Ron has been based in Hamilton for the past six years. He currently resides in Corktown and can be often found walking his girlfriend Sam’s dog in Corktown Park. Ron was first introduced to plumbing as a trade through his high school’s co-op program. After starting and stopping a degree in psychology at Brock University, he says he “decided to go back to my roots,” and pursued a pre-apprenticeship program at Sheridan College. Eight months later he was working on a job site in Etobicoke and “basically have been working my way west ever since,” he shares. 

Ron works across the regions of Niagara, Hamilton and Brantford.  A typical day on the job differs by worksite. Ron’s current role is supervisory where he oversees health and safety and assigns everyone’s tasks for the day. “The job really runs itself as long as you keep organized,” he says. Sometimes Ron finds himself working on heating, other times it’s fuel oil lines but his favourite work involves drainage and venting. “Plumbing is a really cool job in that you can be working on different systems….[but] that’s kind of my baby, doing the drainage and venting of the building.” 

Job sites have changed drastically because of the pandemic, particularly as it relates to cleanliness. Construction sites typically try to keep their costs down to maximize profits, and that means minimal bathrooms and handwashing stations. During COVID-19, that’s changed. In Ron’s opinion, it’s a combination of government influence and compassion for workers’ safety. “Other than that, [it’s] just working in close proximity to people,” he notes sharing that it’s difficult to work on job sites with others while maintaining social distancing, “It’s a little bit of daily ingenuity if you will.” Lunch breaks that were once full of camaraderie have been replaced with “everyone eats in their cars.”

When asked what he finds challenging about his line of work, Ron shares that transferring an engineer’s plans into real life can be difficult. “When you transfer it to reality it doesn’t always work the exact way it’s intended; you kind of have to figure out how to make your systems work by the print but also by the code.” Amidst possible frustration, Ron relishes the challenge. “Honestly, that’s the most rewarding part of it, figuring out a problem.”

Ron is an active member of his union, UA Local 67, also known as the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada. He also represents his union as the Sergeant of Arms at the Hamilton and District Labour Council (HDLC). He notes that unions protect workers. “The whole idea behind capitalism is really to maximize profits and that doesn’t really lend itself very well to taking care of people and making sure that people have what they need to have a successful life where they’re thriving.” For Ron, unions build worker power under capitalism, and unions are “the backbone of labour.”   

While Ron says that he’s been fortunate to have maintained a job throughout the pandemic, he did experience a five-week work stoppage at the beginning of the March 2020 Ontario provincial lockdown. “I was on CERB but that negatively affected me and a lot of people in different union halls.” Many workers pay into supplemental unemployment benefits through their unions that they are eligible to collect if they’re on employment insurance. “The SUB program is tied directly to EI, so when the government paid out CERB instead [of EI] we weren’t eligible to claim the money we had already paid in,” Ron shares. 

Ron says he’s grateful that he hasn’t been “stuck in a million zoom calls,” for his line of work during COVID-19. As someone who lives alone, the ability to ‘bubble,’ or interact with one other household without social distancing, has supported Ron throughout the pandemic. While he says he tries to cook all of his meals at home, he admits to one guilty pleasure. “Sometimes on a Friday night, the only thing that sounds good is a Shawarma.” His go-to restaurant for Shawarma is La Luna. Ron takes health and safety very seriously, and says that COVID-19 is no exception, “It’s a different kind of safety….when you’re talking about infecting 40, 50 people.” He advises other workers working in his field to:  “follow the government protocols, they’re there to protect you!”