Thursday, March 21, 2024

Collective Influence

CLAC in Ontario is gearing up its political activism and services to improve the work-life of healthcare and construction members.

Guide magazine

By Ian DeWaard, Ontario Director

During the lead-up to and the turn of the 20th century, much of the labour movement in North America was influenced by a charismatic character named Samuel Gompers. His most remarkable work was in turning the American labour movement into a political force. He spoke and wrote volumes about how and why working people should use their collective influence to agitate for a better society through political activism.

Like CLAC, Gompers believed that unions should remain strictly nonpartisan to preserve the integrity of the union movement as an agent of economic good and to avoid the pitfalls of unions and workers becoming beholden to political masters. In his words, “the trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers. . . . It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.”

As we prepare to bring the persuasive impact of 18,000 Ontario members to Queen’s Park in 2024, we do so with the same principled spirit evoked by Gompers—with rigour, and with an understanding that political action must remain subordinate to the union’s primary responsibility, which is to its members.

Healthcare

In January, we prepared and delivered the annual prebudget submission to the Ontario government. Our recommendations addressed the human resource and staffing crisis in healthcare, particularly the disparity between and underfunding for homecare workers’ travel and mileage expenses. We’re raising alarm over the significant amount of unpaid time that homecare workers experience travelling from appointment to appointment.

In March, a delegation of members will take part in our second annual Queen’s Park lobby day to press these and other points of concern for front-line workers. We will continue to strongly advocate for the extension of workers compensation (WSIB) coverage to retirement home and residential care home workers. We also will urge reform of Ontario’s essential service bargaining system (Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act) for all healthcare workers.

Many healthcare members continue to experience major frustration with inaccurate pay and improper accounting of sick and vacation banks at companies using Workday as their payroll provider. Hundreds of hours of representative and legal staff time have gone into reclaiming hundreds of thousands of dollars into members’ pension plans, sick banks, and vacation pay. Despite these efforts, continued vigilance is required to ensure members receive all they are entitled to.

Beginning in 2023 and continuing through 2024, we have focused attention to the problem of violence in the healthcare sector. Following a resolution at CLAC’s National Convention, we have struck a member advisory committee that will seek to enhance collective agreement language, joint health and safety committee resources and focus, and member education. Our goal is to reduce violence and enhance the support available to those who are victims of traumatic workplace violence.

Construction

In 2021, following some successful lobbying from CLAC and others, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development extended access to the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) to students in independent schools, a program that was previously only available to students in government-funded public and Catholic schools. Edvance, an association for such schools, is managing OYAP in Ontario’s independent schools. CLAC is a funding partner of the program, and to date, 18 schools and more than 200 students have benefited from the initiative.

As part of the union’s response to the growing epidemic of opioid use in the construction sector, CLAC recently rolled out its own free naloxone training program. The program will also assist employers in meeting their duty to keep naloxone kits on construction sites and have workers trained in how to use them. Learn more at clac.ca/naloxone.

Work continues to establish CLAC’s Apprenticeship Group Sponsorship program, a multipronged approach to supporting apprentices in the skilled trades. We are making the apprenticeship journey easier to manage with a variety of supports, including exam preparation. An important feature of the program is that CLAC can now directly register apprentices, making it easier and more enticing for small- and medium-sized contractors to take on more apprentices. More than 20 contractors have already signed on for this service, with more than 50 apprentices registered directly with CLAC.

Collective Influence

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