EDMONTON – “I have lung scarring,” says 49-year-old correctional officer Oscar Steiner between laboured breaths. “I don’t know if it’s permanent or if it can heal, but it is causing me considerable issues with breathing, sleeping, and headaches.”
By the time he called 811 on Dec. 1, the coronavirus had caused him such a mental lapse he couldn’t remember his kids’ names. Even though the brain fog is mostly gone today, he’s still suffering COVID symptoms.
Steiner is one of many long-haul COVID patients the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) will recognize at this year’s virtual Day of Mourning ceremony on April 28. Media are invited to watch on Facebook live from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm or join the zoom meeting at https://aupe-org.zoom.us/j/92898349757 , where AUPE’s OHS committee Chair, Vice-President Bonnie Gostola, and President Guy Smith will present this year’s Rolyn Sumlak Award winners.
Every year, the union holds this celebration of life in memory and honor of all those Albertans who were injured, made ill or died on the job. This year, Day of Mourning will be a bit different, in recognition of the global pandemic that piled onto the physical, mental and emotional pressures everyday Albertans bear at work.
COVID turned our worksites into high-risk infection zones, and some front-liners, such as Steiner, who works at the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre, are still paying the price – in more ways than one.
The Local 003 member has been off work on WCB for six months and attends three to six medical appointments a week, including one with a psychologist to treat the anxiety he started having after nearly dying from COVID-induced pneumonia. Steiner is not alone; according to the WCB, 8,891 Albertans made COVID claims with the Board between Jan. 2020 and Mar. 31 2021.
Between focusing on recovery and worrying about finances, Steiner is also mourning the loss of fellow AUPE member and passionate activist Roger Maxwell, who died in December after contracting COVID around the time of the FSCC outbreaks. The spread affected about 20 staff and 50 inmates.
“I’m at least living the pain,” Steiner says, “My friend Roger is not.”
Gostola says that April 28 is a chance for AUPE to honour Roger Maxwell and the 2,073 other Albertans, including AUPE members, who died from COVID, while also re-committing to injured and sick workers in our communities.
“All the Albertans who suffered this year, whether from a workplace fatality, injury or illness, from any cause – their lives will always have meaning. And it’s in their name that our committee keeps fighting for health justice in the workplace.”
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