Unionized staff at LifeLabs may quickly exit on strike, and Kitchener areas for the medical testing enterprise could possibly be affected.
An announcement from OPSEU, the Ontario Public Service Staff Union, stated mail room staff and couriers, principally within the GTA, may stroll off the job on Saturday, and hit the picket strains on Monday.
This would come with 25 couriers in Kitchener.
The union assertion stated, “LifeLabs mail clerks process all incoming and outgoing deliveries while couriers pick up tens of thousands of blood samples and other test specimens from hospitals, doctors’ offices and pharmacies every day and deliver them to LifeLabs laboratories for testing.”
The union stated the strike could be “over the lack of dependable futures at LifeLabs.”
President of Native 298 representing the Kitchener couriers, Ted Rietveld, argued, “workers feel like they’re being pushed out, with LifeLabs increasingly contracting out to third-party, agency work.”
He added, whereas the unionized employees safely and expertly transport lab samples, “the company has no issues recruiting agency workers and handing them a LifeLabs t-shirt so the public can’t tell the difference.”
The deadline to achieve a deal is Saturday.
The native president for the GTA staff stated this can be a “fight for the careers we deserve — good jobs, not gig work.”
In a press release to 570 NewsRadio, LifeLabs maintains that they continue to be dedicated to working to attain a “reasonable, responsible, and sustainable agreement.”
“In the event of a strike, LifeLabs will take all possible actions to minimize disruption to customers and healthcare providers.” reads that assertion. “We will implement a business continuity plan to ensure that we can continue to provide Ontarians with access to important health care services.”
LifeLabs additionally famous that, within the occasion of a strike, affected person providers centres will stay open, and “laboratories will continue to function as usual.”
