SEIU vies to unionize essential workers

Union cites layoffs, loss of benefits, lack of PPE amid pandemic

SEIU vies to unionize essential workers
Essential workers at Lonsdale Quay Market in Vancouver recently unioized.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2 is launching a nationwide “Unions are Essential” campaign to help essential workers form a union.

SEIU Local 2 claims that thousands of essential workers across the country have been laid off with no guaranteed callback, causing them to lose their seniority and benefits. Essential workers are also falling sick and dying, it says, as governments across Canada drag their feet in mandating adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) regulations.

“The campaign aims to bring these workers into the fold of the labour movement, empowering them to defend themselves effectively against employers and politicians who often regard workers’ rights as a low priority,” says the union.

Through the campaign, essential workers at two sites in North Vancouver – Lonsdale and Tsawwassen Quay Markets – have had a successful union organizing drive and certification vote amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The workers are now negotiating their first contracts with their employer, Dexterra.

The campaign has also launched unionsareessential.ca, a website that will connect workers with on-the-ground SEIU organizers in their region.

In April, a survey of almost 2,000 frontline workers inside and outside the health care sector found that there’s a call for urgent help on basic protections, including paid emergency leave, PPE, decent wages, full-time work, and better health and safety protections.

Ontario later announced a $4 top-up to the hourly wages of workers in long-term care, retirement homes, community care, home care and some hospitals, along with a $250 bonus for those who work more than 100 hours per month.

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