Canada Post Mississauga Plant
Postal Worker Dies as Canada Post Fails to Control COVID-19 Outbreak
January
28, 2021. Workers at Canada Post facilities in Scarborough
organized a moment of silence in honour of postal worker Godfrey Yeung
who died from COVID-19.
 Postal workers in Toronto and across the country are mourning the death
of Godfrey Yeung, a night shift worker at the Gateway plant in
Mississauga.[1] He passed away on January 26 as he was self-isolating at home less than a week after a positive COVID-19 test on January 19.
Qaiser Maroof, the president of the Toronto local of the Canadian
Union of Postal Workers, calls it a "sad day for Postal Workers" and an
"unnecessary loss of life." He went on to say, "This tragedy
underscores why we have been insisting to the governments that the
postal workers are indeed frontline workers. When will the government
ensure that our members are treated like frontline workers? When will
our health and safety be treated with high importance?"
Workers Forum condemns the flagrant disregard for workers'
safety by Canada Post. Postal workers tell us that since the beginning
of the pandemic it has been a constant battle to have management take
worker safety seriously. There have been outbreaks at multiple Canada
Post sorting stations. The union has taken the initiative to take
members out of production and assigned them to do health and safety
monitoring, encouraging workers to wear PPE and to keep adequately
distanced.
Dr. Lawrence Loh, Chief Medical Officer of Health for Peel Region
has started an investigation into the tragic event at the Gateway
facility. Throughout January there was an alarming increase in COVID-19
infections there. As of January 30, the most recent information
available, 273 workers had tested positive since the beginning of the
month and dozens more cases were coming to light each day. On January
22 Peel Public Health officials directed Canada Post to close down the
afternoon shift (Shift #3) and over 300 workers were advised to
self-isolate at home for 14 days. In addition, all day shift workers
(Shift #2) were tested at an onsite clinic that has been set up. The
public
health authorities directed that mandatory testing at the Gateway
facility be ramped up and that employees who had already been tested
must be assessed again. Canada Post implemented the following measures:
- full sanitization of the plant;
- enhanced measures to promote physical distancing;
- proper and sufficient personal protective equipment will be available; and
- increased safety inspections and information to be provided to the union.
All the measures that Canada Post is committing to implement now in
the Gateway plant postal workers have been fighting for all along.
Since the beginning of the pandemic postal workers have continued to
process and deliver mail and parcels and provide services at retail
counters. In carrying out this work, they have not only risked
infection but have also fought tooth and nail across the country to
ensure that health and safety rights at each workplace are respected.
 There are countless examples of workers having to invoke the right
to refuse unsafe work because the corporation has refused to provide
proper personal protective equipment, maintain proper cleaning in
plants and depots, ensure proper physical distancing and so on. Workers
have been denied leaves needed to protect themselves and their
families -- even to be tested if they are not well. They
are disciplined for coming to work if they subsequently prove to be
infected. Workers are also threatened with discipline for social media
posts that are critical of the Corporation. Parcel handling is at
record levels due to the increase in online shopping. Canada Post
reports that since the
COVID pandemic they have distributed a record number of parcels: 181
consecutive days of over 1 million parcels daily compared to the best
previously of 67. This increases the risk of workers contracting
COVID-19 as workers are pressured to do 12-hour shifts to handle the
volume, including replacing workers who are sick or have to
self-quarantine. Temporary workers hired for Christmas processing and
delivery have been called back. Many of these workers are new
immigrants and particularly vulnerable to pressure to work all the hours they can
because their pay increases are based on accumulating at least 1,000
hours a year. In spite of all this Canada Post is blaming the workers
for the
outbreak -- for lack of social distancing, for coming to work when
they were not well. It is unconscionable.
Workers' Forum fully supports the fight of the postal workers
and of all workers to work under healthy and secure working conditions
on which they have say and control.
Note
1. The Gateway plant in Mississauga is
Canada Post's largest facility with more than 4,500 postal workers who
work in mail processing, technical services, transportation and
administration.
This article was published in
Number 3 - February 8, 2021
Article Link:
Canada Post Mississauga Plant: Postal Worker Dies as Canada Post Fails to Control COVID-19 Outbreak
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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