After scandal rocks Unifor, new president wants union to be ‘strongest’ in Canada – National | 24CA News
The new president of Canada’s largest private-sector union is trying to pave a brand new path heading into 2023 after a 12 months full of financial uncertainty and employee strikes, all on high of a months-long scandal that shook members’ belief.
“I have a lot to offer in terms of the direction that I think the union needs to go in,” Lana Payne mentioned at a sit-down interview in her new Toronto workplace, sparsely embellished as she adjusts to her new position.
As Unifor – which was created in 2013 from the mix of the Canadian Auto Workers union and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada – approaches its 10-year anniversary, Payne believes it’s coming into a brand new period.
“I want it to be the strongest and most progressive union in the country,” she mentioned. “That’s what I want people to think about when they think of Unifor. I don’t want them to think of one person.”
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Lana Payne elected new Unifor president following Jerry Dias’ departure
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Unifor made headlines earlier this 12 months when high-profile then-president Jerry Dias was accused of accepting a bribe. He stepped down from his put up forward of his deliberate retirement and a contentious election ensued, together with his former assistant competing in opposition to Payne and one other contender – the primary contested election since Dias was elected at Unifor’s founding.
Payne, who took the helm in August, has her work lower out for her.
Since profitable the election, she has spoken about Unifor turning a brand new web page, however should grapple with what which may appear like for a union that’s solely ever had one president – one whose identify was usually synonymous with the union itself.
Payne mentioned she’s been placing in work to enhance the union’s construction by increasing the management circle, renewing the union’s deal with fairness and attempting to forestall silos within the group.
“Change is something you have to work at every single day,” she mentioned. “You have to constantly be pushing out the things that you believe are necessary for the union to change.”
While 2022 was a tumultuous 12 months for Unifor, it’s additionally been robust on employees, with hovering inflation and rising rates of interest lowering their spending energy and a wide range of labour disputes in a number of sectors.
The tight labour market has meant employees have extra bargaining energy with employers, Payne mentioned, and with decades-high inflation, unions have been asking for extra on the bargaining desk.
Unifor noticed 31 strikes throughout its bargaining efforts this 12 months. That’s a document, up from a earlier document of 21 set final 12 months. Payne expects this elevated turbulence to proceed in 2023.
“Workers have high expectations right now. And they feel a sense of power, which is good and important,” mentioned Payne. “It’s a long time coming, don’t you think?”
Unifor is concentrating on its efforts significantly on the lowest rungs on office ladders. As an instance, Payne detailed a current settlement with Suncor Energy Inc. to show 300 momentary positions into everlasting jobs by the tip of 2024.
Unifor has about 800 agreements, representing some 80,000 employees, up for bargaining in 2023.
Talk of a recession subsequent 12 months worries Payne, however she thinks the tight labour market would make it totally different from earlier downturns, as employers are nonetheless struggling to fill key positions and could also be proof against widespread layoffs.
While a recession might take the sting off employees’ bargaining energy, she is decided to not lose momentum.
Payne can also be centered on key sectors going by way of transitions, akin to media, power and the automotive business, the place she’s retaining a eager eye on Canada’s investments in electrical autos.
She mentioned Unifor desires to make sure that employees within the conventional auto sector who’re in danger throughout the transition have the chance to obtain expertise coaching.
Though totally different from her predecessor in some ways, Payne hasn’t shied away from talking out on political points – one thing Dias was additionally identified for.
She’s been vocal in her criticism of the Bank of Canada’s tactic to curb inflation. She thinks the rate of interest will increase in its mandate ignore the geopolitical elements affecting inflation, that are exterior the central financial institution’s management.
“Why are we using the 1970s approach to trying to solve the problems that we’re seeing today?” she requested. “Why are workers having to pay the price?”
Along with different economists, the Bank of Canada has expressed concern that rising wages might assist entrench excessive inflation, although wages are usually not rising on the identical charge as costs.
When schooling employees with the Canadian Union of Public Employees went on strike this fall, they have been additional galvanized by the Ontario authorities’s try and make the strike unlawful. Private- and public-sector unions from throughout the nation, Unifor included, banded collectively to oppose the legislation, and discuss of a historic normal strike was within the air.
In the tip, the federal government repealed the invoice.
Payne mentioned the unions knew that if the Ontario authorities’s use of the however clause to finish the strike was allowed to face, it could have set a harmful precedent.
“There was no losing this one,” she mentioned.
Instead, one other precedent has been set.
“The message is that collective bargaining rights and trade union freedoms cannot be taken away from us and we’re not going to stand by and allow it to happen,” Payne mentioned.
The second was a reminder of one thing that had maybe been forgotten, she mentioned: not solely are employees stronger collectively, so are unions.
“We can build solidarity, we can be a different kind of movement,” she mentioned.
Not lengthy after, the courts struck down Bill 124, one other Ontario legislation that had restricted public-sector wages.
The authorized challenges going through employees are nonetheless on Payne’s thoughts heading into 2023. She desires to see Employment Insurance improved and provinces’ labour legal guidelines modernized, along with her eye on sector-wide bargaining as a possible alternative for employees in sectors like retail which might be tougher to arrange.
“We haven’t seen significant change in labour legislation except to go backwards in a very long time,” she mentioned.
