Re-opening needs to prioritize worker and public safety
EDMONTON—As Jason Kenney announces plans to lift all public health restrictions in the weeks to come, the province’s largest union is calling for a reopening plan that works for workers and all Albertans.
“We’ve already seen that lifting all restrictions and pretending the pandemic is over doesn’t work,” says Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE). “We saw that when the ‘best summer ever’ turned into a collapsing health-care system.”
Kenney’s plan would take place in three stages. The first stage, which would see the removal of the Restrictions Exemption Program (REP) among other measures, will begin coming into effect immediately. The second stage, which would remove provincial masking requirements, will come into effect on March 1. The final stage, which does not have a date, would remove isolation requirements for COVID-positive individuals and strip outbreak protocols from continuing care facilities.
This plan, Smith says, risks creating the same problem that Albertans have seen repeatedly over this pandemic—a brief period of reopening, followed by another wave.
“Workers on the front lines of public services are exhausted and the prospect of facing yet another COVID-19 wave is almost unbearable,” he says. “We need to have a real long-term strategy to deal with COVID-19. This government has absolutely failed to produce one.”
AUPE, which represents more than 55,000 health-care workers in Alberta, has previously signed on to a list of demands, alongside other unions, for a safe reopening. The demands include:
- Improved ventilation in buildings such as schools and workplaces
- Improved access to PPE, especially N95 masks
- The re-institution of contact tracing
- Ten employer-paid sick days
- The classification of “long COVID” as a disability
AUPE advocates for increased capacity in the public health-care system, with increased staffing levels and a large-scale reinvestment into the health-care system, which has been hollowed out by decades of cuts, privatization, and underfunding.
Such measures, Smith says, need to be a part of Alberta’s long-term strategy for reopening. “Everybody wants this pandemic to end, everyone is sick of it,” he says. “Nobody feels that more than health-care workers, and all front-line workers. That’s why it’s so disappointing that this government continues to prioritize short-term polling over long-term planning.”
“COVID-19 will eventually be wrestled into manageable submission, and the vast majority of Albertans have done their part and made significant sacrifices to protect each other for the past two years” he says. “The question is whether the government is actually planning to make sure that future waves are less disastrous than previous ones.”
“It’s time to re-invest in Alberta’s public health care—and all essential public services that have been battered by the pandemic, but have, through the strength and dedication of workers, been there for Albertans when they need them. It’s time to improve workplace safety standards, and front-line staffing levels. It’s time to improve ventilation in schools and workplaces. It’s time to bring continuing care under public control. That’s how we get off this pandemic roller-coaster, and stay off.”