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March 26, 2020
Workers Inform About Their
Fight to Contain COVID-19 by
Defending Their Rights
Postal Workers on the Front Lines
Serving Canadians
• Insist that Canada
Post Ensure Its Workers Are Protected
- Louis Lang
• "We do this so that we
can continue to provide the service"
- Alain Robitaille
Quebec
Construction Workers Achieve Initial Successes
• Stepping Up the Fight
for Safe and Healthy Working Conditions
Postal Workers on the Front
Lines Serving Canadians
- Louis Lang -
 As
the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak requires
large portions of the population to
self-quarantine, the service provided by postal
workers is more important than ever to keep
lines of communication open at a time on-line
shopping becomes a main means households are
using to provision themselves. Enabling postal
workers to carry out their tasks means that
workers in sortation plants, retail offices and
letter carrier and rural and suburban mail
carrier depots must be provided with equipment
and working conditions they require to ensure
their safety on a daily basis.
While Canada Post has been quick to announce
that the corporation, "will continue to operate
during this unprecedented time" and that "we
will do everything we can to keep this country's
Postal Service going," postal workers' needs to
perform their work in a safe manner have been
systematically ignored. Postal workers' concerns
are not only for their own safety but for that
of the public as well.
In many work places the corporation has failed
to allow the Joint Health and Safety Committees
at various levels to be involved in the regular
monitoring of the conditions of work. Properly
functioning Joint Health and Safety Committees
are required by the Canada Labour Code
and the committees are required to post reports
of their work on all work floors. These
requirements have been systematically ignored
and workers are left in the dark about what
safety measures are being taken. Moreover, in
the absence of a serious consultation mechanism
between management and the workers'
representatives and between the workers'
representatives and the workers, workers who
raise concerns about their health and safety are
being defamed as chronic complainers, and the
complaints are dismissed.
Postal workers report that work processes have
not been changed to allow for the required
social distancing. This is taking place not only
in plants but also for letter carriers who have
to continue using cabs to go to their routes.
This means that many workers are in and out of
the cabs all day creating a risk with each ride.
In some cases there are two workers sorting at
frames that are designed for one person. Another
concern is that Canada Post has not increased
the size of the cleaning staff in letter carrier
depots and sortation plants. This means that a
workplace which is dusty and dirty in normal
times is now becoming a serious health hazard as
workstations are neither cleaned nor sterilized
on a regular daily basis. This level of cleaning
must be done at least once a day which requires
a larger cleaning staff. The lack of proper
cleaning and sterilizing on work floors also
applies to break rooms and restrooms. Many
plants and work areas also report that hand
sanitizer dispensers have been empty for days
and gloves are not available. Instead of
providing the problem with a viable solution,
perpetually empty bottles of hand sanitizer are
not considered a problem.
It is clear that the corporation has been
negligent in providing health and safety
measures for work processes and the equipment
needed to keep postal workers safe.
A bulletin issued by the national office of the
Canadian Union of Postal Workers on March 22 to
update workers about recent meetings with Canada
Post Corporation (CPC) senior management clearly
shows the negligence of the corporation. The
bulletin states, "Management stated they
expected to receive a shipment of nitrile gloves
in two or three days. Concerning the liquid
sanitizer and sanitizing wipes, CPC is
discussing with the government to get on their
priority procurement list. They have also set up
a process where management or employees can
purchase these items if they find them and be
reimbursed for them."
These kind of measures are aloof and not
acceptable. They show that the corporate
representatives do not face the same working
conditions as the workers and thus show a total
lack of respect for the workers who are on the
frontlines providing such an essential service
in difficult situations.
CPC's answer to the need for a comprehensive
plan to set up cleaning of work areas is just as
dismissive. Their claim to have increased the
frequency of cleaning simply does not correspond
with the experience of workers in many cities.
Without a proper functioning local Joint Health
and Safety Committees which have the
responsibility to report to each work floor and
show results, it is impossible to properly
respond to problems raised by the workers in a
timely manner. Workers are not only put at risk
which translates to putting the public at risk,
but a stressful situation increases the health
problems. It is an irrational approach due to
aloofness and bureaucracy with which the workers
have to settle scores.
A good example of the corporation's attitude is
the out of hand dismissal of the suggestion of
letter carriers to temporarily stop the sorting
and delivery of nonessential flyers. The workers
suggested that by eliminating this work the
amount of time spent in letter carrier depots
will be reduced and in turn the risks of working
in close quarters would also be more manageable.
Delivery of flyers is not essential to the
public, especially at this time, so eliminating
the considerable extra time spent in the depots
is a measure which would go a long way to
showing concern for the safety of letter
carriers during these emergency conditions.
So far Canada Post has refused to take any
action on this proposal. Apparently, the profit
made from the delivery flyers is more important
to the corporation than providing as many safety
precautions as possible to protect postal
workers. Through its actions the corporation has
not only failed to protect postal workers but it
has also failed to properly manage the important
service which postal workers provide.
Canadians can play a role by insisting that
Canada Post Corporation act immediately to
rectify the situation to ensure neither workers
or the public are put at risk and postal
operations can continue to provide the service
which is so crucial at this time when such large
parts of the population must remain at home.
- Alain Robitaille -
Alain
Robitaille is the President of the Montreal
Local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
The situation is changing fairly quickly. What
we are trying to do is reduce the risks of
contagion at the source. They will never be
reduced to zero, we are aware of this, but we
all have a role to play in reducing the risk of
contagion as much as possible so that our
workers stay at work because society has to keep
going. They must stay at work under conditions
that are as appropriate as possible in the
circumstances we are experiencing at the moment.
 We
have negotiated with the employer that we no
longer have direct contact with the client. Our
letter carriers ring the doorbell. If there is a
signature required, we forget the signature, we
give the shipment directly to the customer. If
the customer is not there, we try to drop the
package in a safe place. As a last resort only,
we send this to the postal counters and we leave
a card for people to go to the postal counters.
We do not want to divert the problem to the
people who work at the counters because they are
also at risk.
We have a multitude of heroes on our work
floors who are at work and are facing this
crisis. It must be emphasized that they are
heroes because they are holding the fort despite
the imminent risks.
We understand that at the end of the day the
post office will become more and more important
in the future because if people have to stay at
home it is certain that there will be an
expansion in the volume of parcels. People will
order the products they need online. We will
become more and more essential. If the mail can
no longer be delivered, it is hard to see why a
grocery worker would want to go to work, why the
city worker would go to the sewage plant, why
the worker who collects the garbage would go to
work. We are together in facing the situation
and we all have a role to play.
We are satisfied that, following our
negotiations with the employer, given that the
strongest risk is still that of being infected
by someone who returns from a trip and infects
people who have not traveled, the employer is
contacting all the workers who are scheduled to
return from vacation. The employer is telling
those who have returned from trips abroad,
including the United States, that it is
mandatory that they are required to go into
mandatory quarantine, paid, for 14 days. If a
worker has symptoms on the work floor they will
also be required to go into quarantine for 14
days, paid. Workers are not required to go to
their doctor.
For people who need to stay home to look after
their children, we have a provision in our
collective agreement which provides for special
leaves with 100 per cent of regular wages, and
this does not affect other leaves or vacations.
Senior management has authorized supervisors to
approve five-day periods of special leave.
The frequency of cleaning of the postal
stations, of common areas, has been increased.
In the mechanized plants, there is one person
per shift whose only job is to disinfect the
common areas, so three people per day who do
just that.
In the Montreal local, the approach we are
taking is to do everything in our power so that
people can stay at work. We inform them of their
rights, including the right that is very
fundamental at the moment, the right to refuse,
the right to refuse a job that puts you at risk.
This right encourages workers to deal with their
problems and to try to resolve them. Faced with
a worker exercising their right of refusal, the
Canada Labour Code is clear that there
must be an investigation, that another worker
cannot be assigned to do that work until the
investigation takes place and a remedy is
applied to the situation or the investigation
concludes that the complaint was unfounded.
The right of refusal will allow us, I think, to
work in a workplace that is as healthy as
possible.
We know that there are going to be several
management issues, many packages piling up on
the floors, and we know that the stock will have
to go out. We know what employers normally do in
these circumstances, when, as they put it, there
is money sleeping on the floor, when there is a
little panic. They force workers to work harder,
to work side-by-side, to work in the same truck.
In this situation the right to refuse unsafe
work takes on even more importance.
We inform workers of their rights, paid
quarantine, special leave, the right to refuse,
the right to disability insurance if illness
puts you at risk in the future of contracting
and dying from coronavirus.
We do this so that we can continue to provide
the service. This is not just a question of
union solidarity but of societal solidarity.
Quebec Construction Workers
Achieve Initial Successes
 In the face of the
COVID-19 pandemic, Quebec construction workers
are stepping up the fight to protect their
health and safety which are seriously put at
risk by the lack of basic sanitary conditions on
construction sites. Two of their main demands
concern the installation of adequate washrooms
on all construction sites, with heating,
ventilation, a flush toilet, warm water, soap,
toilet paper, and the setting of construction
trailers so that workers do not eat side by side
but can maintain a distance of one to two metres
between them. They have actually been fighting
for such a basic demand as adequate washrooms
for decades and the life threatening danger they
are now facing exposes the blatant indifference
and neglect displayed by successive Quebec
governments, the Quebec Construction Commission
and many construction companies.
Construction workers report that they have made
some headway through their direct intervention
on construction sites in recent weeks in getting
adequate washrooms installed and getting larger
construction trailers set on a number of sites.
They have exercised their right to refuse
dangerous work to get changes that improve
sanitary conditions on construction sites. Since
the middle of March, construction workers report
that hundreds of them have exercised their right
to refuse dangerous work because basic sanitary
measures and social distancing are not being
upheld.
Besides the problem of sanitary facilities
being non-existent and hand washing impossible
on many construction sites, the issue of the
organization of their work is foremost in the
minds of the workers and must be dealt with
urgently. Construction workers work in confined
and restricted space which requires the presence
of several workers and where even a distance of
one metre between workers is hard to achieve.
This requires full mobilization of the
construction workers and their organizations so
that alternatives can be worked out.
This is why on March 18, the two biggest unions
of construction workers, the FTQ-Construction
and the Quebec Provincial Building Trades
Council, demanded that work on construction
sites be temporarily suspended so that this work
can be done. They are demanding that it be done
with the participation of health authorities,
the committee that was created by the Labour
standards, Pay Equity and Workplace Health and
Safety Board (CNESST) to deal with the issue of
health and safety on the sites, and with all the
stakeholders of the construction industry.
On March 23, the Quebec government announced
that it is minimizing all non-priority
businesses and services until April 13,
including construction sites. Construction firms
can only carry out emergency repairs or work
needed to ensure safety. Electricians, plumbers
and other trades will perform emergency services
only, with equipment rental firms maintaining
their activities as needed for support.
This measure has been presented by the Quebec
government as a "pause" but this is not the way
construction workers and their unions see what
this period should be. They are demanding that
this period be one of intensive work so that,
when construction sites reopen, measures have
been put in place to drastically improve
sanitary conditions and deal with the
organization of the work so that workers' health
and safety is protected.
This is how the General Director of
FTQ-Construction Éric Boisjoly described the aim
the union had in demanding that activities be
temporarily suspended on the construction sites:
"It is currently impossible to meet basic
health standards on the vast majority of
construction sites in Quebec. In this context,
it is irresponsible to continue the work. Our
workers are not guinea pigs and cannot continue
to work without any protection. You can't
improvise with health and safety, you have to
have clear measures and make sure they are in
place. We must act immediately."
(To access articles
individually click on the black headline.)
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