Each year in February we mark Black History Month. This is a time to reflect on the important role that Black people and their communities have played in shaping our society, our workplaces, and the labour movement.

As indicated in the last update published on our site in 2024, the hearing of the policy grievance, filed on March 29, 2019, did take place, in person in Ottawa, on Thursday, September 12, 2024, before the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS).

The Canada Employment and Immigration Union is dismayed that federal budget restraint is spreading, with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) announcing that they are implementing a “stop the clock” on term rollovers and various staffing control measures across the department.

The announcement of 3,300 job cuts at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is a devastating blow to the public services that families, businesses and communities rely on.

As we approach the holiday season, we want to extend warm wishes to every CEIU member, along with your friends and family.

As indicated in the last update published on our site in September 2024, the hearing of the policy grievance, filed on March 29, 2019, did take place, in person in Ottawa, on Thursday, September 12, 2024, before the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS).

On this day, 35 years ago, 14 women were brutally killed at École Polytechnique simply because they were women. Each year, on December 6, in Canada we pause to remember those women and mourn all the women who have been killed due to gender-based violence.

The 2024 CEIU Collective Bargaining Conference was held from November 26th-27th in Montreal.

Each year on December 3, we recognize the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. This is a day to raise awareness of disability issues and advance the rights, dignity, and well-being of people with disabilities.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence is an annual international campaign that begins on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and goes until December 10, Human Rights Day.

Read our statement below.

Click on our 16 Days calendar to view our interactive actions:

Why is it urgent for everyone to address gender-based violence?

It costs lives: in 2023, 205 women and girls in Canada were violently killed, primarily by men. One woman or girl is killed every 48 hours. 

Gender-based violence costs Canadians $7.4 billion to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence alone.

Children who witness violence in the home have twice the rate of psychiatric disorders as children from non-violent homes.

Intimate partner violence can carry over into the workplace, threatening women’s ability to maintain economic independence. In one study, more than half (53%) of study respondents who experienced intimate partner violence said that at least one type of abusive act happened at or near their workplace. Almost 40% of those who had experienced abuse said it made it difficult for them to get to work, and 8.5% said that they lost their jobs because of it. 

Each December 6th, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women, we come together to commemorate the national tragedy that happened over 30 years ago at École Polytechnique de Montréal, when 14 women were killed simply because they were women. We also reflect on the troubling fact that gender-based violence continues to be a daily reality.

Rates of violence are disproportionately higher for racialized women, Indigenous women and girls, women with disabilities and women from 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.

This violence often has impacts on their physical, sexual and reproductive health. They may experience mental health issues and a reduced ability to participate in social and economic activities, leaving gaps in our workplaces and in our communities. 

Now, more than ever we call on you to participate in our #CEIU16Days of activism. Gender-based violence impacts everyone and we all have a role to play in combatting it and taking meaningful action to ensure that tragedies that happen daily - tragedies like l'École Polytechnique de Montréal - never happen again.

It is through our activism that we are able to demand action from the government and we must continue to organize to put an end to gender-based violence.

While this is a time for remembering the lives lost to violence, it is also a time to act.

Please share this message widely and encourage everyone to take action to stop gender-based violence.

In Solidarity

The CEIU National Women’s Committee