There is a need to get our EI system reformed and updated.
The EI program should be there to help workers.
Especially young families.
Oui, y’a un gros gros problème avec nos timbres de chômage.
For people that work in my industry, especially right now.
It's not only frustrating.
It's actually terrifying.
I get phone calls from members who have been unable to access a job
right now, and they're out of benefits and they're out of EI and they have
no idea what they're going to do.
And those of us that are working on 24 and 25 hours a week, too, with
Christmas coming up and looking ahead into the future, we have no
idea how we're going to survive.
When someone loses a job and and they're given severance pay,
this money is allocated and it, my mind should not be allocated.
A lot of employees have been with EI or paid into EI for numerous years.
And because depending on the type of severance they get,
are not entitled to collect EI.
So recently during the pandemic, there was a pilot program put forward
by the federal government that encouraged or removed that barrier.
As a seasonal worker in a fish plant, it is important to have
flexible and accessible employment insurance benefits through the year
to help us get through the year.
La priorité c’est les travailleurs.
Les travailleurs eux autres, font pas assez d’heure pour être éligibles pour l’année que…
fà partir du mois de juillet aller jusqu’au mois d’avril,
ils font pas assez d’heure pour avoir du chômage juste pour ces mois-là.
Fait que faudrait baisser le nombre d’heure pour être éligible.
Pour essayer d’aider les travailleurs à couvrir le trou noir.
One of the qualifying things that really needs to change is being seven
days without income, because that's not realistic, especially for people
who work in hospitality and especially now in post COVID, because people
are working five days a week, but they're working four hours or three
hours or eight hours one week, all the jobs are full-time slash part-time.
Which means that you don't get a full 40 hour work week from anybody anywhere.
But when you need to collect EI benefits, usually you're
on pretty rough times.
And to make people wait a week seems to cause a lot of issues for people.
I hope we can get the, one week waiting period, reduced or dropped all together.
The thing that has to change with the qualifying hours is they have to be lower
In post COVID, nobody in our industry is able to get full hours.
Everyone's working 20 hours a week, 25 hours a week, trying to juggle part-time jobs.
Trying to live, and nobody can even apply for six months to a year.
How are they going to survive that long?
And currently at the moment with 420 hours with a temporary COVID measures
We'll get it for 14 weeks.
Normally when the COVID measures end it's 700 hours to get 14 weeks.
14 weeks is just not enough for people.
And if we could get that minimum reinstated and kept,
it would be a great help to, to seasonal workers.
These changes would be extremely important for the auto sector.
We go through valleys and peaks in the auto sector.
On behalf of all or union members,
workers in general, I asked that the federal government
government re removed the allocation of severance money or separation money
monies from the EI component and, and make the pilot program
that ended in September, 2021 to a permanent structure within the application of benefits.
I would like to say to the federal government that this is possible to fix.
We know this can be fixed.
This was demonstrated in COVID.
People were looked after, but COVID is not over for an awful lot of people.
We still need help.
Dedicated in loving memory to
Brother Dan Borthwick.