Ford government placing workers in the line of fire at its own peril

Ongoing trend points to the premier’s indifference to the lives of working people

The province’s COVID-19 strategy, that foggy abnegation of a plan, puts working people at the epicentre of the crisis while harping at them to stay home.

From the beginning of the pandemic when the province failed to require that nursing homes provide appropriate personal protective equipment for its staff, to the ongoing inaction by the Ministry of Labour to Covid-related complaints, evidence points to a government indifferent to the lives of working people. Particularly, people of colour, women and young workers.

To date, no public provincial registry of workplace outbreaks exists, despite more than 7,600 Ontarians contracting COVID at work, camouflaging what has evolved into the story of two parallel pandemics for working-age people.

The first, and by the far the worst, is the one affecting those predominantly in working-class and service-sector jobs — manufacturing, construction, food processing, warehousing, security, delivery, retail, customer service and the more gendered and racialized care sector, as well as educators.

These are jobs with a high risk of COVID exposure through the impossibility of physically distancing. They’re often low wage, with few benefits and a lower likelihood of paid sick days. Here, Black and people of colour make up an overwhelming majority of those contracting COVID on the job, because of who still does the most precarious work.

The second, lesser and whiter pandemic, affects those who calculate every trip outdoors, can work from home, afford deliveries and are consequently at a much lower risk of becoming ill.

When the premier was asked recently at a press conference about why his government hasn’t legislated paid sick days, he mumbled some gibberish about the federal Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit and moved on. This, despite health officials, community groups, unions and the NDP calling loudly for months for this measure: a vehicle to ensure people can stay home when they are sick.

For the millions of Ontarians who serve in the jobs that keep us fed, safe and healthy, “everything is on the table,” according to the premier — everything, except that. And all the other things that could be helpful to you.

When COVID spread like wildfire in chronically understaffed nursing homes, pandemic pay was legislated into being — lasting from late-april to mid-august. A small pay bump was announced for personal support workers in October.

For those working in retail, a similar pay bump wasn’t even required by law.

Since it was offered by so-called benevolent employers, it could be taken away. And it was — quickly, despite a global pandemic that gave no sign of abating. Regardless of worsening conditions, there has been no mention of additional compensation for these much-lauded “heroes.”

Workers and their families are paying dearly for the government’s dithering.

With rumours of an election call earlier than the June 2, 2022, fixed date, does the Ford government expect workers will forget how its negligence put them and their loved ones in harm’s way? After all, it was the change of heart by working-class voters, including those in unsafe and precarious jobs, who delivered his party a resounding victory in 2018. Many are living to regret it.