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IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. and IAM Canada General Vice President Stan Pickthall recently sent a letter to Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, encouraging him to take further action to protect frontline workers.
“Employers must be held to a higher standard and be accountable; after all, employer policies can also help curb the spread of the virus,” the letter states. “We are asking the federal government and public health agencies to demand that employers go above and beyond general pandemic guidelines and apply the precautionary principle to workplace policies to protect workers.”
Read the full letter to Prime Minister Trudeau.
In addition to asking for protection of workers through policy, Martinez and Pickthall also encouraged the Prime Minister to mandate able businesses to produce protective equipment.
“There are a number of employers we deal with who may be able to convert operations into production of personal protective equipment, and we ask the federal government to mandate businesses who are able to do so, to take immediate action,” the letter states. “This is not a time for negotiating; it’s a time to take swift action to protect our communities and our economy.”
Martinez sent a similar letter to President Trump encouraging more protections for workers and asked for the president to use shuttered IAM plants and workers to make much-needed protective equipment for workers.
