ATU Canada extends its solidarity and support with the over 1,100 dockworkers at the Port of Montreal who are scheduled to go on strike this morning. Their local union, CUPE Local 375, gave their 72-hour strike notice to their employer, the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) last week after the employer opted to lengthen their work shifts by almost two hours from five hours and twenty minutes to seven hours without negotiation or notice. In addition to this, dockworkers have been without an employment contract since 2018. On Sunday morning, the Minister of Labour, Filomena Tassi announced that the federal government would attempt to force dockworkers back to work through federal legislation saying that all options had been exhausted.

ATU Canada is holding a press conference this Thursday to announce escalated action amidst continued government silence over prioritization of transit workers for voluntary vaccinations and a growing number of outbreaks of COVID-19 at transit agencies. Since as early as last year, ATU Canada has been demanding that the Ontario provincial government and governments across the country prioritize transit workers but have been met with little to no response.

ATU Canada National President, John Di Nino expressed his disappointment and frustration with the most recent federal budget that he says missed an important and historic opportunity to save public transit agencies currently in crisis across the country. Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, transit agencies have faced huge losses in revenue due to a drop in ridership.

Thursday, March 18th is Transit Worker Appreciation Day. This year is especially important to recognize the difficult job that transit workers have had to do as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Canadian President of the Amalgamated Transit Union says that the “flexible+” labour policy reforms that Silicon Valley is pushing across the provinces will take workers back 100 years.

John Di Nino, the National President of ATU Canada, which represents over 35,000 workers across Canada, 1200 of which are in the City of Brampton, is calling on public officials at all levels of government to take action and provide transit workers with the protections they need to be able to do their jobs safely.

As today marks International Women’s Day, we want to recognize the important contribution that women have made to our union and the labour movement as well as recognizing the deep connection that this day has with workers around the world.

As a result of poor investment decisions by OMERS executives, OMERS saw a net loss of 2.7% on their investment returns falling far short of their yearly goal, making this their worst year since the 2008 financial crisis. In the report, they blame their losses on the COVID-19 pandemic and country-wide lockdowns but OMERS has a long history of mismanaging workers pensions well before the pandemic began.