SFL president Lori Johb is worked up for fallen workers
The Labour Day Report
Stephen Whitworth
August 26, 2025
Greetings and salutations to Saskatchewan workers and the people who love ’em! As calendar-savvy Prairie Dog and Planet S readers well know, we’re heading into the Labour Day weekend and the unofficial start of fall (although we like to remind people autumn doesn’t REALLY begin until Monday, Sept. 22, so if you’re having trouble coping with the end of sunshine season you can take solace).
Every year, PD and PS publish a Labour Day feature package dedicated to the issues, concerns and well-being of workers — the people who keep Saskatchewan going day after day, month after month and year after year. Because Labour Day is more than a long weekend, it’s a call to honour the majority of us who make a living through paycheques.
I can’t say it better than I said it in last year’s Labour Day Report:
“The truth is, Labour Day is not an unchangeable monument to past triumphs. Worker rights are a fragile and ever-shifting collection of laws and protections that need defending. They can be expanded or they can be stripped away. And workers and their leadership, organizations and supporters must be vigilant to make sure it’s not the latter.”
Anyone with a moral compass, firm grip on reality and functioning brain can look around and see our lives are increasingly run by thugs eager to roll back worker protections. We don’t even need to talk about the “hi, we’re a fascist country now” United States: just look at recent actions we’ve seen in Canada, where management and politicians fight workers at Canada Post, CN Rail and, more recently, Air Canada.
And that’s leaving out the tendency of conservative politicians to undermine the public sector, which is well-known to be more likely to pay living wages. Yes, we’re still mad at the Sask. Party’s liquor privatization, which essentially transferred wealth from workers to investors.
There’s also the conservative passion for low minimum wages, as Alberta and Saskatchewan have. Gotta keep these governments’ political donors happy!
This year’s Labour Day Report features Saskatchewan’s newest leader of a major union, Lisa Zunti, who speaks about her plans and priorities. And below, you’ll find a story from an interview conducted earlier this year with the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour’s feisty president, Lori Johb.
Finally, this is Prairie Dog and Planet S’ final Labour Day Report. We launched this annual feature in 2005. We’d like to thank everyone who’s followed this and all our labour coverage over the years, and who has appreciated our consistent support for the province’s paycheque-earners. It has been a challenging stance to take in a conservative place that’s been run since 2007 — 18 years! — by an anti-union, unapologetically pro-business conservative government. Our opinions didn’t make us any friends in the Sask. Party crowd. But perhaps they did with some of you.
Onward and upward.
Workplace Danger: the Lori Johb Interview
Back in April, we spoke with SFL president Lori Johb about the threats facing Saskatchewan workers at their jobs. While time constraints prevented us from publishing this interview then, the topic remains as pertinent and pressing as ever, and we’re pleased to share this conversation now.
It’s an understatement to call Lori Johb ‘passionate’ about the safety of Saskatchewan workers. Ask her about their on-the-job risks, and she’ll rage on behalf of the 27 killed at work in 2024. Ask her for examples, and, well… it’s a good thing the current generation of voice recorders have robust storage capacity.
“Saskatchewan is still the most dangerous place in Canada to be a worker. We have the highest number of traumatic injuries and deaths [in the country],” says Johb.
That’s just based on Worker Compensation Board documents figures which exclude the agricultural sector, Johb says. “We know it’s far more than the [WBC] numbers reflect,” she says.
Obviously, no workplace death or injury is acceptable. But some, says Johb, are beyond intolerable.
“An example of some of the things that should never happen? There was a worker [who] went to the roof and jumped,” says Johb. “This was never reported to Occupational Health and Safety. The employer of the hotel had locked out their workers, and this was a replacement worker. And they never reported it. And it was tragic.
“Their spouse came to pick them up from work later that day, and had not even heard that this had happened,” Johb adds. “It’s horrendous.
“Until I called Occupational Health And Safety close to three weeks later, they weren’t even aware it had happened,” Johb says.
“The people that own the [hotel] should not be allowed to be employers,” she says.
Johb is just getting started.
“We know that there was a person murdered at a parking garage in Saskatoon,” says Johb. “They were at work. They weren’t safe. Then there’s the steelworker last fall at Evraz who was crushed. Another worker in Regina at the steel plant that was pinned between two vehicles and lost both their legs. If [it hadn’t been] so cold that day, and [without] the swift reaction of their coworkers, they would’ve also died.”
Johb continues: “There was a young fellow, 14 years old, who worked in Canora Co-op who was sent to clean in a confined space with a gas pressure washer. He had to be airlifted to Edmonton because he was poisoned. One of the really, really horrific parts about all that is, because this young person was not hospitalized for more than 72 hours the employer was not even fined. That’s because the definition of a serious injury — a serious incident — in our legislation says you have to be hospitalized for more than 72 hours.
“This young man will never be the same,” says Johb. “He nearly died, you know?”
These are just some of the cases Johb talks about in our interview. She knows many more. Perhaps that’s why she takes a hard line on what the consequences of workplace injuries should be for employers.
“These are the kinds of things that need to change in Saskatchewan,” says Johb. “The fines, the penalties… they need to match the [incident].”
“We had two SaskPower workers killed in Weyburn, and SaskPower was handed one of the highest fines in Canadian history. They are appealing it! This is a Crown corporation that is not taking responsibility.
“These are the kinds of things that get me a little worked up, as you might have noticed,” says Johb.
The bottom line?
“There needs to be accountability,” Johb says. “If they would just once fine a company out of business or throw the owner in jail, people would start paying attention. These fines have to be a deterrent, not a speedbump.”
As things are today, that speedbump is too often Saskatchewan’s workers.
The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour will hold an Occupational Health and Safety Conference Sept. 15-17 in Saskatoon. Workshops include preventing workplace violence, OHS for retail workers, building psychologically healthy workplace, and several more. While registration is closed, there is a waiting list. For more information, e-mail the SFL at sfl@sfl.sk.ca.
The 2025 Labour Day Report is dedicated to the memory of Prairie Dog BFF Carolyn Rebeyka (1964–2025), a staunch social democrat and proud trade unionist devoted to workers’ rights, safety and well-being. We miss you forever, Carolyn.
