Thank you.
My name is Jerry Dias, and I'm here on behalf of Unifor, Canada's largest labour union in the private sector. I appreciate having the opportunity to speak with you today.
Look, we're living in extraordinary times. A public health crisis that has already claimed the lives of 6,000 people in Canada has spiralled into a deep and painful economic slowdown. Millions today are unemployed. Many are afraid to go back to work. Not a day passes that I am not grateful for our front-line workers. I am grateful for those in health and long-term care, in retail and in our transport and logistics industries who are risking their lives for our well-being despite low pay and a continuing lack of needed PPE.
As our country stared down economic catastrophe earlier on, Unifor called on the federal government to act boldly and quickly. Despite some early missteps, the government acted on and adjusted key policy programs appropriately. There have been many, including the Canadian emergency wage subsidy. Federal transfers to incentivize premium pay for low-wage workers also filled a major need. The Canadian emergency response benefit, for instance, picked up the slack for our employment insurance system, which is evidently broken and in desperate need of repair. I am glad the CERB moved money into people's pockets so quickly. It will serve as a case study for better income assistance.
However, the CERB has flaws that need fixing. At the top of that list is for ministers Morneau and Qualtrough to allow employer-paid and Service-Canada-registered supplemental unemployment benefits, or SUB, alongside CERB. It is ludicrous that the ministers are denying hundreds of thousands of workers additional income supports, some as much as $500 and $600 per week, that employers are ready, willing and able to pay.
Our union has been beating this drum for workers in major sectors like auto, aerospace, steel, rail, health care and public services, among others. Employers, if you can imagine, are themselves lobbying the government, asking to pay these funds, all to no avail.
Fixing this will cost our public purse precisely nothing, yet the answer has consistently been no. This does not make a stitch of sense. Affected workers are outraged. This committee should be as well. It's a no-brainer. It takes a simple regulatory fix that we proposed more than a month ago.
I'm asking this committee today to get this matter resolved.
Thank you.