- I feel more secure. It's like family.
You have your family to turn to
and in this case you have the union to turn to.
- I'm so happy to be with Unifor. They've given us our voice.
- We needed a union because it became a very unhappy workplace.
-I don't want to be a part of the furniture anymore;
I want to be respected as an employee.
And with Unifor, that's what I'll get.
- Outsourcing is rampant. Automation is rampant.
Jobs are not as secure as they were in the past.
- We needed more fairness for ourselves and for other employees coming in.
- Just overall how the company was treating the employees
where we were a number and not actually humans.
- We're not in 1940 anymore
The whip; that's not the way things work anymore.
- I think the big point was the denial of our raise,
year after year.
Unifor, I think what's impressed me the most
is their commitment to organizing.
It's a tough workplace right now.
Management is mean.
It's profit over people
which we don't like in the school bus industry
if you're a driver but it's a true fact and it is everywhere.
- The day we started approaching people,
it took 3 weeks to get cards signed.
Our choice was Unifor
it was our number one choice because we already knew the CEP union.
- Unifor has totally opened my eyes in a very different way.
They are very open. They are upfront.
- I believe we have a brighter future
than we did a year ago
- Unifor was created to be a different kind of union
to meet the challenges of ever-changing workplaces.
We organize all workers to build power
reaching even small worksites
previously thought to be impossible.
In our first first five years,
Unifor has organized more than 20,000 workers
in more than 280 workplaces.
These new Unifor members across Canada represent
sectors including manufacturing, hospitality,
energy, gaming, and health care sectors.
Organizing matters.
It makes a difference in workers lives
And it is the core priority of every level in our union
- Myself, I never dreamt that a restaurant
ever was unionized.
I worked the industry for years.
- We were just a small in-house association
so we didn't have a lot of power
or knowledge going to the table
and we felt a big Canada-wide
union like Unifor would really benefit us.
- Just recently we came across a group
of people looking for a union
and they asked us why we chose Unifor.
You really stop to think.
It's because it's us,
because we control Unifor,
we are Unifor.
Unifor is a union for everyone.
- We feel that we are part of something now.
We're not just on the sidelines anymore
and it really does let us sleep easier.
- I know I'm happy to be in Unifor
because they are local
and they have the experience
of all the health care.
- You have someone to fight for you.
You have someone to
back you up on what you say.
You don't need to be afraid of your management.
- I think our future is looking pretty good.
We have union that's going to listen
to what we want now.
- We can feel now that
we get respect in the workplace by the management.
- At every level of our organization,
we're organizing.
whether that be your local union president
or your rank and file member
working in a grocery store
We believe that
all of us play a role in organizing.
Unifor now holds "national organizing conferences"
with local leaders and activists,
to learn and strategize
how to bring new workers into the union.
We are using a new model of organizing:
The worker-to-worker model.
Unifor members reach out,
and educate co-workers in their own sectors
about the strength of the union
and why joining a union makes a difference.
This is how we unionized
Casino Rama in Orillia, Ontario.
Being in Unifor, we have a voice now.
The company is hearing our
issues, everything.
Here we now we are part of
the union, thank God.
And we are happy.
I'm personally happy to be honest with you
and I would do it again if it started tomorrow.
Last week we finally certified
our first collective agreement.
We had 97% vote in favour with over
70% turnout. We are really satisfied
with what we came out with.
I'm really happy for Unifor.
I didn't understand what "rank and file" was
until I was given the opportunity of education.
That's what I like the best about Unifor.
They educate anyone who's interested.
There are a lot of times people
feel that they're not being reached out
to and they say, "Aw, I'm just a
statistic or just a number."
That may be the case with some unions
but in this union you are a human being,
you have a face and you
have feelings and they recognize that.
I believe that working with a
union that guarantees or secures everybody's
basic work rights or human rights, that's essential.
We counted 1443 ballots.
The results were 1028 "yes"...
We won it! We got it!
Oh, I'm so excited about
being part of Unifor's family
and, oh, my god, we kicked ass!
This is Bill, he's from slots and he's
done a lot of work to organize workers.
What do you have to say, Bill?
It's been a long hard fight but
we beat them and we're in. We're family!
I'm very excited. Unifor, here we come!