President’s Message Shawn Haggerty

Pandemic premiums and planning for what's ahead

In the early days of the pandemic, members at more than 50 employers welcomed the financial boost that came with additional premiums. And, I know premiums would have been a welcome bit of help to every member to ease some financial worries and provide a morale boost through this difficult time.

Some employers called those premiums ‘hero pay' and spoke of their employees on the front lines of this battle with COVID-19. Those employers told members and the public just how vital their employees' work and commitment to the job was. Calling it hero pay made it that much harder to understand why employers arbitrarily decided to take that extra pay away.

There is no profit without your labour. And when it comes to COVID-19, those profits require a lot extra from employees.

I was happy to see the government call for those in charge of the big grocery chains to explain how it was they “independently” came to a simultaneous decision to end those premiums. I was disappointed, though not surprised, that no changes resulted from those talks.

Adding insult to injury, we’ve seen some companies rake in record profits, and some actually increase shareholder payouts. Sobeys/ Safeway, much like other grocery chains, saw their profits skyrocket in the first few months of 2020 — by 43% ($181 million) in its fourth quarter compared to last year. Yet Sobeys/Safeway announced, just days after ending Hero Pay, that they were raising the quarterly dividend paid to shareholders from 8.3 cents to 13 cents per share.

Chartwells, Sienna and Extendicare – all of which employ members of Local 175 at some of their longterm care homes – are expected to pay out up to $59 million to shareholders even while their homes were, and remain, understaffed and underfunded.

Ford’s recent announcement of a $3 per hour temporary increase for Personal Support Workers (PSWs) in some facilities is an important step but it’s not enough. As a Union, we’ve long advocated for higher rates of pay and better funding throughout the healthcare industry.

COVID-19 didn’t create the crisis in understaffing and underfunding – it just shone an undeniable spotlight on problems that have existed for years.

Please visit bit.ly/HealthCareCampaignOct2020 to send a message to your Member of Provincial Parliament to make substantial permanent improvements for all employees in the healthcare sector.

The Union is using every avenue available to address lost premiums, wages, health and safety, and collective bargaining rights; not only to try and recoup the lost premiums but to plan for the future when it comes to COVID-19 and any similar circumstances that arise.

When employers ended the premiums, the Union filed policy grievances where the membership expressed an interest in doing so. To date, we have filed dozens of grievances and more than half a dozen have already been referred to the Union’s legal team to move forward with legal action.

Pay Equity is another avenue the Union will review. Pay equity plans deal with the value of work and require, in part, that the elements of work performed, or traditionally performed, by women be made visible. This is particularly important in the retail, grocery, hospitality, and health care industries. The Union’s team will review existing plans, assess changes to working conditions, and ensure employers have established and maintained pay equity.

To be clear, the Local Union cannot guarantee that the grievance procedure will result in the reinstatement of pandemic pay, or that the pay equity approach will yield any adjustments. But we continue to move forward and use every means available to fight for better compensation for our members through this pandemic. This is more important than ever right now, too, as we enter the second wave of the virus in many municipalities.

From mid-June to Labour Day, we ran an online petition to keep pandemic pay. That petition saw more than 8,500 people fill out the form. We mailed the completed petition and letter to employers and the government in September. Thank you to those who signed and shared the petition and made your voices heard.

Ultimately, this pandemic has revealed that the undervaluing of work continues to be a major issue for many workers across almost every sector of employment. This has all been – and will continue to be – a challenge. Addressing the value of your work with employers and the government will take time and there will be hurdles.

As we press forward, your Union Negotiating Committees must use bargaining as a chance to address these issues as well.

From monetary improvements to better health and safety language, and specifically, language regarding pandemic plans; there are always opportunities available to improve working conditions through collective bargaining.

COVID-19 has been difficult for everyone. Our members on the front lines – from those dealing with the public in retail stores, to those caring for the elderly and ill, and those maintaining the supply chain from manufacturing to packaging and shipping – are valuable.

You are valuable.

Thank you for your work and dedication, and thank you for taking care of each other through these troubling times. Please reach out to your Union Rep or the Member’s Assistance Program (see page 19) if you need guidance or support.

In Solidarity, Shawn Haggerty

president@ufcw175.com