Sisters and Brothers,
I would like to take a moment to thank each and every one of you who made the effort to show support for your bargaining unit during the first online vote of this local union’s history.
At 9am EST later today, the Bargaining Chairperson from Ford, FCA and GM will deliver the numbers alongside Unifor National. We can not tell you how impressed we were to see as many members vote on a Strike Authorization vote. Never has this local had such high turnout for a strike mandate. From past experience we bring in from our local union close to 500 people for a strike mandate. This time around we will see numbers that far surpass those numbers and that is a strong indicator that the membership are in full support of the bargaining unit.
There were some hiccups and I would like to thank not only the 707 members who reached out to either vp1@uniforlocal707.ca or UniforFord2020@gmail.com to get help, but also all of the rest of the locals along the way from 200, 240, 584, 1087 and 1324. Each and every email that was sent was responded to with details as to how to fix any concerns. I thank you all for your patience in dealing with in some cases prolonged waits and in other cases concerns that came back on multiple occasions. Right up until 11:59 we were working to assure every member had the opportunity to vote – literally one member was unable to vote who reached out at 11:50 but it was not for a lack of trying.
This was a good litmus test. It challenged us. It challenged us to be better – and we were. It challenged us to get better – and we will. At the end of the day we are all challenged with helping pick each other up when we or our brothers and sisters around us are down and I think we delivered so far. The true test is still to come and we have the ability to work collaboratively as a membership to strive for better agreements, better benefits, etc. and to drive home the next generation of vehicles that Canada will be proud of.
Looking forward to seeing the final numbers tomorrow. Continue to work together and build the best quality vehicles in the world.
In solidarity,
Vice President
