IWA SAFETY CONFERENCE By VERNA LEDGER Regional Safety Director The 83rd IWA Safety and Health Confer- ence was held at the Holiday Inn, Harbour- side, on October 15 and 16, 1982. The Conference was opened by IWA Regional President Jack Munro who talked about the tragic increase in fatalities in the Forest Industry during the first 9 months of 1982. He stated that this was even more of a tragedy when considering the reduced number of workers and hours worked in the industry due to layoffs and shutdowns. Brother Munro stated that what is needed now is more education and training and less pressure for increased productivity at the cost of protective measures. Brother Roger Stanyer, Regional 3rd Vice-President and President of Local 1-80, gave the welcoming address on behalf of Local 1-80, Host Local for the Convention. Brother Stanyer opened his remarks by noting that the history of the IWA shows that one of the main reasons the IWA first organized was because of the hazardous conditions which existed at that time in the woods and mills. Brother Stanyer pointed out that Safety and Health has remained a priority for the IWA. The Regional Safety and Health Director also discussed the 42 forest industry deaths in the first nine months of 1982, and stated, “Tt is not possible to determine if cutbacks or concessions are contributing factors, but beyond a doubt the uncertainty of the present employment situation, coupled with the reduced priority placed on preventative measures have increased pressures on workers.” Local Union Reports were presented by Local Union Safety and Health Directors, who supported with further evidence, the statements that safety and health protec- tion initiatives were being dropped or delayed due to the economic slump in the industry. As one delegate said: “Unfortunately it seems Health and Safety issues have slip- ped lower and lower on the priority lists as workers are told that to pressure for improve- ments which require expenditures, might mean the difference between the operation continuing to run or shutting down. Faced with these kinds of propositions, the trade-off becomes jobs at the expense of protection.” Brother Larry Stoffman and Geoffre Berry, Ph.D., presented a session on “For- maldehyde — A Worker and Public Health Hazard”. Brother Stoffman outlined the difficulties in determining safe levels of formaldehyde since it is a suspected carcinogen. The present permissible concentration level accepted by the Workers’ Compensation Board is 2 ppm. However, the Consumer Protection Act recommended permissible concentration for the public is 0.5 ppm, which is a far superior standard. Which in effect means workers exposed to formalde- hyde at work are not given the same protec- tion as the public. Mr. Geoffre Berry who is a leading researcher in Canada on environmental pollution demonstrated various methods of measuring formaldehyde concentrations, but warned that none of these methods could be considered entirely accurate. He suggested a ‘“‘zero or lowest measurable concentration” should be the goal to aim for in protecting workers from formaldehyde exposure. Mr. Rob Griffeon, WCB, presented a slide demonstration and gave a talk on “Ergo- nomics — A Total Work Environment Approach To Sawmill Design”. Mr. Griffeon had been to Sweden and visited several sawmills there. He presented his impres- sions of the advances achieved by the Swedish workers and employers in work environment. Delegates to the Conference dealt with 45 resolutions covering such subjects as Job Safety Training, Fallers and Buckers Train- ing Standards, Chemicals, WCB Regula- tions, Rehabilitation, Compensation and WCB Medical Department. The election of Regional Safety and Health Council Officers was held on the second day of the Conference. Elected were: Chairman - Henry Nedergard (Local 1-85), 1st Vice-Chairman - K. Lidberg (Local 1-363), 2nd Vice-Chairman - I. Cleave (Local 1-424), 8rd Vice-Chairman - J. Pirker (Local 1-207), 4th Vice-Chairman -R. Davies (Local 1-80), Recording Secretary -R. Agnew (Local 1-217). The Conference gave a vote of thanks to retiring Chairman, Brother Jack Welder, Local 1-423. While the economic slump in the Forest Industry and the resulting slide of health and safety as a priority, caused delegates to voice their concerns, it also brought the IWA members closer together in their determina- tion not to surrender to this type of economic blackmail as was stated by the Regional Safety and Health Director, and reiterated by the delegates, “We know the answer, the problems are economic and social, the solution is political.” © SASK. “BLOODBATH” By RON THOMPSON REGINA — Among all the firings in the ongoing ‘bloodbath’ of Saskatchewan’s new Tory regime, the dismissal of Bob Sass from the department of labour is so far causing the biggest uproar. Sass was fired July 29 from his post as associate deputy minister and director of the department’s occupational health and safety branch. The dismissal, more than any of the more than 100 others in the civil service since the Tories took office, sparked a storm of protest among unions across western Canada. In Regina, a committee to reinstate Sass, including representatives from most major industries, was formed within days of the firing. Led by Mike Quinn of Regina, the commit- tee calls the firing of Sass “a declaration of war against the workers of Saskatchewan”, according to an open letter written to Beemer Grant Devine to protest the dismis- sal. “Sass has this reputation of success,” Quinn told reporters. “The workers trust him, They feel threatened. They feel the Devine governmentis going to undercut the regulations and getting Sass out of the way is the first step.” Associate deputy labour minister for 10 years, Sass wrote the province’s pioneer occupational health legislation and within a couple of years took over direct adminis- tration of the plan. The legislation requires joint employer- worker safety committees in most work places, the right of workers to refuse unsafe work and tough standards for control of potentially harmful workplace chemicals and other hazards. The program became a model for similar legislation brought in by most other provin- ces during the 1970s, and made Sass one of the world’s most sought after speakers and consultants in the field. Support for the reinstatement committee has been coming in from across the West, but particularly from union groups who had contact with Sass: © Steelworkers union Saskatoon repre- sentative Terry Stevens charged the govern- ment with gutting the labour department with the firing of Sass and eight other department officials. © The Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, in its newsletter praised Sass’ efforts on behalf of workers and warned that “his dismissal is really just the opening gun in a war against occupational health and safety”. e Alberta Federation of Labour president Harry Kostiuk, in an open letter to labour minister Lorne McLaren, said the “decision to fire Sass ultimately translates into workers suffering and lives lost due to industrial illness and accidents”. e A letter from the B.C. Council of the Confederation of Canadian Unions says the firing “can only be viewed as the pettiest kind of partisan. politics”. © Other support came from the Interna- tional Longshoremen’s and Warehouse- men’s Union, the Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied Workers, the Canadian Paperworkers Union and the Telecommunications Workers Union. The charges of political partisanship were stated most bluntly by Quinn in his letter to Devine, who said the government had disregarded workers and heeded the Chamber of Commerce instead. The Chamber’s labour policy committee chairman was quoted in May to have said “I think I am expressing on behalf of the employers our hope and our desire that the hit list (within the labour department) be long”. Quinn called that statement “Mafia-like” and, in his letter, said, “We view (firing Sass) as a political ‘payoff’ to some em- ployers and their representatives... because of his aggressive advocacy of worker rights and enforcement of occupational health and safety”. The RWDSU newsletter said, “Corporate backers of the current government are interested in production and profits and have made it clear that safety and health should only be an issue when it might interfere with attainment of these goals. “There will be a demand by those who paid the piper in the last election for a total down grading of the (occupational health and safety) Division,” the newsletter said. Sass has since been employed at the University of Regina teaching in the faculty of administration. Commonwealth NEW ACT FOR FARMWORKERS The Commissioner of Employment and Immigration Canada has announced that effective January Ist, 1983, agricultural and horticultural workers will need to work only 15 hours a week or earn 20 percent of their maximum weekly insurable earnings to be eligible for UIC. Under the current Act agricultural and horticultural workers must earn at least $250 and work at least 25 days for the same bee: before their employmentisinsura- le. Lumber Worker/November, 1982/11 \