| November 12, 2020
- No. 77 Workers
Step Up the Fight to Curb COVID-19 Workers'
Demands Must Be Met! 
November 6, 2020. Gatineau workers protest Quebec government's violation of their rights
using Ministerial Decrees.
Health
Care
• Workers Demand Personal
Protective Equipment They Deem Appropriate
• Fight for a Modern
Humane Health Care System - Pierre
Soublière
• The Right to Work
Safely Is Essential to Keep COVID-19 Under
Control
- Interview, Jason MacLean
Montreal
Transit Workers
• Keeping Workers
Informed and Mobilized to Ensure that Health Standards are Enforced
- Interview, Gleason Frenette
Workers
Step Up the Fight to
Curb COVID-19
November
2, 2020. Rally for health care workers
at McDougall Centre in Calgary. As the second wave
of infection spreads across the
country, workers in every sector and their organizations are putting
forward demands and taking actions to curb the pandemic. The articles
in this issue of Workers' Forum provide clear
examples showing that the stands of the workers in Canada and Quebec
are based on
learning lessons from the first wave and are crucial to develop
guidelines that must be implemented now to avert the ravages of the
infection. Health care workers in long-term care homes and health care
facilities across the country are fighting to make sure that there is
not a repeat of the devastation of the first wave in long-term care
homes. Conclusions of the SARS Commission of
Inquiry in
2006, confirmed by the experience from the first wave of the pandemic,
bring to the fore the necessity of implementing the precautionary
principle which calls for the highest level of protection for health
care workers. Based on science and their experience workers are
demanding the proper
personal protective equipment include N95 masks which must be provided
to all workers who need them according to the determination of the
workers themselves. Instead of establishing
guidelines at this crucial
time, in collaboration with workers and meeting their needs for proper
conditions to carry out their duties and protect the people,
governments at all levels are dismissing workers' demands and instead
invoking "emergency measures" as an excuse to violate collective
agreements and pass
legislation on behalf of private interests to attack the basic rights
of the workers. The workers are fighting back and
we are seeing
actions across the country including petitions, strikes, sit-ins,
blocking bridges and many other forms of resistance by the workers who
say that they have no choice but to alert the whole society that what
is at stake is the future of a modern, public health care system which
is capable of ensuring
the well-being of the people. 
Health Care Health care
workers in long-term care, assisted
living facilities and seniors' residences have been on the front lines
of fighting for the conditions needed to protect the health and lives
of patients, residents, and staff. Since the pandemic began, health
care workers have taken the lead in fighting for what is needed in
their workplaces, including
screening of patients and staff, providing full-time work at one site,
stopping movement of personnel between sites, provision of personal
protective equipment (PPE) and training in its use, and many other
measures. As
COVID-19 cases soar across Canada in the second wave, an alarming
number of outbreaks have already taken place. As of October 14, there
were COVID-19 outbreaks in 120 long-term care homes and more than 100
retirement homes across Canada. The number of outbreaks and deaths in
long-term care homes has significantly increased since then. Health
care workers and their organizations are demanding further measures
which need to be taken urgently to bring transmission in hospitals and
long-term care homes under control.  The Canadian Federation of
Nurses Unions (CFNU) posted an updated summary of the research on
COVID-19 on its website on October 16. The federation is calling on the
Canadian government to recognize the emerging science on COVID-19
transmission, and to change its guidance for health care professionals
"to recognize that the virus is
being spread both through the inhalation of aerosolized particles at
close range (less than six feet) and through long-range airborne
transmission." The CFNU has provided evidence that the existing
guidelines which limits the need for N95 masks to health care workers
carrying out only certain procedures must be replaced and that N95
masks should
be standard for all staff working where there are suspected or
confirmed COVID-19 cases. This would include not just nurses but those
who provide direct care to residents in long-term care homes, as well
as other workers in hospitals and other health care settings.
Precautionary Principle From the
beginning of the pandemic, the CFNU and
other unions representing health care workers have called on
governments to implement the conclusions of the Final Report
of the Ontario SARS Commission Inquiry (2006). A most
important finding of that inquiry was the necessity of upholding the
precautionary principle, which
mandates the highest level of protection for health care workers.
In its position statement on COVID-19 published
March 23, the CFNU quoted the statement of Justice Campbell, Chair of
the SARS Commission, in the final report in which he stressed that the
question is not of who is right and who is wrong about airborne
transmission, and that when it comes to worker safety, policy should be
driven by
"the precautionary principle that reasonable steps to reduce risk
should not await scientific certainty." The CFNU
argues that there is now substantial
evidence that aerosol transmission is not rare, but a significant
source of transmission of COVID-19. Research shows that the risk is
highest in poorly ventilated and crowded indoor spaces, such as the
older long-term care facilities, where these precautions are even more
urgent given their
vulnerable population. The CFNU concludes that,
"Therefore, Canada must
change its guidance for health care professionals to recognize that the
virus is being spread both through the inhalation of aerosolized
particles at close range (less than 6 feet) and through long-range
airborne transmission." The
Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) finally updated its guidance on
the transmission of COVID-19 on November 4, stating, "SARS-CoV-2, the
virus that causes COVID-19, spreads from an infected person to others
through respiratory droplets and aerosols created when an infected
person coughs, sneezes, sings, shouts, or talks.
"The droplets
vary in size from large droplets that fall to the ground rapidly
(within seconds or minutes) near the infected person, to smaller
droplets, sometimes called aerosols, which linger in the air under some
circumstances."
Despite recognizing aerosol transmission, PHAC
only recommended that three-layer masks should be used by Canadians,
but remained silent on the need to increase the level of PPE for health
care workers including N95 masks, as well as the urgency of improving
ventilation. Every preventable death is
one too many. Every
preventable infection and illness is one too many. For governments to
ignore both science and the solutions put forward by health care
workers who know what is required is not just an abdication of their
social responsibility but gross negligence. Workers' Forum
calls on all workers and
people of Canada and Quebec to fully support the demands of health care
workers for N95 masks and other essential measures which they deem
necessary based on their experience and expertise.
- Pierre
Soublière - 
November
6, 2020. Workers protest in front of
Gatineau hospital. Hundreds of nurses
and orderlies
demonstrated in front of the Hull and Gatineau hospitals on Friday,
November 6 to denounce the recent measures taken by the Integrated
Health and Social Services Centre of the Outaoiais (CISSSO) to force
part-time workers to work full time. These measures are made possible
by the March ministerial
order according to which the collective agreement in health care can be
modified. This allows CISSS employers to, among other things, cancel
employees' holidays and force them to work full time, even those who
want to stay part-time. The order even allows for fines of $1,000 to
$6,000.  The CISSSO says
that it must meet "the growing needs of Hull and Gatineau hospitals
especially due to COVID-19." It also points to staff shortages which
are very high in the Outaouais, as they are in other regions. The
unions, long before the pandemic, and now at the bargaining tables,
have put forward a series of measures which must be
implemented to solve this problem, measures which have everything to do
with improving their working conditions. The latest measures imposed by
the CISSSO are precisely why people leave, either because they have
fallen ill or are at the end of their rope and quit. For example, 41
CISSSO workers are presently infected with COVID-19.
Faced
with the same situation, last week health
workers from Trois-Rivières demonstrated on the Lejeune
bridge to alert the public to the situation, including the number
of resignations and the government's refusal to remedy the situation.
These workers, like others, are told by their employer that if they are
not happy they can go work
elsewhere. They pointed out that what they are fighting for is the
future of the health care system, and that they fear that the system
will collapse if things don't change. As an example
of the extent to which health care
employers refuse to collaborate with the workers, even with regards to
the safety of employees, patients and residents, the Interprofessional
Health Care Federation of Quebec
(FIQ) announced on October 28 that it had to go to the Superior Court
so that unions could have access to workplaces to inspect the
ventilation systems and analyze air quality. The action was taken with
regards to the Lionel-Emond long-term care facility in the Outaouais
and the long-term
care facility Vigi Mont-Royal in Montreal. In the latter, during the
first wave, all 223 residents were infected and 68 people died, and
many health workers tested positive for COVID-19. The outcome of the
union's action was that the Administrative Labour Tribunal ordered
CISSSO and Vigi Santé Ltée to allow the union to
have access to the
workplaces to inspect the ventilation systems and analyze the air
quality. The tribunal reasserted the importance of a partnership
between the unions and employers to eliminate the dangers at the
source, as stipulated in the Act Respecting Occupational
Health and Safety (AOHS). Today's
society, with its highly socialized
economy, depends on collaboration of workers in one sector and among
sectors. This collaboration is even more important in these times of
pandemic in which the focus is on ensuring the health and security of
people in their workplaces and that of the people they are caring for.
Why does the Legault government, with its calls to
"stand shoulder to shoulder" in order to overcome the pandemic, refuse
to collaborate for the well-being of all and the greater good?
-
Interview, Jason MacLean - Jason Maclean
is the President of the
Nova Scotia Government and General Employees' Union.
Workers' Forum:
There are virulent outbreaks of COVID-19 across the country. Can you
tell us what the situation is in Nova Scotia? 
November 2020. NSGEU President Jason MacLean addresses press
conference on dealing with second wave of COVID-19. |
Jason
MacLean:
We have here the Atlantic bubble that makes our area a little bit more
unique than other areas of Canada. The Atlantic bubble includes people
that live in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and
Newfoundland and Labrador who can move freely within the four provinces
without having to
self-isolate. They can move freely as if they were moving around in
their own province. But if a Nova Scotian, for example, goes to Quebec
or BC or Ontario or any other province outside of the bubble, or to any
other country, then they have to self-isolate [for two weeks] when they
come back. What is happening now is that we have outbreaks in
all the Atlantic provinces. For example, right now in
Nova Scotia, we have a
couple of different outbreaks in the central zone, which is the Halifax
area, and in the northern zone. Just yesterday [November 9], the Nova
Scotia Premier and the Chief Medical Officer of Health provided an
update on YouTube about two different clusters that we have right now
in Nova
Scotia. There is concern that there may be community spread. As of
yesterday, we had 16 active cases that were accounted for in these
clusters. They identified several areas that could be contact exposure
areas. There is a cluster in the area called Clayton Park in Halifax.
Throughout downtown Halifax and in a couple of other places they are
telling people that if you were in certain areas during such and such
hours on such and such date, you need to go get tested. They are doing
their contact tracing and everything else. Not only that but Nova
Scotia Health sent out a message to all their staff that if they were
in that area, they should not go to work and should get tested. There
is
another cluster as well in the northern region of the province. The
entire province is awaiting updates because I believe there are going
to be new ones in the coming days as those who were in these areas get
tested. At this time, the data seem to indicate that these cases are
caused by workers coming from other provinces or workers from the
Atlantic
provinces who traveled outside and came back without self-isolating,
mainly because the province did not enforce the self-isolation
procedures. WF:
How does
the union respond to these outbreaks that are happening so as to curb
the spread of COVID-19? JM:
We need
to be prepared for the second wave of the pandemic. We just put in a
request to Nova Scotia Health for their personal protective equipment
(PPE) levels, like the N95 mask and other equipment. We are having a
meeting with them to see what their levels are to make sure that the
needed PPE is available. We are
reiterating to our members that this is not over and we need to be
vigilant.  There are new
studies that talk about aerosol
spread. We want to sit down with the employers and have the
conversation. Are we going to be utilizing N95 masks more? What else
can be done to reduce the risk of people contracting the virus and
spreading it? When push comes to shove, when our members need that
equipment, we demand that
they have it. We are informing our members about the right to refuse
dangerous work. We have been doing that throughout this pandemic and we
are doing it now during the second wave. We are working through the
occupational health and safety committees. They are key in getting
things accomplished in workplaces that may want to skirt safety
mechanisms. Occupational health and safety committees are what we have
to rely on if we feel an employer is neglecting health and safety.
People need to go to work, and they need to be safe in doing the work
and the employer needs to do everything possible to keep them safe --
visors, adequate masks, gowns and so on. People need to have all
of it. We continue to push the issues as they surface.
At
the moment, we are seeing entities such as Nova
Scotia Health telling their employees not to show up to work if they
work in these areas, but again we are not hearing anything from the
long-term care sector or the home care sector which we believe would be
key to stop the spread. We only heard that from one organization in
this
province. That was good of Nova Scotia Health but how about the
employers giving similar messages and showing care for the workers in
long-term care or home care or other type of health care? What
we need to do is to convey the message to the
people that COVID-19 is not going away any time soon so we have to
remain vigilant. In Nova Scotia we are trying as
hard as we can to
stay on top of the situation.
Montreal
Transit Workers -
Interview, Gleason
Frenette -
September
13, 2018. Montreal transit maintenance workers' rally during
negotiations for new collective agreement in which they repelled
employers' demands for concessions.
Gleason Frenette is the
President of
the Montreal Transit Union (STM-CSN). Workers'
Forum:
What is the situation at the Montreal Transit Corporation (STM) in
terms of cases of COVID-19 infection? Gleason
Frenette:
At the STM, we are at about 221 cases of infection since the beginning
of the pandemic. During the first wave, we had about 130 cases. There
have been close to 100 since the beginning of the second wave.
Approximately 60 per cent of the cases are drivers, 30 per cent are
maintenance employees and the
other 10 per cent are distributed among other sectors including
managers. There are about 10,500 employees at the STM, and more than
3,000 of them are teleworking. WF:
What
work is the union doing to mobilize workers in the fight to curb
COVID-19? GF:
We have
had to cancel our normal proceedings. Normally we hold a union council
or a general membership meeting every three weeks in person, but we
can't do that anymore. Now we hold our meetings on the Zoom platform,
virtually. We held a union council meeting in October and we are
holding a general membership
meeting on November 10. We follow the usual
processes, as if people were
present. We present reports on the situation and members vote on
resolutions. We have adjusted our services
accordingly. We have
gone to telework. All the office workers are teleworking at home. We
are very active from a communications point of view. We have encouraged
our members to join our private Facebook group. This has grown from
just over 1,000 participants at the beginning of the pandemic to over
1,900
participants now. Members sign up on the page and we check to make sure
the person applying is a member. We accept retirees too. In particular,
we inform them about the pension plan. Many ask questions about it,
about how investments will behave during the pandemic. They are also
concerned about whether the STM will maintain the
pensions. On our Facebook page, I provide regular
updates.
At the present time we have 76 updates posted. The updates inform
workers on all issues in the life of the union. Pandemic information is
important in these updates. We give regular reports on new cases that
have been reported, which sector they are in, and, if it is one of our
members, on
which shift the infected worker was working. The goal is to make the
members aware so that they can remain vigilant, especially when
multiple cases are added. Each time an update is
published on the Facebook
page, there may be a hundred comments and questions that we answer. We
answer all the questions, on all aspects -- the pension plan, union
life, the pandemic, all subjects. WF:
What is
the situation in terms of the health standards you've been fighting for
since the beginning?  GF:
It's
going rather well, but there's a snag. Normally, when there is an
accident at work, we participate in the investigations, there are joint
investigations. The STM, for workers who test positive for COVID-19,
conducts an investigation into each case. It should be the National
Public Health Institute of Quebec (INSPQ) that
does the investigation, but they don't have the resources so they have
delegated it to the STM. In our opinion, the STM is in a conflict of
interest situation because when a COVID investigation is done, if an
infected person has been in contact with others, all of them have to be
sent to quarantine. In our case, this is paid. We want the
investigation
to be joint, but the STM has never agreed, so we are in arbitration on
this matter. Normally we would participate in the investigations
because it affects the health and safety of workers, as if it were a
workplace accident.
We have made agreements with
the STM to add
resources for disinfection. Initially, this was an agreement to hire
students earlier than planned. Usually students are hired at the end of
June, but we agreed to hire them in May because the students were not
going to school. It was also agreed that workers in other union
certifications, office
workers, professionals, even engineers, would come in to help with
disinfection. After the first wave, when the students were going back
to school at the end of August, we made an agreement for a rapid and
massive hiring of staff to do the disinfection. The agreement was voted
on by the membership by email because it modified the collective
agreement and required membership approval. During
the first wave, we focused on health and
safety with our health and safety committee and the executive members
receiving information daily from the union in all sectors. We had to
put pressure on the employer because it wasn't working at the pace we
wanted. We used collective and individual work refusals to push the
employer to put
the measures in place. We put a lot of pressure on the employer to
ensure that safety measures were taken quickly. We made representations
to the Labour Standards, Pay Equity and Workplace Health and Safety
Board (CNESST) which agreed with us on several occasions, and to INSPQ
which also put pressure on the employer when it was
informed that the measures were not implemented quickly enough. We put
pressure through the mainstream media and on social media, and we
applied political pressure, particularly on the city of
Montréal, to push the STM to adopt the health measures
quickly. We are continuing this work during the
second
wave. Our strength is keeping our workers informed. That's how we
succeed in mobilizing them to take the necessary precautions and ensure
that health standards are applied. We have to keep them informed of
everything that is happening because we are having fewer meetings than
we do
usually. Regular updates are needed. Workers are aware of what is
happening. They are not afraid to go to the employer to demand that
measures be put in place because they feel supported and they know
their rights, such as the right to refuse unsafe work. We inform them
of the proper procedures to follow so that they are not subject to
disciplinary measures. All of this is very much appreciated by the
members. They find that they have even more information than usual and
they actually participate more.
(To
access articles
individually click on the black headline.) PDF
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