Interview, François Patry, President, National Brotherhood of Carpenters, FTQ-Construction Local 9Workers' Forum: What is your opinion on the Quebec government's decision to allow some residential construction to resume? François Patry: At Local 9, we have always been in favour of the opening of construction sites. What we want is to make sure that employers respect the conditions that are necessary for the opening of construction sites. That means sanitation, having proper and clean washrooms, places where we can eat, having the space necessary to maintain the two-metre social distancing, having a work organization that allows us to work in a safe manner. It also means having the equipment that allows us to work two metres apart. In the document produced for the reopening of construction, it talks about transporting workers in pairs by truck. Two per truck does not respect the two-metre distance. If all safety measures are respected, we agree with the reopening of the construction sites. Our problem is that the safety rules were not respected before the sites were shut down so how are they going to do it now? What has changed so that now the safety conditions are going to be respected? There is nothing that tells us that will be the case.
It is clear that it is through concrete action on construction sites, at the workplace itself, that situations can be changed. It is not enough to say that I have a nice labour code or a nice regulation on health and safety in the workplace, the issue is to apply these health and safety regulations. FTQ-Construction and Local 9 have always denounced the fact that, for construction employers, prevention on construction sites is the least of their concerns, and measures taken are always no more than the minimum that is provided for by the safety code for the construction industry. We fought for 15 years on construction sites to have washrooms that meet minimum health standards. We had to fight and we are still fighting to have them. We understand that there are people who have bought houses, condos, that they are waiting to take possession in July, and that it will be hell for them if they don't get them. But it must not be that we, the construction workers, become the agents of a new rise in the number of COVID-19 cases. This can happen because although we want to get the economy going again there is a danger if employers do not respect their obligations and do not act responsibly. WF: What do you think of the "Guide COVID-19 -- Construction Sites," which was issued by the committee that was set up by the Labour Standards, Pay Equity and Workplace Health and Safety Board (CNESST) to guide the reopening of construction sites? FP: This guide tells me that things have not changed much. Nothing has been changed in the safety code for the construction industry. A few things have been added: the employer has to ask the worker if he's had any symptoms, if he has a fever, if he's just returned from a trip out of the country. It says too that the employer must do everything possible to ensure that the two-metre distance is respected. That is it. As far as toilets are concerned, the guide reproduces exactly what we have in the code. For work sites with 25 workers or less, toilets will still not need running water when the work sites reopen. According to the code, on construction sites, in order to be entitled to a trailer to eat, it takes at least 10 workers who work for more than seven days. It is the same thing in the guide. The document they put together makes no changes to the Safety Code for the construction industry. In the past, we were forced to negotiate that flush toilets with a sink and water for hand-washing, would be reserved for construction sites with 25 or more workers, because the employers did not want to talk about providing such washrooms for small construction sites. In the committee that is responsible for reviewing the code, we have to have unanimity, otherwise nothing will move forward. This is a never-ending negotiation and that is why it took us 15 years to come up with regulations. How is it that in the midst of a public health emergency, the government used its power to force people to stay at home and to refrain from assembling, which we accept and implement because we understand the situation, and it cannot even decide that work sites with 25 workers or less must have the same washrooms, the same sanitary facilities as on work sites with 25 workers or more? In the document, they put things such as that workers must wash their hands. They say that employers must take their responsibility to protect the health and safety of workers, but they also say that if the worker feels ill, he cannot endanger his health or that of the public. That means that if the employer does not respect his obligations, it falls on the shoulders of the workers who must make the decision to leave, or any other decision.
WF: How do you see the intervention of construction workers and unions in the coming period? FP: In Local 9, we have 23 representatives across Quebec. The 23 of them will be present on the construction sites to focus on the measures that will be taken to ensure that we are not the agents of the propagation of COVID-19. We are in the process of organizing ourselves to develop an intervention strategy to ensure that workers can work safely, with rules that will ensure that they will not contract COVID-19 at work and that, if they catch it inadvertently, they will not be an agent in the spread of the disease. Workers want to earn a living. They want to move society forward. But this should not be at the expense of their working conditions. Already, we are working in a dangerous workplace where the necessary preventive measures are not being taken. Our role is to make sure that safety measures are taken, that everything is going to be okay for everyone. We want to produce to ensure that consumers receive their homes, their condos, by the required date. We want to do that because we are part of this society, but not at the expense of the safety of construction workers.
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Unfortunately,
my experience in 30 years of health and safety in construction is that
employers do not put the necessary energy into prevention. This is not
part of their work habits. Even in a context such as the one we are in
right now, I do not believe they will change their way of doing things.
However, we have to give them a chance, but
we will be present on the construction sites to ensure that they comply
with the rules.
The
guide does not go far enough. However, we are going to work with it to
start, but we are going to demand more and more. On work sites with 25
workers or less, we will ensure that there is always water and
something to wash our hands. There is no way we are going to accept
degreasers or disinfectants. Construction workers' hands get
stained and dirty. What are they going to do with Purell? This is
completely out of sync with our situation.