Open Letter to the Prime Minister and Premier re: Pandemic Support
October 29, 2020
Workers need your support
Recently Your Local Union sent letters to both the Federal and Provincial governments in an effort to emphasize to both parties the absolute need for support of workers during the COVID-19 health crisis.
We’re calling on the Federal government to take the following, immediate actions:
- Call on employers to resume and make permanent pandemic pay increases;
- Implement an increase to the federal minimum wage to make it a living wage;
- Make long-term care part of the public healthcare system;
- Make pharmacare part of the public healthcare system;
- Legislate a federal pandemic pay premium that has to be paid when a public health emergency is declared;
- Make the COVID-19 related supports offered to workers through EI permanent.
And for the Provincial government to:
- Call on employers to resume and make permanent pandemic pay increases;
- Implement an increase to minimum wage to make it a living wage;
- Permanently increases wages for all workers in healthcare;
- Legislate a pandemic pay premium that has to be paid when a public health emergency is declared;
- Provide presumptive WSIB coverage for workers in front-line workplaces who become infected with COVID-19;
- Reinstate paid sick days for all workers.
The vast majority of our Members have been standing on the frontlines of this pandemic since the beginning, and as we soar into the second wave, they continue to deal with many of the same dangers and frustrations in the workplace.
We believe that if both governments act on these points, this Province, the Country and its workers will prosper and have the best outcomes to get through this global crisis.
Please join us by telling your M.P.s and M.P.P.s to support the changes that support workers. Call or write a letter today and let them know that these changes are needed now.
You can find out both who your M.P.P. is and how to contact them here: https://www.ola.org/en/get-involved/contact-mpp
Information about your M.P. can be found online here: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en
Read the full text of the letters to both the Federal and Provincial government here:
Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau
Letter to Premier Ford