Members of NAPE are holding a rally outside the Health Sciences over the lunch hour to support public sector trade workers who they say are “underpaid, understaffed, and undermined” by years of work being contracted out to the private sector.
The union says the issue has reached the “boiling point” and that public sector workers are not getting a fair shake when it comes to trade work.
Union President Jerry Earle says trade workers in the public service are not being recognized for the essential and sometimes dangerous work that they do.
He uses electricians as one example.
He says an electrician who does work in your home shuts down the electricity to work safely, but “hospitals cannot shut down, so, there may be procedures taking place in the OR, so the electricians who work in these hospitals they have to actually work what we call ‘live.'”
He says when private contractors come in, the public sector workers still have to do the dangerous component of the work, because others are not allowed to work live.
