He attended Neil McNeil High School, Sir Wilfrid Laurier and York University in Toronto before starting work at de Havilland Aircraft (now Bombardier Aerospace).

He has been called the ‘5 billion blue-collar man’ in the Financial Post, one of the most fearsome people in the country by Sun News, and Canada’s most influential union leader by Ottawa Life.

[10] Dias has been vocal on emerging labour issues including precarious work, youth unemployment and underemployment, growing income inequality and lack of work-life balance.

An effective negotiator, Dias has taken on corporate giants to secure good jobs for members and create the economic basis for increased living standards.

The campaign included mass protests, television commercials that aired on the Super Bowl and the Grammys and a live concert by international recording artist Sting and the cast of his musical The Last Ship performed in solidarity with Unifor members.

Dias also succeeded in returning vehicle assembly to Oshawa, Ontario with GM investing an estimated $1.3 billion to retool the plant to build Silverado and Sierra models.

The investment solidifies the Oshawa complex as GM’s only North American plant to actively build both light and heavy duty pickup trucks.

Following a bitter six-month long labour dispute with Co-op, predominately over pensions, Unifor was successful in maintaining the defined benefit plans for its members.

[19] Dias issued a public statement saying that he had entered a rehab programme, having abused alcohol and painkillers to deal with a problem relating to sciatic nerve pain, which he claimed had impaired his judgment.

As a leader in third party advertising during the 2015 federal election campaign, Dias publicly jousted with Stephen Harper’s government with Unifor playing a major role in the defeat of high profile Conservative candidates.