TORONTO —
More than 100 employees of a Canada Post facility in Mississauga have tested positive for COVID-19 so far this month.
The Crown corporation confirmed Wednesday that there had been 121 cases at its Dixie Road location.
Public Health has confirmed that Canada Post is able to maintain its operations. Any employees who do test positive will leave the workplace and self-isolate,” Canada Post said in a statement.
According to the Crown corporation, more than 4,500 employees are working in mail processing, technical services, transportation, casual and administration at the facility.
Canada Post noted that Peel Public Health had also directed them to test one shift of employees at its Gateway East facility for the novel coronavirus. Testing began on Tuesday.
“There has been full compliance of workers with this directive. And the union supports this plan,” Qaiser Maroof, president of the Canada Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Toronto Local 626.
He said 23 workers at the Gateway East facility tested positive for COVID-19.
“CPW continues to pressure Canada Post corporation to share the latest information with us, investigate and correct situations which could lead to workplace transmission and do so everything possible to assure the public safety and the health and safety of our workers at Canada Post,” he said.
“Peel Public Health investigates every COVID-19 positive case. If there is a potential workplace exposure, we work with the case to identify contacts and with the employer to ensure that they are doing what they can to prevent any future workplace exposure,” said Dr. Lawrence Loh, the region’s medical officer of health, in a statement.
Loh added details of an investigation will only be disclosed if there is a risk to a broader public.
Outbreaks at workplaces show the need for paid sick leave for workers, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said at a news conference on Wednesday. There had been 2014 workplace outbreaks since the pandemic, with 60 per cent reported in manufacturing, warehouse, and food processing.
“In total, over 1500 workers and people have contracted COVID-19 through a workplace outbreak. And we know that workplace outbreaks ultimately lead to more households and communities spread,” she said.
On Wednesday, the city council approved a motion by Crombie requesting the provincial and federal governments “fund necessary policies to provide adequate paid sick leave benefits.” A similar motion was passed in December.
“It’s simply unacceptable that we continue to ask our essential workers who are keeping our economy running to choose between going to work sick to keep food on the table or lose income while they self-isolate.
“I may sound like a broken record. But when it comes to this issue, I will keep saying it again and again. Paid sick leave needs to be part of our continued and shared response to this pandemic,” Crombie said.
Loh echoed the mayor’s sentiments, saying paid sick leave will ensure that transmission spread does not happen at workplaces.
“Paid sick days can help workers stay home and self-isolate if they are sick,” he said.
“We certainly know that manufacturing distribution warehouses, these are high-risk sectors for us to see workplace outbreaks. And so certainly, this really drives home the message that we’ve been saying all along for our essential workers in our community. Ultimately, there is no lockdown or shut down and they are ultimately still out there, making sure that there’s packages delivered and food on the table.”
Crombie noted that cases in the region are plateauing, which she says is encouraging news.
However, she urged residents to continue following public health measures.
“I’m very hopeful that we are over the large spike in cases that we saw recently due to holiday shopping and holiday gatherings,” the mayor said.
“But this doesn’t mean for a second that we can get complacent. We have to remain vigilant. The reality is that our hospitals remain in a precarious situation.”
While Trillium Health Partners saw a decline in hospitalizations since last week, Crombie said patients continue to be transferred to other regions.
Loh believes next week is a critical turning point in the region’s fight against the virus.
“What we are seeing now shows the lingering impact of the holidays. And what we do now will decide what our cases will look like at the end of January and ultimately what our hospitals will be coping with through February,” he said.
More than 20,000 doses have been administered to health-care employees, essential workers and residents and staff of long-term care and retirement homes in Peel Region. With the Pfizer vaccine slowdown, that means preventing the further spread of the virus remains “in all our hands,” Loh said.
“All of this is needed to drive numbers down to see our community succeed into the summer and to keep COVID rates under control while we push our vaccine coverage up.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
