THUNDER BAY – Not all frontline workers are created equal when it comes to pandemic pay.
That’s got union officials representing workers at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre up in arms.
Dozens of staff on Friday morning gathered in front of the hospital and marched in solidarity around the hospital grounds to voice their concerns.
Jesse Kuluski, president of OPSEU Local 715 at Thunder Bay Regional, says it’s not fair that only about a third of hospital employees received the $4-an-hour top-up, stating that his membership faces many of the same COVID-19 danger faced by doctors and nurses.
“A lot of us are still frontline, essential workers. We’re the ones who draw blood, we’re the ones who enter your data in when you show up. We’re the ones who are doing the sampling of COVID tests,” Kuluski said.
“We’ve got multiple professions that are being excluded, that aren’t recognized. We’re just looking for recognition and understanding to make the public aware that there are still people on the front lines that are not getting this pandemic pay.”
The union in April initially applauded the move by Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s government, but then earlier this month asked the province to expand pandemic pay, also calling out the federal Liberals to step in and fill in the gap.
According to a media release issued June 3 by OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas, the province told union officials they had run out of funding after covering 375,000 workers.
“But there are thousands more who are facing exactly the same kinds of risks and hardships. The premier has said he would love to extend it to all workers if only the province had the money. That’s where the federal government comes in,” Thomas said.
Kuluski said he thinks his membership has been left out because they’re the forgotten front-line workers.
“Year after year in bargaining, there’s never mentions of a lot of our professions. It’s always nurses and doctors first and foremost at the hospital. They do great work, but we do great work as well and we’re part of a big team here,” said Kuluski, adding he hopes senior levels of government reconsider their pandemic pay strategy if and when a second wave of COVID-19 hits the province.
