t obligated to take a case to arbitration.
“According to our lawyers, if they are fired for refusing to take a vaccine and they don’t have a bona fide medical reason to do so that an arbitrator will very likely side with the employer.”
While the Canadian Labour Congress supports vaccinations, it says the country’s unions are concerned that mandatory vaccinations will hand employers overreaching powers.
“Any decision to impose mandatory vaccination policies must be based on scientific evidence and be made by public health officials, not employers or unions,” it stated in a news release.
It said unions must be consulted in the development and implementation of any mandatory vaccination policies with exemptions and accommodations and privacy protections being essential.
The central labour body in Canada said it rejects threats of discipline or termination as an approach to increasing vaccination rates.
“Unions will defend workers’ interests and insist employers respect the terms and conditions of the collective agreement and human rights codes.”
Various national unions similarly support vaccines in general while seeking oversight for sweeping employer mandates.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees says governments and employers need to consult with unions before finalizing and implementing vaccine policies. It also says workers who cannot be vaccinated for medical or religious reasons must be accommodated under human rights legislation.
“As a union, we recognize our obligation to those members who are not vaccinated,” it stated, adding that alternate work arrangements, screening and testing before entering the workplace can be effective.
Public Service Alliance of Canada national president Chris Aylward said it supports the government’s goals but the verification of vaccination or medical status of members must respect their legal right to privacy.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) said it categorically reject terminations and discipline as leverage to increase vaccination rates.
“Punitive policies are not conducive for a positive workplace and a healthy relationship with employees.”
Teamsters Canada questioned the urgency of the government’s push for a vaccine mandate given alternative ways to encourage vaccination.
“Canada already has one of the world’s best vaccination programmes, and other measures like provincial vaccine passport systems had promising potential.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2021.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
