» Zz THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER 9 CHEMAINUS PLAN PROVIDES WELL-FUNCTIONING SAFETY COMMITTEE The following is the address given to the regional safety conference February 18, in Nanaimo, by Carl Stevens, Chemainus plant committee chairman and Local 1-80 re- cording secretary, in which he describes how the plant members, distrustful of the management’s attitude on safety, took matters in hand and set up a well-functioning safety committee. The problems faced by the Union Accident Prevention Committee members here at Chemainus I don’t believe dif- fer too much from those en- countered by other Accident Prevention Committees in other operations. NO REAL EFFORT Management in the past, al- though they contended they were concerned about the safety of their employees, never made any real effort to remedy the hazards of the operation or develop a pro- gram on safety that meant anything. In fact on many oc- casions they ably demon- strated that safety was NOT to interfere with production. Therefore the general atti- tude created among the men toward safety was very poor for years. Most supervisors were responsible for this by their intolerable manner to- wards men, particularly whenever safety was the subject. TEN MEMBERS In 1965, we elected ten members to the committee. The personnel manager ob- jected strenuously to more. than six as laid out in the Master Agreeemnt. After con- siderable debate, with con- siderable pressure from the so convenient Plant Committee, he finally agreed to all ten sitting on the Committee. CARL STEVENS These new A.P. members began holding their own meetings prior to the month- ly A.P. meetings and became a unit of people prepared to apply pressure for some im- provements. They knew what they wanted and why it was necessary and prepared to put up plenty of argument, supported with facts. WERE SINCERE Our main objective to start with was to convince manage- ment that changes must be made in the general attitude and that the Union members were sincere in wishing to assist and participate in de- veloping a program that we hope would eventually in- volve everyone in the opera- tion. The first real sign of suc- cess came when management agreed, and paid job wages to the Accident Prevention Committee Chairman, who is a Union member, and the Plant Committee Chairman, who is also an accident pre- vention member, to make a complete tour of inspection on all three shifts and speak in the lunch rooms. We compiled a full report of some one hundred and fifty carefully studied mechanical items that needed immediate attention. We also included a report on general attitude, both of the employees and the foreman. We naturally gave no names. The Local Union ran us off a large num- ber of copies. The part of the report pertaining to each de- partment was fully discussed with each department fore- man. A copy was then placed on the desk of the production manager. We have good rea- son to believe it also went to the General Manager. Each Union accident prevention member also received a copy. This gave the members a great deal more confidence in their elected representatives. All but 8 or 10 of the hazards were eliminated. DRAW UP £ Things began moving rather slowly and cautiously from then on. Our sincerity was finally accepted and in May of 1966, the processing Gen- eral Foreman requested that we set up a sub-committee in his-department to attempt to draw up and implement an effective program in that de- partment. We agreed to do this. This sub-committee in- cludes the four accident pre- vention members in the de- partment, including the Ac- cident Prevention Chairman, the General Foreman and the Plant Committee Chairman who is also an accident pre- vention member outside the department. Meetings of this sub-committee have been held on NEUTRAL ground once a week ever since. keep track of expenses with a CURRENT ACCOUNT © you receive a monthly statement with your cancelled cheques. © open your account with us today. at neste soll IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE _ OVER 1260 BRANCHES TO SERVE YOU. The first thing we finally agreed on was that everyone would let their hair down and say what was on their mind. These statements were NOT to be repeated outside the meetings. Things were pretty rough at first. These members of the sub-committee were some of the most vociferous accident prevention members we had. Finally a program of sub-committee inspections, accompanied by a safety talk by one of the Union members got under way. In conjunction with this a set of slides de- picting accidents as they hap- pened and actual slides of the effect of these accidents was developed. GREAT CARE Great care was taken, when approaching each man, that he understand that he was not going to be pressured into having his disability photo- graphed and that he-had the RIGHT to refuse. Brothers Cliff Browne and Bill Davis took on the task of approach- ing these people. 11 They were real ambassa- dors of diplomacy, with the result that not one man re- fused. This program in the processing department has stirred a great deal of in- terest, both through the Com- pany right up to head office and in the Local Union. The Company requested a num- ber of copies of the slides and accompanying explanation. One set went to head office and others to other divisions. TO MOVE The general attitude in this department has changed dras- tically — for the better. The sawmill section realized they too must do something about the problem. Last November, Management asked that we appoint three accident pre- vention representatives on each of the three shifts in the sawmill. Their program is now beginning to move. As long as we can keep the interest of management up we feel sure the safety pro- gram will continue to grow and produce results. S SPECIAL OFFER PITCH Size (Inches) A04 11.50 13.50 15.40 17.50 20.30 24.20 26.20 29.90 159.00 318.00 128 16 20 24 28 32 36 42 50’ rolls 100’ rolls 17.80 20.30 23.30 25.20 28.00 31.90 170.60 341.00 WESTERN PIONEER CHAIN SAW SALES 328 Carrall Street Telephone: MU. 4-1822 Vancouver 3, B.C,