It’s been six weeks since 1,400 elevator workers walked off the job across Ontario, and the waves from that strike action are beginning to get larger and larger.
Three branches of the International Union of Elevator Constructors began their strike May 1.
Contract talks resumed with the help of a mediator this week, but neither side is optimistic about a quick end to the strike.
But for those whose lives have been affected by out-of-order elevators, like Claudine Koyich, a resolution can’t come soon enough.
Koyich moved from Edmonton to Kitchener earlier this month.
She had an apartment lined up in a building on Mount Hope Street, but the building’s service elevator is broken and hasn’t been repaired due to the strike.
For Koyich, that means while she can still get to her apartment, moving her furniture in is a different story.
“I think it’s terrible and I’m really concerned that people can cause so much misery,” she tells CTV News.
Koyich has been living with relatives in the interm, but it’s not just her own situation that has her worried.
The apartment building has another elevator in addition to the service elevator, but Koyich says it’s small enough that residents are worried about if it can handle medical emergencies – many residents say it’s not big enough for a stretcher.
Erwin Scheuermann, whose mother lives on the building’s sixth floor, has the same concerns.
“It’s going to be very difficult to get out of this building,” he says.
Elevator companies say they have replacement workers on hand to fix elevators in hospitals and nursing homes, but that doesn’t extend to apartment buildings.
Koyich says she just wants to see a solution, one way or another.
“I think the government should legislate them back to work,” she says.
“People shouldn’t be allowed to do this to other people.”
That may happen in Toronto, where some technicians could be forced back to work next week, but the laws that would precipitate that don’t apply to the rest of the province.
