Canadian Worker News
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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Members of BCTGM Local 264 (Toronto) employed at two Concord Confections locations in Vaughan, Ont. have voted to overwhelmingly accept an historic 5-year contract. Negotiations were led by Canadian Region International Vice President Ron Piercey and included Negotiating Committee members International Representative Karl Walker, Local 264 Business Agent Bill Hegedus and Members Muniruddin Ahmed, Quan Hoc Duong, Bing Zhong Lin, Earl Lucier, Alex Melkonian, Navaneethan Navaratnam, Eslyn Smith and Robert Ziniuk. For the first time ever, the...

11 June, 2024

On October 7th, BCTGM Local 264 (Toronto) held a day of union generosity to provide members formerly employed by Delโ€™s Pastry with union foods to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. Delโ€™s Pastry was destroyed by a fire on June 15th. According to BCTGM Canadian Vice President Ron Piercey, the party lasted more than six hours. Union members dropped in and out of the event throughout the day as some members are working at other places while they wait...

23 October, 2021

BCTGM Canadian Region International Vice President Ron Piercey and International Representative/Organizer Karl Walker accompanied members of Local 264 (Toronto, Ontario) for an informational picket outside the Mondelez facility in Toronto. The group distributed fliers on how to follow and support the Nabisco strike. Piercey said they also answered questions from the workers and explained how the union was helping workers in the United States fight for a fair union contract. ...

15 September, 2021

During the 2015 election, Prime Minister Trudeau's Liberalsย campaigned to close a $750 million tax loophole used by CEOs and other "high-income Canadiansโ€ as a way to target wealthy tax dodgers and balance the budget. However, six months after taking office,ย the Liberals have broken their promise. Finance Minister Bill Morneau recently announced the Liberal government would not move forward on a key campaign promise to close the loophole claiming his reversal was in response toย feedback from small...

06 January, 2017

This is a cross-post byย Angella MacEwen, an ย Economist at Canadian Labour Congress and a Broadbent Policy Fellow. The Alberta government has done it. On October 1st, the minimum wage increased by one dollar to $12.20 per hour, making it the highest provincial, but not territorial, minimum wage in Canada. In 2017 it will rise to $13.60, and finally to $15 in October 2018, meeting a key election campaign promise made by Rachel Notley's NDP. Whenever governments consider increasing minimum...

26 October, 2016

(CBC News/ June 17) The Alberta Federation of Labour wants the NDP to keep its promise to raise Alberta's minimum wage to $15 by 2018 despite backlash from the business sector.ย  On Friday, the groupย launched the "15 is Fair" campaign in Edmonton at the Local Omnivore, a restaurant and deli. "During the last election campaign, the NDP won in part because Albertans overwhelminglyย supported their promise to raise the minimum wage," AFLย president Gilย McGowan said in a press release. "While there...

18 June, 2016

The 31 workers at the Patty King International manufacturing plant are proud new members of BCTGM Local 264 (Toronto). The workers at the Concord, Ontario plant produce Jamaican Patties, a Jamaican ethnic food. The production workers reached out to Canadian International Vice President Ron Piercey and the Local 264 Business Agent Bill Hegedus and Business Agent Michael Smith. The workers are predominately Sri Lankan and Indian. Communication was made easy by one of the workers who translated...

17 April, 2015

After 34 years with the International Union, Ray Scannell, the Director of the BCTGM International Union Research & Education Department, will retire on November 1. Scannell came to the BCTGM not long after graduating with a Masterโ€™s degree in organizational behavior from the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. His first position at the Union was staff assistant in the Department of Research & Education. [caption id="attachment_4686" align="alignright"...

01 November, 2014

MONTREAL โ€” Tens of thousands of workers from across Quebec marched through the streets of downtown Montreal on September 20 in the cityโ€™s largest demonstration since the student protests of 2012. Since June, firefighters, police officers and other municipal employees have been protesting against Bill 3, which would see municipal employees shoulder part ofย an estimated $4 billion pensionย deficit. โ€œMr. Couillard, your social dialogue is nothing but an anti-social monologue, a bossโ€™s discourse,โ€ Daniel Boyer, president of the...

20 September, 2014

On September 13, the Federal NDP announced that, if elected, an NDP government would reinstate the federal minimum wage, lay out a path to reaching $15 per hour, and index the federal minimum wage to inflation. Ontario Federation of Labour President Sid Ryan said that a $15 per hour federal minimum wage would send an important signal. โ€œThis would set the standard that all provincial and territorial governments should be striving to achieve,โ€ said Ryan. โ€œThe $15...

13 September, 2014

CLC president Ken Georgetti published a letter in the Ottawa Citizen on July 18, 2012 in response to an opinion piece carried in the paper. In that article, Jonathan McLeod repeated the claim that is common in some business and political quarters that the imposition of so-called right-to-work legislation creates higher rates of growth in American states that use it. Georgetti challenged McLeodโ€™s research. In his opinion piece, Jonathan McLeod says bringing Southern U.S. state labour...

24 July, 2012

CLC OTTAWA โ€“ CLC President Ken Georgetti met on March 14th with Francisco J. Barrio-Terrazas, Mexicoโ€™s ambassador to Canada. Georgetti and other Canadian union leaders expressed concern about the continuing abuse of trade union rights by the Mexican government. Georgetti was accompanied by Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, John Gordon, President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and Ken Neumann, Canadian Director of the United Steelworkers. Georgetti provided the ambassador...

22 March, 2012

Reposted from CHCH - Click here to see the video Canada's largest, and newest commercial bakery opened officially in Hamilton Wednesday. The $100 million Canada Bread plant covers nearly 400,000 square feet on Nebo Road. The plant is a division of Maple Leaf Foods, and will produce a variety of products - mostly from the Dempster's line - including breads, buns, english muffins, and tortillas. The new plant is the anchor tenant in the recently-opened Red Hill...

28 September, 2011

Like most organizing campaigns, there were a lot of ups and downs for the workers of Aliments Martel, a new subsidiary of Canada Bread in Gatineau, Quebec. When workers at the Gatineau facility approached BCTGM Local 55 (Montreal, Quebec) in 2009 about joining the Union, the workerโ€™s spirits were high. They knew that the BCTGM represented Canada Bread workers across Canada and had a long, stable relationship with the company.ย  That seemed to bode well for...

05 October, 2010

Canadian Vice President Sean Kelly reports that BCTGM Local 406 (Moncton, New Brunswick) has successfully organized the workers at Atlantic Industrial Services (AIS), which is a Division of Enviro-Systems (ESI).ย  AIS is located in Fredericton, New Brunswick.ย  ESI is one of the largest handlers of hazardous waste in Atlantic Canada providing a full range of disposal options for all hazardous and regulated wastes.ย ...

08 March, 2010