Work refusal grows
Non-union cafeteria workers at the Kingston OHIP building joined the work refusal Thursday, despite threats of reprisal from their supervisor.
The group has four people with cancer, among them three people with breast cancer, in a relatively small workforce. Their work location is close to the suspected source of the contamination that is making people in the building ill.
By Thursday nearly half of the 400 union members in the building were participating in the work refusal, which began Nov. 25 with 10 people refusing.
Leaching from the old gasification plant
Bob DeMatteo, OPSEU’s senior health and safety officer, said the prime suspect behind the serious health complaints over the past 20 years is an old gasification plant that operated next door from the 1850s to the 1950s. Its byproducts included coal tar and other known carcinogens, which
it disposed of in tanks with no bottoms, resting on bedrock.
Monitoring wells on the periphery of the former gas plant are sampled regularly for ground water problems and the tests show they are contaminated. That contamination is not going to stop at the property line, DeMatteo said, and the OHIP building’s cafeteria is only 50 feet from that line.
Who will do the testing?
The government has agreed to test the subsoil and other potential sources of contamination. The question now becomes who will do the testing.
The joint health and safety committee representing Local 468, other employees, and the government is meeting with four companies to decide who will get the job of doing the required tests. The test results will help determine what actions will be required to make the building safe for the
people who work there.
Counselling available
Members of Local 468, and any other members who have worked at the Macdonald Cartier Building, 49 Place d'Armes, Kingston OHIP office, have access to confidential counseling.
OPSEU has set up two options.
You can call either Ken Mitchell at 545-7814 or Melonie Steers from the Kingston Community Counselling Center at 549-7850
Or you can call your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) at 1-800-268-5211
All services are completely confidential. Neither the employer nor OPSEU will ever know the names of people who use the service or any of their business.
This covers former members and retirees as well as people currently working in the building.
