Of Note: This news item is archived content from UFCW Canada Local 1000A.
Local 1000A and UFCW Canada Local 206 merged on May 1, 2016 to form UFCW Canada Local 1006A.
Walmart workers took part in a worldwide protest on December 14, 2012 to raise awareness about how the multinational giant was treating its workforce. Local 1000A members and activists in the GTA supported workers in these global efforts, by handing out flyers and talking to members of the public about the need for Walmart’s employees to be paid fairly and treated with dignity.
UFCW Canada Local 1000A is proud to congratulate the Ottawa Retail Franchise Division for its hard work and dedication in raising $1,320 in the fight against Leukemia & Lymphoma.
The division undertook multiple initiatives last year, including a TV raffle, book sales, and a bake sale to fundraise for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada. “All in all, we are very pleased and happy with everyone who participated in all these initiatives,” said Gord Knowles, President of the Ottawa Retail Franchise Division. “Without their support, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did.”
Ontario’s workers and their families will be facing one of the biggest attacks on their rights if right-to-work-for-less legislation becomes a reality in this province.
“My livelihood will be in jeopardy,” said Glacier Samuel, a bookkeeper at Oakville’s Real Canadian Superstore. The mother of three said right-to-work-for-less will empower the rich at the expense of poor, stripping workers of hard-fought rights and protections in the workplace. “Companies will be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want to us,” Samuel said. “Our wages could be cut, our benefits eliminated and people will have to struggle more than ever to make ends meet.”
At its essence, right-to-work-for-less is the gutting of labour laws and the decimation of resources unions use to protect and defend members.
UFCW Canada Local 1000A activists were among the 120 delegates who gathered at Barrie’s Kempenfelt Centre to participate in the first ever Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) Women’s Leadership Summit. Held over three days, the summit drew women from a wide range of sectors, from retail to industrial to healthcare to education.
After several draft exchanges between your Union and the Company, Local 1000A is pleased to announce hard copies of the Loblaws Real Canadian Superstore (RCSS) appendices and letters of understanding covering RCSS workers are being printed and will be available for distribution by the end of the month. In order for our members to access this information as quickly as possible, we have also uploaded an electronic “draft” of the RCSS booklet online. Earlier this year, the draft Collective Agreement covering Great Food was published. The full Collective Agreement covering Loblaws Conventional, RCSS and Great Food is over 450 pages.
Workers Rights At Stake
It is in everyone’s interests to raise retail standards and revolutionize retail.
That was one of the key messages delivered by Professor Kendra Coulter at Local 1000A’s Divisional Advisory Conference, held from November 27 to 29 in Richmond Hill. More than 52 divisional officers from across Ontario attended the two-day conference which featured several speakers and workshops on the local union’s divisional structure and guidelines.
“Retail is the new normal — it’s the new form of mass employment,” Coulter said. “What happens in retail affects the rest of the economy.”
