OPSEU President Thomas calls on businesses to "send workers home for the next two weeks with full pay"

Yesterday we reported on calls by European left and workers' parties that governments intervene to ensure that any emergency measures taken to fight the coronavirus are not at the expense of or on the backs of working people. These included demands that workers not lose pay when being quarantined or if their businesses are forced to shut down. They further included such demands as ending foreclosures and utility disconnections during the crisis.

These calls in Europe were joined  by the  World Federation of Trade Unions, "on behalf of its 100 million members all over the world", in a statement that also said that no worker should lose their job in the coming days and weeks.

Today Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) President Warren (Smokey) Thomas called on "the province's business leaders to send workers home for the next two weeks with full pay." He said further that this needs to include part-time and precarious workers. "We must do this to help stop the spread of this disease. This is not the time to be thinking about bottom lines; this is a call to arms in a battle of a generation."

He noted that this "is a global epidemic, and everyone has to do their part to ensure public safety. Government and the taxpayer can't be the only ones making sacrifices."

Thomas is completely correct here. Millions of Canadians are a couple of paychecks away from being in serious financial trouble and it is possible that millions of workers will have to stay home from work at some point during this crisis. Allowing workers to do this now without fear of losing their jobs or incomes could both greatly aid in stopping the spread of the virus and prevent catastrophic personal consequences for hundreds of thousands of people facing bankruptcy and even homelessness.

If businesses won't step up to the plate and do this voluntarily, they should be compelled to do so by our elected officials and governments at all levels. This needs to happen not just in Ontario but across the country.

See also: We need disciplined, socialist solutions to the coming capitalist coronavirus crisis