COPE Ontario joins

Bill 124 Charter Challenge

COPE Ontario joined nine other unions, together representing more than 250,000 thousand affected broader public sector employees, and announced their intention to launch a coordinated Charter challenge against Bill 124. As well, the Ontario Labour movement, with the Power of Many, will be initiating an aggressive campaign to repeal Bill 124, legislation introduced by the Ford government that allows the government to impose compensation caps, including for pension and health care improvements, on a variety of unionized and non-unionized public sector workplaces. Click to read the press release - Bill124 charter challenge. 

Congratulations  to Br. Mario Cloutier (COPE 225 - CUPW Unit) who was awarded the 2019 United Way East Ontario Ambassador Award at the annual Labour Appreciation night held in Ottawa.

During Anti-Bullying Week, union leaders representing education workers in both the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board and Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board came together to share and discuss mutual concerns regarding the impact, and increase, of violence and violent incidents within our classrooms and community. Click to read press release.

Congratulations Ronda Allen from COPE Local 343 on winning Vice President - Small Affiliates position with the Ontario Federation of Labour Executive Board. Sincere thanks to out going Vice President, Jim Yurkiw from COPE Local 468. Your COPE Ontario family is proud of you both and thanks you for your dedication to ensuring a strong union voice.

Following bargaining dates on November 14, 26 and 27, up next for the Ontario Council of Education Workers (OCEW) is a meeting with the Conciliation Officer on December 10. Bargaining will continue on that date as well as on December 16 and 17. In November, The OCEW affiliates conducted strike votes and received a 96 per cent mandate from their members. The affiliates of the OCEW unanimously endorsed the strike mandate to authorize a central issues strike, if necessary, to reach a satisfactory collective agreement.
The OCEW will continue to bargain in good faith to reach a fair and reasonable agreement for our members. The Ontario Council of Educational Workers (OCEW) is a partnership of unions committed to achieving a strong central collective agreement for its constituent members who do critical work in Ontario’s education sector.

The 1,100-member Bombardier Thunder Bay workforce is facing massive layoffs, some of which have already happened. COPE Local 81 which represents engineers, technicians, analysts, design drafters, etc. faces the lay-off of 40% of their membership. It is important to prioritize Canadian content at all levels of government in their vision to provide adequate transit investment to meet the needs of a growing Canada. Good jobs and working families need governments that work for them and not faceless corporations with shareholders who do not know the price of groceries and gas. President for Local 81, Steven Delorme was support by his fellow COPE sisters and brothers as he stood strong in asking for support from OFL delegates in protecting good union jobs in Thunder Bay.

On November 13, 2019 an announcement was made by Ontario Health stating that effective immediately the 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) have been clustered into 5 interim and transitional geographic regions. The 5 geographical regions will be led by 5 LHIN CEOs. The Transitional Regional Lead for Toronto will be Tess Romain who will continue managing Toronto Central. The 5 Transitional Leads will report to the Ontario Health Board. This regional clustering has resulted in the number of CEO positions being reduced from 14 to 5.

This is NOT an amalgamation or merger of any of the 14 LHINs. The LHINS will continue their day-to-day work. This transitional clustering DOES NOT AFFECT any bargaining agent (COPE) or their members or existing collective agreements.

If you have questions please contact Maureen O’Halloran on mohalloran@copeontario.ca or 416 703 8515 ext 231.

Early July, Bombardier announced they would be cutting their 1,100-member Thunder Bay workforce by nearly 50%. This is beyond partisan politics; the federal and provincial politicians MUST commit in policy and action to putting Canadian local content first for ALL taxpayer funded projects and hold Bombardier accountable to keeping jobs in Canada. This is the time for decisive action – of courage to put Canadian jobs first, our families and communities first over profit. Click to read full statement.