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COVID-19 Unifor welcomes quarantine strategies as roadmap to travel recovery


Wednesday, 02 June 2021 06:19.PM

Unifor welcomes Health Canada's COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel's latest recommendations to optimize testing and quarantine at Canada's borders.

"We need to get Canada's aviation sector safely off the ground again," said Jerry Dias, Unifor's National President. "These recommendations provide a road map to do just that, following science and good data."

The panel called for an end to government mandated hotel quarantine, coupled with increased monitoring of personal quarantine plans and the introduction of a PCR test on day seven that, if negative, could mean early release from isolation. The union sent a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau on June 2, voicing its support for these recommendations.

The panel takes COVID-19 and the risks that travelling poses to the spread of COVID-19 seriously, compiling this data after months of review by experts in epidemiology and virology in order to keep Canadians safe.

For months, Unifor has pushed for a National Recovery Plan for the Aviation Industry, including a comprehensive plan for re-opening Canada's borders, dynamic quarantine, and a plan to ensure good jobs and social sustainability for the industry's workers.

Given the release of the panel report, the ongoing expansion of vaccine rollouts across Canada and the release of provincial restart plans, the government must now push ahead with a safe plan forward for international travel and a further recovery plan for the aviation industry.

"Our members have been laid-off for far too long," said Dias. "Workers in aviation and across Canada's travel and tourism industries need the federal government to chart a course so these industries – which have been decimated during COVID-19 – can not only survive, but thrive well beyond the pandemic."

Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.

SOURCE: Unifor