Former Unifor National President Jerry Dias says he’s been using pain killers, sleeping pills and alcohol to deal with sciatica, and will enter a  residential rehabilitation facility. He adds his judgment has been impaired in recent months.

Unifor announced about a week ago that Dias was on medical leave and would retire.The next day, the union revealed that someone had filed a complaint alleging Dias had breached its constitution.

And Wednesday, Unifor’s National Secretary Treasurer Lana Payne revealed an investigation has found that Dias allegedly allegedly accepted money from a COVID test supplier.

“Dias promoted a supplier’s rapid test kits to various Unifor employers either directly or through Unifor staff under his direction,” said Payne. “Several Unifor members purchased those test kids and at some point prior to January 20th, 2002, Dias accepted the sum of $50,000 from the supplier.”

Payne says no Unifor finances were involved.