Grey Bruce Medical Officer of Health Dr. Ian Arra gives notice of intent to order the mandatory wearing of face coverings in enclosed public places.
COVID-19 caused us all to use the term essential worker more than most of us ever imagined. Up until the arrival of COVID-19, essential workers typically brought about images of emergency responders, utility workers, transit workers, and healthcare workers for example. Representing but a small sampling of such workers all at once it became more than clear that this definition was all too narrow. “Our lives are being held in the balance by workers such as those in grocery stores, working as food servers, internet service providers and people delivering our lives to our front doors,” says Grey Bruce Labour Council President, Kevin Smith.
Smith also notes that “It is workers that pay the price in blood and suffering when workplaces are unsafe”. A proud building block of the trade union movement is worker health and safety. Doing everything possible to protect the health and safety of workers showing up for work everyday is business as usual for unions and their representatives in the workplace. In the midst of a global pandemic this principle is unaltered. In no time at all social distancing procedures and policies for the workplace and plastic barriers showed up to protect workers. Many such measures were made even more effective by effective worker health and safety representatives in workplaces. Unfortunately, conflicting remarks about face coverings for the general public continued.
Accumulating epidemiological evidence indicates that the widespread use of face coverings in public decreases the spread of respiratory droplets, and expert opinion supports the widespread use of face coverings to decrease the transmission of COVID-19. Speaking on behalf of the Labour Council, Bruce County VP-Dave Trumble, is confident in the commitment of labour to protecting workers. He is even more confident “that despite the myopia of a limited number of people, the public will do what is best for workers and the public and wear face coverings to further the likelihood of as many people as possible avoiding COVID-19 infection”. With that in mind the Grey Bruce Labour Council applauds the decision by Dr. Ian Arra and our sisters and brothers in public health as they work with but one goal in mind, the health and safety of our community. Which by the way will translate into the ongoing prosperity of our community.
Public Health notes that the effective practices of physical-distancing, hand-washing, and screening for symptoms along with face coverings should be used together to break the chain of transmission of the virus.
It is of critical importance that the use of face coverings does not become a replacement to what has become a list of good practices.
Labour Council VP for Grey, Chris Stephen, notes “Further reopening of the economy is indeed needed, but with it in this environment comes our societal responsibility to adhere ever more diligently to what public health officials tells us. Our community leaders must set the tone, but each of us becomes a leader by our responsible behavior”.
Grey Bruce Labour Council President, Kevin Smith, “sees the support for all the practices that mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 as the most natural extension of the work of organized labour to support those measures that provide the best possible outcomes for workers and all concerned”.
source: media release, Grey Bruce Labour Council
