{"id":221802,"date":"2022-03-24T09:56:33","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T13:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=221802"},"modified":"2022-03-24T09:56:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T13:56:44","slug":"unifor-brings-charges-against-former-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2022\/03\/unifor-brings-charges-against-former-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Unifor Brings Charges Against Former President"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Unifor, the former Canadian Auto Workers union, charged former President Jerry Dias with extorting the equivalent of $40,000 from a supplier of COVID-19 tests to various employers where the union represents employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Unifor's
Unifor National Secretary-Treasurer Lana Payne commissioned the investigation in to Dias after receiving a complaint.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dias, who was president for eight years, retired March 11 as the murmurs about deal began to grow louder<\/a><\/u><\/strong>. However, he cited medical issues as the reason for leaving, having been on medical leave since Feb. 6. His departure came five months ahead of his expected retirement at Unifor\u2019s constitutional convention in Toronto in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unifor\u2019s National Executive Board charged Dias with \u201cbreaching\u201d the union\u2019s constitution. Officials reached the decision after an independent external investigator determined \u201cthat on the balance of probabilities Dias breached his obligations in an interaction with a third-party supplier.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The breach did not involve any Unifor finances, and it is not clear whether Dias could face charges in a Canadian court, according to the union.\u00a0Unifor National Secretary-Treasurer\u00a0Lana Payne commissioned the investigation<\/a><\/u><\/strong> after receiving a formal complaint against Dias on Jan. 26, 2022.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unifor committed to transparency <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Dias
Jerry Dias retired as president of the union March 11 citing health concerns.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Payne, who temporarily has replaced Dias as the union\u2019s leader, added the union is committed to transparency in this matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur Constitution requires that an investigation be conducted in a confidential and fair manner. Now that the investigation has concluded, Unifor wishes to share the results with its members. Every step was taken to investigate and bring this matter to light in a fair and timely manner,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dias declined to cooperate with the investigation or offer a statement in his defense, according to the union\u2019s communications director. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The independent investigator determined that Dias engaged in a number of violations of the Unifor Code of Ethics by accepting money from a supplier of COVID-19 rapid test kits that he introduced to employers of Unifor members, the Unifor report said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of the employers had knowledge of Dias\u2019 personal interest in the transactions, and so Unifor declined to identify them. The supplier was not a participant in the investigation so will not be identified, the report added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dias
It’s unclear if Dias will face any criminal charges for the payout from the supplier.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What happened<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In December 2021 and January 2022, Dias promoted a supplier\u2019s rapid test kits to various Unifor employers, either directly or through Unifor staff under his direction. Several employers of Unifor members purchased tests as a result of Dias\u2019 introductions, the report said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some point prior to January 20, 2022, Dias accepted the sum of $50,000 in Canadian currency from the supplier, and gave a Unifor employee what Dias said was half of the money, telling the employee that it had come from the supplier.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After being offered the money, the Unifor employee subsequently lodged a complaint under the Unifor Code of Ethics and delivered the funds that he received from Dias to the National Secretary-Treasurer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his tenure as president, Dias, a former staff member of the old Canadian Auto Workers union, which merged with other union\u2019s nearly in 2013 to create Unifor, had led the union through successive rounds of negotiations with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. He has been credited with helping maintain the Canadian auto industry in the face of competition from Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Unifor President Jerry Dias accused to taking money from supplier of COVID-19 tests. It\u2019s unclear if the recently retired leader will face criminal charges, union officials said. Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20009,"featured_media":221803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[914,1164,11],"tags":[5400,5398,5401,5399,5402],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221806,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221802\/revisions\/221806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221802"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=221802"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=221802"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=221802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}