LifeLabs workers in GTA poised to strike if deal not reached by Saturday

(Mackenzie Read/CTV Regina)

LifeLabs workers in the Greater Toronto Area could soon walk off the job if a deal isn’t reached with their employer.

OPSEU/SEFPO, which represents members of Local 5119 and Local 298, issued a news release Wednesday on behalf of its couriers and mail room clerks operating out LifeLabs locations across Kitchener and the GTA – including Toronto, Mississauga, Peel, Oshawa, Durham, Halton, York, and Vaughan.

The union said their workers could go on strike as soon as Saturday due to the “lack of dependable futures” at LifeLabs, with picket lines going up Tuesday.

"LifeLabs is a billion-dollar, for-profit company that gets millions of our public health care dollars," OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick said.

"It can absolutely afford to treat workers fairly – yet even full-time workers are struggling to pay rent as some of the lowest paid employees in the company. … How are you supposed to keep up with the cost of living when your rent hike is higher than your wage increase?"

In an email to CTV News Toronto on Thursday, LifeLabs stated that it is currently negotiating a renewal of the collective bargaining agreement with the union.

"We remain committed to working to achieve a reasonable, responsible, and sustainable agreement," a spokesperson from LifeLabs said.

"In the event of a strike, LifeLabs will take all possible actions to minimize disruption to customers and healthcare providers. We will implement a business continuity plan to ensure that we can continue to provide Ontarians with access to important health care services."

The spokesperson added that the company's patient services centres will remain open, and laboratories will continue to function as usual in the event of a strike.

The union said 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.

Ted Rietveld, president of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 298, says unionized workers feel like they're being “pushed out” due to LifeLabs contracting out to third-party, agency work.

"We have experienced couriers and mail clerks in-house that closely follow protocols around safe handling and transport of test specimens to preserve the integrity of the sample," he said.

"But the company has no issues recruiting agency workers and handing them a LifeLabs t-shirt so the public can't tell the difference."

Mahmood Alawneh, president of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 5119 and a LifeLabs courier working out of Toronto, said in the news release on Wednesday that LifeLabs is “eroding working conditions

"The public relies on us every day as part of their care," Alawneh added.

"We hope that we can rely on the public in turn as we fight for the careers we deserve – good jobs, not gig work."