As the world appropriately focuses on fighting the war on the spread of COVID19, all stakeholders in the construction industry – including unions and their members — find themselves in particularly dynamic and uncharted waters.

All honourable unions, project owners, contractors and workers hold the safety of employees and the broader public as their highest ethic. And the honourable are in the high majority. However, pointing to the slogan of “safety first” does not adequately address the nuances and complexities of our current situation. Of course, the simplest way to bring traffic-related injuries and deaths to zero is to curtail all transportation. In the same way, we can erase all workplace-related accidents and illnesses by tooling down — permanently. As imprudent and impracticable as this may be, we also know that this is hardly a time to be cavalier.

So, how do we as a society blend competing interests? And what are the range of factors that ought to be considered in these unprecedented times? There is no simple algorithm at our disposal that will churn out answers. All potential solutions and answers are held in tension. With that said, here are three factors that should be top of mind:

The health and safety of workers: The health and safety of all British Columbians needs to be our top priority and in order to achieve this high standard, we need to trust and heed the advice of subject matter experts. Union leaders, employers and industry spokespeople have their own areas of expertise. Viral transmission is not generally one them. On March 22, Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, stated that the prohibition against the gathering of groups larger than 50 does not apply to construction sites as a whole. She went on to direct employers to “take all necessary precautions” to ensure the risks associated with spreading COVID-19 are minimized on construction sites, precautions to which she and other experts gave focused attention. There are, no doubt, circumstances that may emerge that could require the complete shut down of a construction site. But that is a determination to be made by health experts, not construction professionals.

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