This year’s Day of Mourning focused on COVID-19-related workplace deaths
Each year roughly 1,000 Canadians die because of an injury, sickness or exposure on the job, which is why labour groups and governments honour April 28 as the National Day of Mourning.
Last year in Saskatchewan, 34 workers died due to an injury or disease they contracted at work.
This year, the Day of Mourning highlights the human costs that have occurred because of the pandemic. Across Saskatchewan, nearly 500 people have died from COVID-19, many of whom were exposed at work, according to Roseann Strelezki, acting president of the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union (SGEU). “The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the fact that so many workers are unacceptably vulnerable — with few protections, low wages, and no paid sick leave to help them weather the storm of a worldwide crisis like this,” Strelezki said in a news release. “April 28 is a time to mourn, but it’s also a time to renew our fight to make sure that working people are safe on the job every single day.” Therefore, Canadian unions want all governments to immediately introduce or expand paid sick leave to ensure workers aren’t required to put themselves and others at risk by working sick, she pointed out.
It’s also why SGEU is lobbying for priority vaccine access for essential front-line workers, fighting for better personal protective equipment (PPE), advocating for members to work from home, and calling on the government to improve labour legislation and working conditions province-wide.
“By working together, we can make a difference and ensure that at the end of each day, workers are able to go
home to their families safely,” she added. “(Today) we mourn for the dead and keep on fighting for the living.” The Day of Mourning is important because “one death is too many in a workplace,” Tara Wrubleski, vice-president of the Moose Jaw and District Labour Council, told the Moose Jaw Express. Next year the statistics will likely show just what effect COVID-19 had on workplace deaths. There will also likely be questions about what employers could have done better to protect their employees.
In Moose Jaw, an educational assistant died recently from the coronavirus. This will likely generate a “big push” in 2022 to safeguard staff more effectively. “The big fight (right now) is paid sick days or time off,” Wrubleski said, adding that employees should have the right to refuse unsafe work, and employers should accept that.
Evidence shows that the virus does spread at work, and in Saskatchewan, two-thirds of all outbreaks occur in the workplace — which is entirely preventable, Lori Johb, president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL), said in a news release.
The SFL wants the provincial government to act by:
• Immediately implementing permanent, paid sick leave so workers don’t have to choose between going to work sick or collecting a paycheque;
• Immediately implementing rapid testing in workplaces;
• Ensuring workers have access to proper PPE;
• Ensuring there are consequences for workplaces that fail to protect their workers or ignore health guidelines. According to a news release, the provincial government has strengthened regulations to improve health and safety in the workplace, including amendments that came into effect on April 1 that standardize workplace requirements for First Aid kits. The adoption of several PPE standards is also part of an effort to make workplaces safer.
The Canadian Labour Congress first declared April 28 as the National Day of Mourning in 1984. Flags on all government buildings are lowered to half-staff from morning to evening.