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It’s time to put workers first: SFL president BY CAROL T ODD
Saskatchewan’s already stressed low-income earners have been dealt a triple whammy by the pandemic, according to the union that represents many Saskatchewan employees. Those workers, along with all the frontline people, union and non-union, who have held the line against the virus this past year and a half, will be among the topics of conversation when the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL) gathers for its annual convention in October. The 65th annual convention will be held virtually this year from October 21-22. There was no convention in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and this year’s meeting will be held entirely online to continue to safeguard participants. While only two days this year, the organization says it will still feature many of the usual convention activities and ways for the expected 500 delegates to participate. The theme of this year’s convention is Putting Workers First, with the online information stating that the COVID-19 pandemic has proven that Saskatchewan workers have been resilient and that frontline workers
From health care workers to grocery store employees to bus drivers, frontline workers have been resilient and continued to provide Saskatchewan people with life’s essentials throughout the pandemic. PH O T O : SGEU
are heroes who provide us with life’s essentials. Lori Johb, the president of the SFL, which represents more than 100,000 Saskatchewan workers who are members of 37 national and international unions, says the pandemic offers the opportunity to focus on those workers. “We need to talk about the ones that were on the front line from the very beginning, that weren’t able to stay at home — grocery store workers, health
care workers, bus drivers — there’s so many. There’s so much that needs to be said for the people who were there holding the line from the very beginning,” she says. It also, she says, drew attention to the fact that many of those workers, especially those in non-unionized workplaces, had no sick leave or other protections in the face of a pandemic. “So those things just aren’t right and don’t sit well with us. Workers need to be treated better,”
Johb says. “People should be able to stay at home if they are ill without having to wonder where their rent money is going to come from or their grocery money is going to come from. That was a really big issue for a lot of people,” she says. Johb says the pandemic has also highlighted many of the issues the SFL has continued to press for over the years, such as staffing levels and protections for frontline workers, access to full em-
ployment, child care, protection of Crown corporations, quality education and the minimum wage, as well other issues. “This pandemic has now shown us that what we’ve been saying is absolutely true and that we need to do better for frontline workers in our province. They provide all the essentials of our lives, from our schools, our hospitals, our Crown corporations, grocery stores; they’re the backbone of our economy and our society and we need to protect working people,” she says. Many of those hardest hit by the pandemic have been minimum wage earners, who are not members of a union, and many of them work at more than one job. “So, they are juggling two or three part-time jobs and then COVID hit and they’re no longer allowed to work in more than one place. So, then they have to choose and their income is reduced that way as well. They were hit again. So, for some people – a triple whammy,” Johb says. One of the biggest problems, says Johb, is the fact that the Saskatchewan minimum wage will still be the second lowest in the country, even after the scheduled increase to $11.81 on October 1. Following that increase, only
New Brunswick’s minimum wage will be lower than Saskatchewan’s. The highest is in Nunavut, where the wage is $16 an hour. The federal minimum wage will rise to $15 on Dec. 29, but it applies only to federally-regulated businesses such as banks. Johb says that a significant raise to the minimum wage up to $15 an hour is needed now, especially as the province looks forward to recovering from the pandemic. According to an SFL media release, studies of jurisdictions with $15 an hour minimum wages have consistently shown an increase in jobs, including in the service and hospitality sectors, and an overall increase in economic growth. “Working people will get us out of this and they are the answer to recovery,” Johb says. She stresses that it is all working people, not just those in a union, who will drive the economic recovery heading out of the pandemic. We must all come together as working people and fight for a real pandemic recovery that puts workers first,” she says. “Improving wages. Improving working conditions. All these things are so very important and it would go a long way to ensuring that people in our province are recovering from this pandemic,” she says.
Labour Day a time to recognize workers’ achievements BY TRACEY SAUER SGEU President
To many, Labour Day is just another holiday — the last long weekend before kids go back to school and the summer winds down. But Labour Day is so much more than that: it’s a day of celebration, of protest, and of recognition for the achievements of workers and the labour movement. Recognizing the important role played by workers is even more significant this year, after more than 18 months of COVID-19 raging through our workplaces, our schools and our communities. Amid this crisis, it’s work-
Tracey Sauer, SGEU president
ing people who have kept us safe and secure. They have continued to provide the programs and services we rely on every day. Working people have ensured we can get groceries, access medical care,
and get support when we need it. These frontline workers have risked their health and safety just by going to work every day. Staff at correctional and young offender facilities; hospital, home care and long-term care workers; childcare providers; staff at women’s shelters; grocery store employees; teachers and countless others were put at increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 simply by going to work. We call them heroes. But it’s important to note many of these workers didn’t go to work every day just out of a sense of duty; they did
it because they had no other choice. Many workers essential to our communities are the lowest-paid workers in Canada. They’ve worked through a global pandemic without access to health benefits or paid sick days. Labour Day gives us an opportunity to think about the value we place on work, and reminds us to continue the fight for fair wages and good benefits for everyone. This pandemic has been a call to action. Unions, employers, and governments need to work together to ensure all workers earn a living wage and can go to work without putting themselves
or their families at risk. No one should have to choose between their health and being able to pay their bills. Over the last 100 years, the labour movement has won safer workplaces, better wages, good benefits, pay equity, and economic security for workers. We have fought for reconciliation, equal rights, and justice for marginalized groups. Collective bargaining has raised the bar for everyone — and many of the benefits union members have won now apply to everyone, such as vacation pay, minimum wage, protection from harassment and discrimination, parental leave, and workplace
health and safety standards. But if this pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that our work is nowhere near done. We must continue to strive for improved conditions for all workers, especially those who aren’t yet union members. I’m proud to be part of a union that believes by working together we can create better workplaces and a better world. On behalf of the 20,000 members of SGEU who work in the public service, health care, education, retail regulatory, community services, and Crown corporations, I wish everyone a Happy Labour Day!
THIS SECTION WAS CREATED BY CONTENT WORKS, POSTMEDIA’S COMMERCIAL CONTENT DIVISION.
HAPPY LABOUR DAY Whether it’s improving standards, defending workplace rights or championing public services,
UNIONS MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR EVERYONE.
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Now’s the time to fix Canada’s broken long-term care system: CUPE BY GERALD VANDER PYL
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is calling for changes to Canada’s long-term care system to make it an accessible, publicly funded and universal health care service. Mark Hancock, CUPE national president, says the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted long-standing problems with the current system that need to be fixed to protect our most vulnerable citizens. Hancock says 65,000 of the 700,000 workers that CUPE represents work in long-term care and have experienced firsthand the problems inherent in the system. “Long-term care has been in crisis in the country for a long time. Our members working on the front lines have seen that,” he says. “But COVID definitely did shine an excruciatingly bright light on long-term care.” Last May, CUPE launched a public campaign promoting much needed changes to Canada’s long-term care system. A website was unveiled at FixLongTermCare.ca and Hancock wrote a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau calling for the government to lead the way in reforming the system. His letter spelled out a plan of attack: - Bring long-term care fully into the public health care system and regulate it under the Canada Health Act. - Provide dedicated and adequate funding to the provinces and territories for long-term care through the Canada Health Transfer. - Implement and enforce evidence-based national standards of care, including staffing levels, and tie the standards to funding. - Eliminate the for-profit ownership of homes and the contracting out of facility services. - Increase and standardize the wages of workers to reflect the value of their work and role in providing an essential health care service. Strengthen workers’ benefits, including adequate paid sick days. - Eliminate precarity across the sector through the creation of full-time, regular jobs for workers who want them. - Use public funds to build and operate more publicly operated long-term
Mark Hancock, CUPE national president. S U P P L I ED P H OT O
COVID definitely did shine an excruciatingly bright light on long-term care. - MARK HANCOCK, CUPE national president
care homes. Hancock says he feels the main reason for many problems is the inclusion of profit in our current system. “There are too many care homes out there that have profit as part of it because they are privately owned,” he says. “And in order to make a bigger profit, what do you do? You cut corners, you don’t have staff or that level of care that these folks deserve, to live with dignity.” Hancock says the current mix of public and private care facilities and different provincial standards means care varies across the country, and staff in facilities can face challenging conditions. “It’s always been a very difficult and challenging job and the people in this service do it because they love the job, they love working with seniors and other folks. It’s a passion and a calling. (But) I’ve been hearing a lot, especially the last year, that long-term care workers are exhausted and utterly burnt out.” Hancock says it’s unacceptable that four out of every five deaths from COVID in Canada have been residents or staff of long-term care facilities. He says early in the pandemic, workers in some homes reported not having enough personal protection equipment for staff or sufficient cleaning supplies.
The current mix of public and private care facilities and different provincial standards means care varies across the country, and staff in facilities can face challenging conditions, says CUPE national president Mark Hancock. PHOTO: GET TY IMAGES
Staff who had to work in several facilities in order to make enough money to support their family unknowingly spread COVID through no fault of their own. Hancock says while he understands that long-term care comes under provincial jurisdiction, the federal government can play an important role. “We’ve done some polling and nine out of 10 people in Canada believe the federal government in Canada
should work in partnership with the provinces and tie funding to commitments from those provinces, making sure that long-term care is what we want it to be as Canadians,” he says. “When you think about the seniors in long-term care, those are the people who have built our country up. For us to treat them with this amount of disrespect and not make sure their golden years are what they should be – I’m just blown
away by the fact we could do that.” Hancock has talked to the prime minister, finance minister and health minister about the issue of long-term care. “I had a conversation with the prime minister before Christmas and I encouraged him to be bold. I told him there’s a real opportunity to make a real positive statement.” Hancock says with a federal election just weeks away
there’s still time for Canadians to make long-term care an election issue. He says people should contact their MPs, email the prime minister, ask questions of candidates at meetings or during election forums, and write letters to the editor. “I think these are the types of issues that are important to every Canadian, because we all have parents and grandparents. And one day we will be there too.”
TEAMSTERS Local Union No. 395 LABOUR DAY
Brought to you by hard working women and men fighting to win dignity, respect & rights on the job 1515 Park St. Regina, SK. (306) 569-9259 201 2225 Hanselman Court Saskatoon, SK. (306) 382-7868
Carpenters Union Local 1985
HAPPY LABOUR DAY! As you enjoy your long weekend, take time to remember the labour movement pioneers who have helped to secure the rights and benefits we enjoy today in Canada.
2551 Albert St. N. Regina 306-585-0900 3730 Kinnear Pl. Saskatoon 306-382-4355
Your Saskatchewan NDP MLAs Proud to stand with workers on Labour Day and to act in solidarity every day.
Happy Labour Day!
306.787.7388 caucus@ndpcaucus.sk.ca
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Labour Day a reminder to support essential workers BY KAYLA GUERRET TE
Today, our registered nurses are stressed, exhausted, and burnt out as they brace for an onslaught of COVID-19 cases in the pandemic’s fourth wave, says Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), which represents more than 10,000 registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses and nurse practitioners in Saskatchewan. A health care system that was struggling prior to the province’s first positive case of COVID-19 is now sagging beneath the weight of the pressure. “We knew that we had human health resources issues prior to COVID-19,” said Zambory. “It was starting to become obvious with positions opening up all over Saskatchewan in different agencies, facilities and units, and being left unfilled. What we are seeing now since COVID-19 began is that understaffing is really starting to become a hard reality.” Zambory hears from nurses that they are considering looking for new positions within their field, or considering leaving the profession. Registered nurses are burdened by an ever-increasing workload that has rapidly outpaced the investment by government. Saskatchewan’s growing and aging population, heavy patient loads, long hours, stretched resources and ballooning – sometimes mandated – overtime hours contribute to an increasing rate of burnout among registered nurses. And with nearly 2,000 of Saskatchewan’s registered nurses eligible to retire at any moment, the stability of the health care system is further threatened. “It’s going to become critical and particularly now that we are going into the fourth wave. We are finding ourselves crucially short-staffed,” said Zambory. Rural emergency rooms have been closing due to short staffing, adding even more pressure on the tertiary emergency rooms in Regina and Saskatoon. In these cities, acute care has been plagued for years by issues with over-capacity and shortstaffing, often running at 130 per cent capacity with health care staff buckling from the strain.
As Saskatchewan enters the fourth wave of the pandemic, health care facilities are struggling with over-capacity and understaffing. GET T Y I M AGES
Now is the time to step up and support essential workers in Saskatchewan, says Saskatchewan Union of Nurses president Tracy Zambory. Don masks in public indoor spaces, practice good hand hygiene and socially distance, and — if you’re eligible — get a COVID-19 vaccination. GET T Y IM AGES
Now in the pandemic, Zambory says they find themselves at a very critical point. “It’s a tragedy that is unfolding right before our eyes,” said Zambory, citing the difficulties facing essential servic-
es workers in many sectors. Grocery store employees, gas station attendants, registered nurses and doctors — all have put their lives on the line to keep services available to people across Canada.
Now is the time to step up and help these essential workers. Don masks in public indoor spaces, practice good hand hygiene and socially distance, and — if you’re eligible — get a COVID-19 vac-
cination. Vaccinations are our greatest chance of surviving the pandemic, easing the strain on the health care system, and taking care of one another, she said. “As registered nurses we
can tell you that most people coming into the hospital extremely ill and ending up in the COVID wards and ICU are people who are not vaccinated. If we want to see our way through this, people need to get vaccinated.” Zambory said that the solution to easing some of the COVID-19 pressure is simple: Behave as we did when the public health orders were in place, regardless of one’s vaccination status. “This fourth wave is hitting us and it’s only going to hit us harder. We are seeing people in hospitals that are younger and sicker than before.” Acknowledging that Saskatchewan is seeing an increasing number of COVID-19 cases and lags behind much of the country when it comes to vaccine uptake, Zambory said she wants to ease fears and misconceptions surrounding the immunizations. “Researchers have approved these vaccines. They have been working on an mRNA vaccination for decades. They didn’t just start working COVID-19 vaccinations in the last 17 months. All the science behind it has been worked on for a long time.” She said there are many people in the hospital with COVID-19 who now wish they had gotten the vaccine but, unfortunately, a vaccine isn’t an option for someone sick with the virus. “You hear many testimonials across North America from people who say that they wish that they would have,” said Zambory. “They felt they were bulletproof. None of us are. “We need to do this to protect those who have worked so hard to protect all of us. “Every day that these people show up for their jobs, they put their lives on the line. Many of them are vaccinated and they are relying on the public to also take on that same responsibility. Our essential workers need the public to want to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.” Zambory said she strongly believes that things will only get better through a concentrated community effort. Solidarity is the overarching message of Labour Day, and according to Zambory, the greatest act of solidarity with one’s community is to get the COVID-19 vaccination.
THANK YOU To Saskatchewan’s more than an 10,000
Registered Nurses, Registered d Psychiatric Nurses and Nurse Practitionerrs, and to all of your healthcare team co olleagues. Saskatchewan can’t get throug gh this pandemic without you.
Happy Labour Day y!
makingthedifference.ca/addictions
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Stop The Hate: UFCW supports anti-racist COVID recovery BY ELIZABETH IRELAND
As Canadians continue to face the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, there is an opportunity to reimagine a more inclusive social safety net for all Canadian residents. Events during the past year and a half have shown that a COVID-19 recovery strategy grounded in racial justice is key. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW Canada) represents more than 250,000 members across the country working in private sectors such as retail, food and beverage manufacturing, hospitality and health care. According to UFCW Canada, Canadians need to be united in urging the federal government to ensure that Black, Indigenous and racialized workers in Canada are properly supported, whether they are currently working or unemployed due to the impacts of COVID-19. Emmanuelle Lopez-Bastos is human rights, equity and diversity coordinator with UFCW Canada. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Guelph in social studies and began working with UFCW Canada in 2002. Lopez-Bastos describes her role as “developing strategic initiatives serving UFCW membership and working as a bridge builder, with a worker and equity-centred mandate. My role in equity and diversity is grounded on an intersectional approach.” Lopez-Bastos came to Canada as a child in 1988 as a refugee from Nicaragua. She says “arriving in Canada, I quickly integrated into a community of care. In 2018, I was greeting Ethiopian refugees at the airport, and I realized that it was exactly 30 years since I came to Canada as a refugee. It came completely full circle.” Lopez-Bastos’ early career focused on community activism and labour rights for migrant agricultural workers. She notes that migrant workers in the early 2000s were seen as “strangers amongst our midst, and although they’ve always remained an integral part of our food chain system, they have no safeguards, particularly after a workplace accident or injury.” She refers to the case of a migrant worker from Mexico who lost his arm in an agricultural accident at a carrot and onion farm in Ontario. He was 48 years old with eight children to support back in Mexico and no safeguards. UFCW Canada has two migrant agricultural worker support centres in Ontario, located near the fertile agricultural areas of Leamington and the Holland Marsh. Early in the pandemic, UFCW Canada supported its members by advocating for plexiglass shields in food processing plants and retail settings, early access to vaccines for front line workers, and other ways to create safer workplaces for the union’s members. “The pandemic has shone a spotlight on Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) workers because many are undervalued and low income earners in food services, retail and manufacturing. COVID-19 laid bare the importance of paid sick days and the issue of accessible childcare. We have also experienced the concept of a she-cession,” says Lopez-Bastos. A she-cession is defined as an economic downturn where job and income losses are impacting women more
Emmanuelle Lopez-Bastos, UFCW Canada’s human rights, equity and diversity coordinator. S U P PL IED P H OT O
than men, reflecting gender inequality. In addition, UFCW Canada has a new diversity and inclusion initiative. In 2021, the Women and Racialized Leaders Institute concluded a 10-week program for nearly 40 participants across UFCW Canada locals. The Institute lets participants engage in content at their own pace and then they meet virtually four times to share their thoughts and learnings with each other. The union also has a history of supporting Indigenous rights in Canada and a commitment to reconciliation. In September 2019, UFCW Canada welcomed the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s decision to issue a compensation order for children concerning the implementation of Jordan’s Principle. The goal of Jordan’s Principle is to ensure that First Nations children living in Canada get the services they need when they need them. Using the hashtag #StopTheHate on social media, UFCW Canada wants the government to support BIPOC workers by helping marginalized communities safely recover from the pan-
“The pandemic has shone a spotlight on Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) workers because many are undervalued and low income earners in food services, retail and manufacturing,” says Emmanuelle Lopez-Bastos, UFCW Canada’s human rights, equity and diversity coordinator. GET TY IMAGES
demic, as well as by supporting anti-racism initiatives led by non-profit organizations. “Our goal is to replace a negative narrative with positives. I believe that hope and solidarity go hand-in-hand. There is no better day than Labour Day to discuss what we do as a union, to reflect on the importance of labour rights and to share our strength,” concludes Lopez-
United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1400 A diverse and inclusive union for all workers
CELEBRATES LABOUR DAY 2021 THROUGHOUT SASKATCHEWAN
From nursing homes to banks, steel mills to mines, forestry, energy, manufacturing and more . . .
THE UNITED STEELWORKERS The Union that WORKS for Canadians in Every sector of the economy Labour Day is OUR day Steelworkers Saskatoon Area Council USW Locals 5890, 5917(Regina), 6717 (Weyburn) South Sask Area Council 306-382-2122 (Saskatoon) 306-569-9663 (Regina)
Bastos. UFCW Canada is encouraging people to sign a petition to the federal Minister
of Diversity and Inclusion and the Director of the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat supporting an anti-racist
COVID-19 recovery strategy. Find out more about the petition and #StopTheHate at www.ufcw.ca.
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Worker shortages impeding Saskatchewan economic recovery BY RAY PENNER
There are many ways the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted business and industry. Add labour shortage to the list. “There are more jobs available than people willing to work,” says Hanif Hemani, president of HMG Inc. and managing director of Express Employment Professionals, a Saskatoon recruitment agency. “We’re getting a tremendous number of inbound calls, including those from employers that had previously not needed services such as ours. On the other hand, we’re also facing challenges in filling these positions, and in some cases have even had to decline potential clients, which is something we’ve never had to do in the six years we’ve been in business.” Hemani says the greatest challenges are in filling entry to mid-level positions, particularly in the light industrial sector, for jobs such as forklift operator and shipping and receiving. All sectors have been affected, however. “Finding administrative and legal assistants has also proven to be challenging,” says Hemani. One of the hardest hit sectors has been the hospitality industry, which includes hotels and restaurants. Jim Bence, president and CEO of Hospitality Saskatchewan says, “There’s an acute labour shortage, for sure. Even before the pandemic, it was
challenging, as we have a very shallow labour pool. With the pandemic, a large number of workers who were laid off took advantage of the training subsidies that were out there to get an education and leave the industry. We also had a large number of retirements.” Bence points to another phenomenon that has contributed to the shortages. “Seven out of 10 young people get their first job in our industry. Those who were in high school and old enough to work when the pandemic hit have now graduated and are looking at other job opportunities.” The problem of filling positions is “pretty much across the board” in his sector, notes Bence, but this summer the resorts in Saskatchewan were particularly challenged. “The resort areas had an extremely good summer,” says Bence, commenting on the pent-up demand of patrons, “but finding employees, especially when you’re located where there’s a small local population, has been very difficult.” Both Bence and Hemani point to the Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB) program as another contributing factor. “Especially over the summer, people on CERB might have been hesitant to go back to work right away, especially when they have children and there’s no school,” says Hemani. In other cases, those workers who were laid off during the pandemic and found jobs
elsewhere may have developed a loyalty to their new employer, or like their new position better, and aren’t willing to make a change. Being able to work from home, at least for two or three days a week, has also changed many people’s attitudes towards the kind of position they are now willing to accept. Having realized significant savings in child care and other job-related costs such gas and parking, an employee might be very hesitant to return to a pre-pandemic routine. That attitude makes it particularly difficult to recruit for positions that require the employee to be on-site at all times, such as a cook or hotel desk clerk. The new dynamics mean employers have to carefully consider what type of options and benefits they will have to provide in order to compete for quality recruits. Never has it been more important to be “an employer of choice.” While it’s a challenging time for employers, “It’s a great opportunity to enter our industry,” says Bence. “Right now, you can start a career with a great trajectory, and there are hundreds of jobs being posted on sites such saskjobs.ca.” He points out that, with so many job openings, a person can take the time to decide where he or she would like to work, and the kind of position they would like the best. “There are many different positions in the hospitality industry that are open, and not all at the entry level,
Saskatchewan is experiencing an acute labour shortage. One of the hardest hit sectors is the province’s hospitality industry, which includes restaurants and hotels. GET TY IMAGES
either. If you were ever looking for a job that would give you real opportunity, this is it, right now.” The opportunities in the hospitality industry aren’t just for young people, either. Bence recalls a person who retired from NASA, and asked if he could be a shuttle driver at the hotel where Bence was working, just so he could meet and talk to people daily. “We literally
Today, we honour all the people in Saskatchewan who work to enrich our province.
had a rocket scientist driving our shuttle, and he was the best shuttle driver we ever had,” says Bence. Hemani recommends that employers also look to new Canadians to fill demand. “New Canadians are a very under-utilized resource in Saskatchewan. The major cities in Canada have embraced these folks in a much higher capacity than we have. We see such amazing
talent come through our office – people with a tremendous work ethic and experience. They are often willing to take even entry level positions just to showcase their skills. We see this all the time.” Both Hemani and Bence, however, do not see the labour situation changing any time soon. “It’s still not a very optimistic outlook,” says Bence.