Friday, June 27, 2025

CLAC in Ontario Is Firing on All Cylinders

We’re entering the summer months in high gear—and the prospects for members look positive for the rest of the year

By Ian DeWaard, Ontario Director

Construction

Members in construction are seeing increased hours relative to last year. It remains unclear what impact the tariff war with the US will have on members in this sector, but in the near term, the list of construction projects in queue remains steady and stable.

A challenge we are facing in construction is an unexpected 13.3 percent rise in health insurance costs. CLAC has analyzed all its construction collective agreements to determine if hour-bank contributions are adequate in the face of these price increases. We are connecting with all the workplaces where the insurance premium increase may be a concern so that members are aware and so that we can develop solutions before any real problems arise.

Healthcare

We continue to see a rise in membership count. Some of this is a result of organizing efforts that occurred in 2024. But we’re also seeing a gradual increase in the numbers of personal support workers and registered staff in all existing long term care workplaces. This is a credit to the government’s decision to achieve a daily standard of four hours of hands-on care per resident by March 2025. Although that target wasn’t met by the deadline, due to a shortage of trained staff, we do hear positive reports that workload pressures are easing and that staff have more time for resident care.

CLAC’s Ontario Healthcare Leadership Team attended its third annual healthcare lobby day on May 5. This annual event has become a highlight for members who were excited for the opportunity to attend Queen’s Park and present a range of proposals to greatly improve the working lives of members working in homecare, long term care, and retirement homes.

Organizing

CLAC Ontario’s Organizing Working Group (OWG) prepared a year-in-review report on their complete organizing activity in 2024. The OWG managed several innovative outreach campaigns and ran various information sessions for staff and members on how best to introduce CLAC to workers who do not enjoy the protection and benefits of collective bargaining. CLAC supported more than 25 campaigns last year. We’re grateful to all of these members for selecting CLAC as their union and for the opportunity to help make their working lives better.

Northern Ontario

For the second year in a row, CLAC is strategically building awareness of our union for workers in northern Ontario. We participated in sponsoring at six events in the first half of the year, most of which were related to mining and economic activity in Indigenous communities. To date, the reception for and interest in CLAC’s progressive, cooperative, and worker-focused approach to labour relations is being very positively received.

Ontario Stewards Conference

In February, more than 250 staff and stewards assembled for the biannual stewards conference in Niagara Falls. The two-day event was a hit, according to feedback from attendees. The conference provided opportunities to live out this year’s theme of Lead Together. There were educational sessions to help stewards represent members well and opportunities for stewards to develop CLAC’s planned responses to opportunities and challenges members face in the sectors they work in, the largest of those being construction and transportation, healthcare, and emergency services. One of the highlights of the event is the number of recognition awards handed out to stewards hitting milestone years, which ranged from 5 to 35 years of service. We are truly grateful for the long-serving elected officials of our union.  

Construction Trades Apprenticeship Support Program

The Apprenticeship Support Program that CLAC has been developing in earnest in recent years is very grateful to receive three new government funding grants in 2025 that will enable even more work to be done to support current and future apprentices on their journey toward becoming skilled tradespersons. These grants will go toward supporting and employing high school students with a co-op education in the trades, CLAC’s Construction 101 Bootcamp, registering new apprentices, developing tailored learning and supports for existing apprentices preparing for school or their certification exams, and covering the cost of trade school.

Political and Industry Stakeholder Activity

Our 2025 prebudget submission included 13 unique policy recommendations for the construction, volunteer firefighting, and healthcare sectors. In addition to the written submission, we participated in a one-hour presentation to the Standing Committee of Finance and Economic Affairs on January 15.

The Ontario government called a snap election held on February 27. During the election period, CLAC participated in several small round-table discussions with leaders of the Green, Liberal, and NDP parties.

While CLAC is strictly nonpartisan, we do encourage members to be informed voters, and so we also produced an Ontario election primer highlighting the various party positions on key worker issues. Members expressed appreciation for the detailed review of the issues that impact them most in the workplace.

CLAC in Ontario Is Firing on All Cylinders

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