The head of a Windsor union local is hoping for government changes in the way jobless benefits are issued to members.
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a set of challenges to members of Unifor Local 195, which represents local auto suppliers who work with Chrysler's Windsor Assembly Plant (WAP). Now on top of that, many members who have applied and received employment insurance (EI) benefits due to the pandemic are about to have them run out.
Consequently, since the EI benefit may have run out, those who are on the Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB) may end up having those benefits run out as well.
Unifor Local 195 President Emile Nabbout told BlackburnNewsWindsor.com that the situation is made more complicated by the fact that WAP will end its third shift later this summer, resulting in 1,500 people being laid off.
"All of those people, who during the [pandemic] for 10 weeks, burn out their EI entitlement," said Nabbout. "The EI system was changed based on the region, the unemployment rate in the region, and so on and so forth. So, all those people who had a claim open in January, they were burning their EI entitlement during this pandemic."
Nabbout said while the initial establishment of the CERB was good on paper, it did not address the income situation these employees will likely face once the third shift at Windsor Assembly ends.
"The CERB created two problems for us," said Nabbout. "One, if you have a pre-existing claim, you are not being treated the same. The second one is if you have a CERB benefit being negotiated through your employer, then you will be getting the full rate because this is something you negotiated with your employer."
Unifor is calling on the minority Liberal government to allow an additional 10-week set of EI benefits for these workers. Nabbout said the region's two opposition MPs, the NDP's Brian Masse and Chris Lewis of the Conservatives, are on board.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the CERB benefits will be extended an additional eight weeks, to help those laid-off employees get through the summer months. Nabbout called that development encouraging but is still hoping additional protection for his members is forthcoming.
-With files from Adelle Loiselle