Possible strike at LifeLabs could affect Kitchener locations

Unionized workers at LifeLabs could soon go out on strike, and Kitchener locations for the medical testing business could be affected.

A statement from OPSEU, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said mail room workers and couriers, mostly in the GTA, could walk off the job on Saturday, and hit the picket lines on Monday.

This would include 25 couriers in Kitchener.

The union statement 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.”

The union said the strike would be “over the lack of dependable futures at LifeLabs.”

President of Local 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, while the unionized staff 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 reach a deal is Saturday.

The local president for the GTA workers said this is a “fight for the careers we deserve — good jobs, not gig work.”

In a statement to 570 NewsRadio, LifeLabs maintains that they remain committed to working to achieve 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 statement. “We will implement a business continuity plan to ensure that we can continue to provide Ontarians with access to important health care services.”

LifeLabs also noted that, in the event of a strike, patient services centres will remain open, and “laboratories will continue to function as usual.”