Mourning for the Dead and Fighting for the Living
on the Day of Mourning
"Leaving the Private Sector to Regulate Itself Is Like Asking the Fox to Protect the Hen House"
- Letter from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401
to Premier Kenney (Excerpts) -
April 23, 2020
Dear Premier Kenney,
The
COVID-19 pandemic puts Alberta's food workers at imminent risk. We
write to you with urgent concern for the lives and livelihoods of our
32,000 union members and all Albertans that continue to work.
Our members have become sick with COVID-19, and some
have died. Recent events suggest that food production has been
prioritized over protection of workers' lives. As a result of the
situations at Cargill in High River and JBS in Brooks, we have lost
faith in the willingness of the Alberta government to do everything
necessary to protect
workers.
Now is the time for everyone involved to truly work
together to ensure the safety of food workers, our members. It is long
past time to establish a working group of labour, employers, and health
experts to set rules and regulations to protect workers' lives in all
food sector workplaces. This should involve a worker-centred approach
that
emphasizes the experiences of workers in the food processing industry.
It should also be comprised of individuals far removed from political
and employer agendas.
While public gatherings have been limited and
playgrounds are closed to ensure public safety, our members' workplaces
remain open. This constitutes an outrageous contradiction. Thousands of
Alberta workers crowd shoulder to shoulder every day in meat
packinghouses. Thousands of customers crowd grocery stores every day,
congregating in
close proximity to employees and each other, despite public health
orders requiring social distancing.
Your government has referred to Alberta's food workers
as "essential," and the public has called them "heroes." But at their
workplaces they are treated as expendable.
We've sought to work with employers through good faith
discussions for weeks. Some have written good policies on social
distancing and issued personal protective equipment (PPE) to employees.
Others have been slow to act or resistant. But even with the best
employers, there are gaps between head office policy and practices at
the
worksite, which are now a matter of life and death. It is time for
immediate government regulation and enforcement in the interest of
protecting Albertans' lives.
We Need New Regulations for the Food Industry During COVID-19
Your government acted quickly to amend the Employment
Standards Code to provide more "flexibility" to employers. We are
asking for your government to now immediately act to protect workers.
At a minimum, across the food industry, all workers should be
guaranteed:
- In the case of an outbreak, immediate closure of the workplace until;
- a 14-day closure has elapsed for isolation of all employees
- COVID-19 testing and contact tracing of all employees is complete
- AHS and OH&S officers have confirmed the workplace is safe to resume operations and the union has endorsed that
conclusion
- Statutory COVID-19 hazard pay of 1.5X regular hourly rate for all hours worked while COVID-19 remains a risk
- Increased number of paid breaks so workers can wash their hands frequently
- Presumptive status for COVID-19-related WCB claims in the food sector
- Mandatory, weekly workplace joint health and
safety committee meetings to identify and mitigate risks and deal with employee concerns
- Mandatory disclosure of all AHS [Alberta Health Services] reports to the union in unionized workplaces
- Employer-paid leave for all food workers who cannot work due to COVID-19
- Government education and support for workers on how to protect themselves,
including their right to refuse unsafe work
- Ensuring that no worker loses their job for being too afraid to attend work
- Protection of immigration status so no worker feels pressured to
attend work during COVID-19 for fear of losing their status in Canada
- Guaranteed access to health care for employees who have not met the
residency requirement for Alberta health care coverage
- Enforcement of social distancing measures and workplace safety
measures with daily, unannounced spot checks by government
officials empowered to levy significant fines for employers who violate
these rules
Provisions Specific to Grocery Stores
Grocery stores are some of the last public spaces where
people can gather in large numbers that are prohibited anywhere else.
Unfortunately, not everyone respects the risks taken by our frontline
food workers. We are calling for the following additional protections
for all grocery stores in Alberta:
- Continuous masking for all employees, customers, contractors, and visitors
- Rules for social distancing by customers, enforced by management, including:
- Restricting the number of customers in a store at any given time to a number that truly affects health and safety
- Mandatory proper barriers for cashiers, bakery, deli, and
meat counter workers
- Mandatory safety markings on store floors to maintain social distance
- Signs and other tools to educate customers to keep their distance
- In-store audio announcements reminding customers of social distancing requirements
- Closure of self-scan stations
- Bylaw enforcement of social distancing
orders in grocery stores
- A ban on difficult-to-clean shopping baskets, and making all
pay-for-use shopping carts free, to mitigate customers congregating
around carts
- OH&S recognition that aggressive and disrespectful customer conduct in stores constitutes a workplace hazard
- Daily disinfecting of all surfaces in stores
- Weekend closing of stores every two weeks for deep cleaning and
to allow for staff rest from the stress of working in hazardous
pandemic conditions
- Reducing hours and restricting opening times to prevent worker fatigue
- Major public education campaigns and enforcement of social distancing in stores, with penalties to achieve;
- Grocery shopping by households only once per week, with only one shopper per household
- Respect for workers' safety while serving customers in these difficult circumstances
- Appropriate social distancing is maintained in the store at all times
- Special hours for at-risk customers including store employees,
seniors, the disabled,
those with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, women who have
recently given birth, essential workers, and workers with family
responsibilities, such as single parents
- An effective and appropriate temperature check system that is properly sensitive to individual privacy issues
- Enforcement of the above provisions with
unannounced regular daily spot-checks by government officials.
Millions of Albertans are regularly attending grocery
stores -- some for the first time in their lives -- as restaurants have
all but closed. Because of this surge in grocery shopping, retail food
stores are enjoying record profits. They cannot be left to
self-regulate if we are serious about saving lives; the government must
step in and regulate these
workplaces.
Provisions Specific to Food Processing and Manufacturing
Workplaces
in the food processing industry are some of the last worksites in our
province where mass gatherings of individuals in close proximity is
still permitted. By design, food processing plants feature close social
proximity of workers to maximize efficiency. Distancing is very
difficult in these workplaces, and special attention is required
to ensure safety in this industry. Consequently, these workers should
be guaranteed, at a minimum:
- Active enforcement by government officials of
social distancing on production floors and all areas where employees
interact (lunchrooms, locker rooms, washrooms, hallways, etc.), thereby
ensuring that workers are able to work two metres (6.5 feet) apart from
each other throughout their working day. This should include:
- Changes to
the design of workstations such as the installation of Perspex,
Plexiglas or similar material to shield workers from potentially
infecting each other
- Reduced line speeds and line spacing, staggered start times, the
rearrangement of work and reduced line speeds, and increased line
spacing so that social distancing practices can be realized. This
must be achieved without eliminating any positions, and decisions
regarding shifts, work-sharing arrangements, and overtime must involve
the union.
- Making arrangements for safe travel to and from the workplace to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID- 19
- Mandatory PPE provided to all employees, though this cannot be a
substitute for appropriate spacing between workers
- Provision of adequate hand washing and sanitizer stations and
increasing the number of breaks so washing may become a more routine
part of the work
- An effective and appropriate temperature check system that is properly sensitive to individual privacy issues
- Strict screening,
masking, and hand washing required of all who attend the employer's
premises, including owners, managers, contractors and any other
third-party attending the site
- Posting of all COVID-19-related workplace protocols on
noticeboards in languages that all workers can understand and
maintaining regular communication
- Enforcement of
the above provisions with unannounced regular daily spot-checks by government officials.
[...]
Leaving the private sector to regulate itself is like
asking the fox to protect the hen house. That is why we again request a
meeting with public health officials and legislators with appropriate
and competent authority to quickly establish clear, enforceable
regulations to ensure the health, safety, and financial security of
Alberta's workers.
[...]
... it is time to move from words to concrete actions.
[...]
Tom Hesse, President
United Food Commercial Workers Canada Union, Local No. 401
For the full text of the letter, click here.
This article was published in
![](http://cpcml.ca/WF2019/Articles/WFBanner300.jpg)
Number 26 - April 27, 2020
Article Link:
Mourning for the Dead and Fighting for the Living: "Leaving the Private Sector to Regulate Itself Is Like Asking the Fox to Protect the Hen House" >
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|