Ist Issue, November

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

our have an
| stake in pre-

LA

rer of the AFL-CIO, guest speaker
Council, Chicago. He said in part:
ster . .. the insane slaughter and
‘this country, year after year, in the
© met here last New Year's Day ina
bat I had just pointed out that on the
a disaster had swept over one of
J

Wir cralional death toll of ccldents in
i W at 90,000, and the injuries numbered
ed our attention to the sport pages.”

in 90,000 men, women and children,
med and bleeding. Such an event
icluding your lives, would be thrown
nt a repetition. ... I am not dream-

PARTICIPATING IN THE LABOR SAFETY WORKSHOP at the National
John T. Atkinson, Safety Director, International Woodworkers of America,
Safety Director, United Steelworkers of America; Charles Ferguson, Safety
right: ‘J. A. Greene, Union Safety Representative,
International Brotherhood of Paper Makers, Portla:
pel, Safety and Compensation representative, United Rubber Workers.

International Association of Machinists,
nd, Oregon; Lloyd Utter,

1 Safety Congress, Oct. 25th, were, front row, left to right:
District 1, Vancouvet, B. C.; Frank Burke (panel moderator),
Director, United Mine Workers of America; back row, left to

Malton, Ontario; Al E. Brown, vice-president,
Safety Director, United Automobile Workers, and John Kum-

used their God-given intelligence
to reduce the death toll of hurri-
canes, floods, earthquakes, the
lightning bolt, and other natural
phenomena, We have not accepted
the death toll in these natural
manifestations as inevitable.

“Why then, do we sit back with
folded arms, seemingly content
with the conclusion that man-
made accidents are inévitable?
Can it be that we adopt this atti-
tude as an alibi for our own
folly? In my judgment, our moral
obligation to prevent accidents to
ourselves and to others trans-
cends any other motivation. No
matter how intensive the destruc-
tion of materials in an accident
may be, materials can be re-
placed. Dead and maimed human
beings, with the right to life,
their skills, and their intelligence,
cannot be replaced.”

As far as possible, J. M. Mil-
more and I, the IWA delegates
present, gave attention to the dis-
cussions in the wood products
section, where the latest tech-
niques for the promotion of
safety in the woods and mills
were thoroughly discussed by the
safety men of this industry. Much
of this material will be made
available later for the use of our
Union’s safety committee.

Summary

In summing up, I should em-
phasize the purposes of organ-
ized labor in its participation in
a continent-wide campaign for
accident prevention in industry,
on the highways, and in the

EE,
LEADS 70 accioents!

homes.

The increase in the general ac-
cident rate makes such action
necessary. Where safety has been
organized, the accident rate has
been greatly reduced.

Co-operation is the correct ap-
proach to this complex problem.
At the Congress, organized labor
made it very plain that only by a
joint effort of labor, management,
and every section of the commun-
ity can the accident rate be sub-
stantially reduced.

It was said, and properly so,
that it is indeed unfortunate
when it becomes necessary to deal
with the accident problem at the
bargaining table.

Labor believes that the basis of
co-operation can be reached in
very simple and direct terms. It
is not in the interests of safety
that management and labor rep-
resentatives should engage in
acrimonious arguments over fin-
gers, hands, arms, and even the
livés of people. In our judgment,
labor - management bargaining
should not be cluttered up with
grievances arising from safety
matters. Decisions of that sort
should be made on a co-operative
basis by qualified and representa-
tive spokesmen.

Every accident, everywhere,
carries with it an assortment of
circumstances that if heeded will
go a long way to prevent its re-
currence, We learn from experi-
ence, whenever that experience is
properly interpreted for future
guidance,

As we learned at Chicago,

the problem of building safety
in every department of our
lives is not simple. It is highly
complex, but it is not too com-
plex. In the past, we have faced
problems quite as difficult, with
a measure of success. We did
not solve those problems by sit-

ting back and discussing them
with lazy minds. We drew to-
gether in a united effort and
solved them. We can and must
through co-operation, solve the
problem of our terrible accident
toll, in our homes, on our high-
ways, and in our industry.

RENFREW LOGGING
WINS AWARD

PORT RENFREW — Beach Camp, headquarters for Ren-
frew Logging Division of British Columbia Forest Products
Limited, October 23, received the Gold Award of Merit of the
B.C. Safety Council for completing 365 days without a lost-time

accident.

Accident free performance of the 75-man camp extended
from October 19, 1955, to October 19, 1956. The camp's opera-
tions include falling and bucking, booming, bridge building and

road construction.

Besides Beach Camp, four other B.C. Forest Products’ log-
ging camps on Vancouver Island have received a total of 15

safety awards this year.

Beach Camp is adjacent to Port Renfrew on the south-west
coast of Vancouver Island, about 50 miles from Victoria.

GUARD THOSE HOLES
IN BUILDING FLOORS

WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION BOARD OF BRITISH COLUMBIA