Pain, pride and pills: Why Canadian trades workers are dying in silence

A new survey links stigma, stoicism and unsafe job sites to high substance use and untreated mental health issues among trades workers

By Alexandra Keeler | 5-minute read

Every morning before dawn, Sebastian Coveyduck used to haul himself out of bed to frame houses, shingle roofs or gut interiors across southern Ontario.

Pain — both physical and mental — came with the territory. Many workers used drugs or alcohol to cope.

“Guys [would be] popping into the port-o-potty and coming back absolutely wired for sound, sniffling from ‘allergies’ or with pinprick pupils,” said Coveyduck, who is 33.

“Mental health in the trades is absolutely abysmal.”

Mike, a civil construction worker in the Greater Toronto Area, began using substances daily after falling into a depression following his father’s death when he was 16. Canadian Affairs agreed to use a pseudonym for Mike due to his concerns about possible professional repercussions.

“It just seems normal when you see other guys doing it every day,” Mike said.

Though his union offers mental health benefits, Mike has never accessed them.

“Mental health is still a touchy subject with most blue-collar workers, especially the older generations,” said Mike. Mike says he would still not feel comfortable taking a day off for mental health reasons — “I’d just say I had the flu.”

Mental health and substance use issues are rampant in Canada’s skilled trades, where long hours, grueling work and a culture of stoicism lead many to self-medicate. New national survey data show even unions are struggling to close the gap between awareness and action.

“[The] old mentality is that you are considered weak when you ask for help,” said Stuart Simpson, training director for Smart Local 47, a union representing skilled tradespeople in eastern Ontario.

Unfair trade

Men continue to die at disproportionately high rates from overdoses in Canada. Since 2016, men have accounted for more than 70 per cent of accidental opioid deaths. Between a third and half of these individuals worked in the skilled trades, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The nature of the work helps to explain why.

Trades workers’ workdays often begin at 7 a.m. and stretch well into the evening. Freezing rain or punishing sun can make the hours feel even longer. Framers and roofers face extreme heat, while masons inhale silica dust that can cause chronic lung disease.

“Go into the backyard and dig a one-foot-deep, one-foot-wide, 10-foot-long trench — imagine that, every single day, like Sisyphus and his boulder,” said Coveyduck.

Stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine help workers power through long shifts, while opioids dull chronic pain.

The physical pain is often compounded by psychological suffering.

“A lot of mental health issues in the trades come from both generational trauma and having their personal emotional worth too intrinsically tied to their productivity,” said Coveyduck.

In some workplaces, substance use is normalized from the top down.

Mike recalled one job where his employer gave the construction crew a beer stipend. “Every night we would drink three cases of beer between us,” he said.

Physical and mental pain

To better understand the scope of mental health and substance issues in the skilled trades, Canada’s Building Trades Unions last year commissioned a survey of more than 1,000 workers across 60 trades. The union’s 14 affiliated building trades unions represent more than 600,000 skilled tradespeople nationwide.

Conducted between March and May 2024, the findings will be publicly released this August, giving the affiliated unions time to assess their existing programs and launch a campaign ahead of Labour Day.

The survey, which was provided to Canadian Affairs, shows more than one in three respondents have a work-related injury requiring pain management. Those in pain were 2.5 times more likely to report using alcohol or drugs to cope.

“The construction industry is hard on our bodies,” said Simpson of Smart Local 47. “Walking all day on concrete, climbing ladders, working overhead or hunched over in a confined area — all these lead to [injuries].”

While some tradespeople have access to workplace benefits, many do not—and without those benefits, they receive no compensation when injured. As a result, many continue working through pain. “Most tradespeople only get paid when they work,” Simpson said.

Chronic pain and mental health struggles are closely linked.

A 2005 study found those living with chronic pain are more likely to experience anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.

In the Building Trades Unions survey, nearly half of respondents rated their mental health as fair or poor. Many reported work-related stress, anxiety, burnout and insomnia. A quarter reported using substances to cope.

Yet very few reported seeking help, even though the vast majority said their unions offer mental health support.

“[B]eing vulnerable with your struggles in any workplace is not really normalized,” said Lindsay Amundsen, director of workforce development at Canada’s Building Trades Unions.

Amundsen says the survey identified stigma as a main barrier to accessing support — but the beliefs that fuel stigma remain unclear. “We weren’t able to [identify] why they have that stigma,” she said.

Stigma

Industrial health and safety experts say stigma, stoicism and fear of job loss are all powerful drivers of substance use in the trades.

“Many workers tend to be stoic and avoid seeking medical attention for aches and pains, and often turn instead to self-medication,” the United Steelworkers’ Health, Safety and Environment Department said in a statement to Canadian Affairs. The United Steelworkers represents more than 225,000 workers across Canada.

When over-the-counter medication fails, some trades workers turn to prescription or street drugs.

Strict drug and alcohol policies may further discourage transparency. Zero-tolerance rules and testing policies can even backfire. Since marijuana can show up in someone’s system for up to 30 days, some workers may choose to use prescription opioids instead, since these are only detectable in urine for several days.

“Workers are sometimes compelled to buy illicit narcotics, which not only creates a risk of being charged with a criminal offence, but also exposes them to drugs that are laced with fentanyl,” the steelworkers’ union said.

The union says employers can be part of the problem.

“They don’t want to address how their workplaces are creating health issues — including mental health issues — which then lead to addictions issues,” they said.

United Steelworkers offers its trades workers a Mental Health 101 workshop that frames seeking help as a strength, not a weakness.

It urges employers to treat mental health and addiction as workplace issues rather than disciplinary ones.

The union also advocates for government investment in health care to expand access to treatment, including counseling and therapy. And it has called for a voluntary national standard on physiological workplace safety to be made mandatory.

After receiving the results of its nationwide survey, Canada’s Building Trades Unions formed a national mental health committee to assess current supports for trades workers and explore next steps. The committee held its first meeting in May.

Simpson says the Smart Local 47 union has seen a culture shift from putting in place anti-bullying and harassment policies, and prioritizing diversity and inclusion efforts.

Previous research has found that workplaces lacking in gender and racial diversity are correlated with higher rates of mental health distress among workers.

“We encourage people to say something when they hear things being said about an individual suffering from mental health,” said Simpson. “The more we talk about it, the more we reduce the stigma.”

“We teach them that it’s okay not to be okay.”

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This article was produced through the Breaking Needles Fellowship Program, which provided a grant to Canadian Affairs, a digital media outlet, to fund journalism exploring addiction and crime in Canada. Articles produced through the Fellowship are co-published by Break The Needle and Canadian Affairs.