Nova Scotia’s health care Council of Unions is calling on government and employers to sign onto a safety protocol that ensures frontline workers are protected and supported during this unprecedented time.

Nova Scotia’s health care Council of Unions – the five unions representing health care workers providing care during the COVID-19 pandemic – are calling on government and employers to sign onto a safety protocol that ensures frontline workers are protected and supported during this unprecedented time.

In a press release dated April 3, the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) reports that the NSGEU, the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Nova Scotia, Unifor and the International Union of Operating Engineers (which has paramedics among its members) have produced a joint communique that puts forward five standards for front-line health care workers and the required personal protective equipment (PPE) to deal with suspected, presumed or confirmed COVID-19 patients. It states in part:

“1. All health care workers who are within two metres of suspected, presumed or confirmed COVID19 patients shall have access to appropriate PPE. This will include access to; surgical/procedure masks, fit tested NIOSH-approved [the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health] N-95 respirators, gloves, face shields with side protection (or goggles), impermeable or, at least, fluid resistant gowns. The employers commit to provide all health care workers with information on safe utilization of all PPEs and employees shall be appropriately trained to safely don and doff all of these supplies. There is not a scientific consensus on the appropriate level of respiratory protection for health care workers. While new research emerges daily there are conflicting reports of airborne transmission so, using a precautionary approach, the best protection would be provided by an N95 respirator. […]

“2. A point-of-care risk assessment (PCRA) must be performed before every patient interaction. The PCRA should include the frequency and probability of routine or emergent AGMP being required. If a health care worker determines, on reasonable grounds, that specific PPE is required, they shall have access to the appropriate PPE based on their PCRA, and this will not be unreasonably denied by their employer, or they shall be deployed to another area.

“3. Contact and droplet precautions must be used by health care workers for all interactions with suspected, presumed or confirmed COVID-19 patients. Contact and droplet precautions includes gloves, face shields or goggles, gowns, and surgical/procedure masks.

“4. N95 respirators must be used by all heath care workers in the room where AGMPs [aerosol-generating medical procedures] are being performed, are frequent or probable, or with any intubated patients [these procedures include manual ventilation, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, high frequency oscillatory ventilation and others — WF Note.]. […]

“5. The employers and unions that prepared this communication will assess the available supply of PPEs on an ongoing basis. The employers commit to continue to explore all available avenues to obtain and maintain a sufficient supply. In the event that the supply of PPEs reach a point where current supplies are anticipated to last for only 30 days (i.e. a shortage), or where utilization rates indicate that a shortage will occur, the employers will be responsible for developing contingency plans in consultation with the unions and applicable Joint Worksite Health and Safety Committees to ensure the safety of health care workers.”

NSGEU President Jason MacLean explained to Workers’ Forum why such a protocol is necessary and why it must be signed by the government and the employers.

“We have not been able to have fruitful conversations with the Premier, or the Chief Medical Officer of Health or the Department of Health, and we want to make sure they are on the same page as us because we believe we need to protect health care workers so they are there for us if we need them,” he said. “Not only that, but the government is looking for people to volunteer in other places and it is actively reaching out to the public to try and hire more health care providers, but they are not going to attract anybody if they do not have the proper PPE in place. We don’t believe that what they are currently going by, which is the bare minimum, is enough. We want them to sign on and agree that people can make a judgement call if they need to have proper PPE. That statement is what we wholeheartedly believe and our request is that the government participate in it,” he added.

Reproduced, with permission, from Tony Seed’s excellent blog.

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A coalition of unions representing more than 40,000 health care workers is launching a new campaign today, asking Nova Scotians to call on government to sign an important protocol to provide proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to our province’s frontline healthcare workers.

Provincial governments and employers in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Alberta have signed similar protocol agreements. The five unions involved in the campaign – NSNU, NSGEU, CUPE, Unifor and IUOE Local 727 – have been calling on Premier Stephen McNeil to sign onto a similar protocol since the COVID-19 pandemic reached Nova Scotia.

Frontline workers are most at risk of contracting the virus, because they work closely with infected clients, residents and patients. This means that not only are they at-risk without access to proper PPE, but they also risk spreading the virus to their loved ones at home and within the greater community. Furthermore, if these workers get sick, there will be fewer skilled workers available to care for the sick and vulnerable in the pre-hospital setting, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and even to deliver home care services.

These frontline workers have been desperately calling for proper PPE – including N95 masks, where appropriate – since day one of this crisis.

As a show of good faith and respect for frontline workers, unions representing these health care workers are calling on government to sign onto the protocol, as requested two weeks ago.

It’s time for the Nova Scotia government to follow the lead of Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and New Brunswick by agreeing to ensure adequate health and safety controls for frontline workers, and allowing health care professionals to use a risk assessment to determine the controls necessary in the line of duty.

The unions and workers are not government’s adversaries in this fight. We have a common enemy: COVID-19. We all want to protect our vulnerable seniors and brave frontline workers. Our members are telling us what is happening on the frontline, and they are gravely concerned and need our support and protection.

Protect these workers, so they can protect us. Visit protectnsfrontline.ca

The post MEDIA RELEASE: Campaign launched to protect frontline healthcare workers appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – More than 20 tower cranes are idle across mainland Nova Scotia because of a strike by hundreds of crane operators and mobile crane operators, members of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 721.  While some construction is going on at sites around metro Halifax and Dartmouth, this will slow to a stop if the crane operators continue their strike.

“Construction companies on this site are losing $100,000 a day, but we’ve been without a contract since May, and the company doesn’t want to pay retroactive pay*,” says a crane operator picketing in front of Queen’s Marque on the Halifax waterfront.  

“All the other trades have settled.  Management is going after the tower crane operators,” says one operator. “They are trying to roll back our double-time wages for weekend work, and give us only time and a half.  The next thing they want is to make us work a six day week, rather than the five we work now.”

Local 721 is composed of tower crane operators and mobile operators.  The former climb the cranes and operate them from dizzying heights. The mobile operators are the people who erect and take down the 300-ton giant cranes in sections and move them from work site to work site.

The tower operators hoist all the steel, work that they say puts them on par with work the Ironworkers do.  The IUOE is looking for their wages to match those of the Ironworkers—an increase of 75 cents per hour each year over a three-year contract. “All we’re asking for is the cost of living – an increase of 1.5%,” says the crane operator.  Management has offered $1.00 in total over three years.  Tower crane operators earn $37.56 per hour.  

The workers say that management better decide to settle with Local 721 soon.  With winter coming, there shell of the building has to be finished, and the concrete poured, so the rest of the work can go on through the winter. “There needs to be heat from propane heaters inside to cure the concrete.”

*Note: Retroactive pay is pay for work already performed at a lower rate. For example, if a union collective agreement says a workers earn $11 an hour until the agreement expires, the union and management then have to negotiate a new collective agreement. Maybe that agreement is concluded 6 months after the first contract runs out. Let’s say the new agreement calls for a $12 an hour wage. That means the company could owe the workers retroactive pay from the time the old contract expires until the new contract starts.  In that case the workers are owed the difference between the old wage and the new wage for all hours worked in the six months were “underpaid.” In many unions, retroactive pay is the norm. Not so in the crane workers’ union.

Judy Haiven is founding member of Equity Watch. She retired from teaching Industrial Relations at the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University.

See also: Judy Haiven: On the line with CUPW

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