Unions: Do the right thing
The number one job of a union is to vigorously advocate for the interests of its members, whether that be better wages and working conditions or health and safety measures.
So it was no surprise to see so many of them fighting to get their members priority access to COVID-19 vaccinations.
When vaccines were scarce in the spring, unions representing transit workers, police officers, teachers and others all jumped forward to make the case that their members deserved to be moved up the list for shots.
That makes it all the more disappointing to see some of those same unions (though thankfully not all of them) now balk at any requirement that their members actually have to roll up their sleeves and get those jabs.
Back in April, Carlos Santos, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, called on the province to give TTC workers priority access to vaccines. He said it was necessary “for their own safety and the safety of our community.”
Yet now that vaccines are readily available and public concern has shifted to the need to drive immunization rates higher, Santos has switched to aggressively opposing the TTC policy that requires workers to confirm their vaccine status by Sept. 20 and be fully vaccinated by Oct. 30.
He calls those measures “unfair and unjust intrusions into the lives of our members.” He says they have a right to make their own decisions “about their personal health matters,” and he’s told 12,000 workers not to even disclose their status.
If it was of great importance to the community that TTC workers receive early access to COVID vaccines, as the union claimed, surely it’s incumbent on those workers to avail themselves of the vaccines.
If not for their own safety then, as Santos once put it, for “the safety of our community.”
The same goes for police. The Toronto police were given very early access to vaccines — about half of them were moved ahead of people 80 years of age and older, who were at the highest risk from the virus.
It’s appalling to now hear the Toronto Police Association say it will “protect” its members by opposing the Toronto Police Service requirement that members of the force be vaccinated against COVID.
The TTC and Toronto police unions should give their heads a good shake and then follow the far better example being put forward by the teachers.
Nearly a month ago, Ontario’s four largest teachers’ unions came out in support of mandatory vaccinations for eligible students and staff.
It puts them firmly on the side of science and public opinion and they’re not being dragged to that position. The province and public school boards have yet to require (though they should) mandatory vaccinations for teachers or eligible students. The unions representing elementary, secondary, Catholic and French teachers are proactively taking the position that is in the best interests of the majority of their members and the community at large.
By all accounts the vast majority of TTC workers and police are already vaccinated so the line their unions are taking is in defence of a fringe few. They are out of line with science, public opinion and, most likely, labour law.
These positions, which can’t help but come off as anti-vax, also risk undermining trust in critical public services.
As more people go back to school and work, we all need them to feel confident about doing so on public transit. People who come into contact with police have even less choice.
In the fourth wave of the pandemic, knowing that a bus driver or police officer is vaccinated should not be too much to ask for.
In a pandemic, immunization is not a personal health choice; it’s something we do for each other.