Approximately 90 Medical Lab Assistants and Medical Lab Technologists, represented by Unifor Local 2458, are currently on strike at eight Medical Laboratories of Windsor locations.

What’s at issue?

Medical laboratory testing used to be provided directly by the government. Since these services were contracted out to for-profit labs, including Medical Laboratories of Windsor, wages for lab workers working outside the hospital system have fallen steadily while the cost to the system has increased.

These members are performing highly skilled, technical jobs that provide vital medical information for patients, yet many are making half of what those doing the same job in a hospital are paid.

For the first five years of service Medical Lab Technologists earn $22.00 an hour and Medical Lab Assistants earn just $13.50.

Medical Laboratories of Windsor employees have been working without a contract since March, 2017.

The workers did not make the decision to strike lightly. They care about the patients they serve but the time has come to stand up for fairness.

Let Medical Laboratories of Windsor know you want the workers to receive fair wages and respect!

Earlier this year, the Council of Canadians sent 180 provincial and national labour unions an appeal advancing the case that universal pharmacare will lower Canadian labour costs, remove the need to negotiate drug benefits during collective bargaining, and improve the health of workers by ensuring people can get the medications they need.

As you know, the Council of Canadians’ goal was to produce a groundbreaking new report that would outline the savings a universal pharmacare program would bring for employers and businesses, along with an activist toolkit that would give people the tools they need to lobby MPs and present information to employers in support of pharmacare. Employers, whose companies would gain a significant competitive advantage with pharmacare, could persuasively lobby the federal government to implement a universal publicly-funded pharmacare program.

Our follow-up report, A Prescription for Better Medicine: How universal pharmacare would give Canada an economic advantage, a handimation video, and a grassroots lobbying toolkit for Council of Canadians chapters, union locals and other activists are ready and available online (https://canadians.org/pharmacare).

We hope you will consider downloading or linking to these tools and sending them to your members, and encouraging them to speak to their MP or employer about the benefits of universal pharmacare.

A copy of the original report, A Prescription for Better Medicine: Why Canadians need a national pharmacare program (https://canadians.org/sites/default/files/publications/report-pharmacare…) was mailed to all 338 current MPs along with a questionnaire to assess their position on the issue. Twenty-seven MPs responded, with three providing their specific reasoning on the issue.

More recently, printed copies of the toolkit were available at Canadian Labour Congress convention in Toronto to encourage our brothers and sisters to check out the toolkit and reports online and share it with their members.

A national day of action was planned for May 27 when people across the country spoke to their MPs about pharmacare. At least 15 Council of Canadians chapters will be meeting with their MP to promote pharmacare. Their main messages will be:

? We would save money. Pharmacare would save Canadians approximately $14 billion a year by reducing administration costs and giving us stronger buying power to negotiate better prices for medications.

? Everyone would be covered. Right now 10 per cent of Canadians – approximately 3.5 million people – don’t have even basic drug coverage.

? Companies would pay less. Data shows that Canadian companies spend about $200 million per week on prescription drug costs incurred by employer drug plans.

We also commissioned a poll that shows 91% of Liberal voters want the Liberals to implement pharmacare. This poll will be a useful tool in lobbying meetings.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Jane Philpott has announced there will be public consultations on proposed regulatory changes to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. Online consultations run until June 28. Minister Philpott hopes the new regulations will be in place no later than the end of 2018.

Building on this turn of events, the Council of Canadians’ Pharmacare Toolkit can have a lasting impact through 2017 and beyond with promotion by union members.

We would welcome an invitation to submit articles about this issue in your union’s newsletter. The more ways we can find to share the facts supporting the benefits of a universal pharmacare program, the closer we will get to seeing it become a reality, as envisioned by Tommy Douglas.

On March 8, Unifor marks International Women’s Day with the theme Persistence with solidarity toward equality. The past year has brought intense attacks on equality, in Canada and worldwide. In response, we have risen to these challenges and have mobilized across communities. The strength of the Women’s Marches demonstrates our commitment to moving forward with a diverse, intersectional movement.

Over the past year, Unifor has been actively working to close the gender wage gap, increase access to good jobs including in the skilled trades, and end harassment at work. The government has a role to play in advancing women’s equality. We’ve been active on two fronts in particular. Unifor calls on the federal government to work with the provinces and territories to create a national child care program because affordable, quality, public child care is integral to women’s economic empowerment and financial security. Unifor is also active in the effort to legislate paid domestic violence leave to aid women who are transitioning to new lives, free of abuse. The union has already bargained paid leave provisions and the Women’s Advocate program into many of our collective agreements. Now it is time to make these supports into law. No woman should have to choose between economic security and her personal safety.

Join Unifor to bring women’s issues to the government. Call on the federal government for concrete action.

Add your name and send a message to the federal government. Sign today to ask your Member of Parliament (MP) to enact a national child care program and paid domestic leave though the Canada Labour Code (http://www.unifor.org/en/member-services/equality/women/international-wo…)

As we celebrate at International Women’s Day events across the country let us take the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to remove all obstacles to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

The struggle for equality will take persistence.