Neil Menard talks on the National Health and Safety Program IWA-CANADA’S national health and safety program is going through some changes. Second National Vice- President Neil Menard recently talked with the LUMBERWORKER to ex- plain some of those changes. Brother Menard is the National Officer who oversees the union’s pro- gram and works with Verna Ledger, the department’s director, to adminis- ter the national program. LUMBERWORKER: Do you fore- see any changes to the structure of the bi-annual National Health and Safety Conferences? NEIL MENARD: Well yes. I think that because of the size of our organi- zation today, because of the different types of industry that we are involved in from the primary industry to the secondary industry, that we have to look at doing more work in occupa- tional health and safety. And I think doing it more on a regional basis and having area type conferences with the possibility of a national type occupa- tional health and safety conference maybe once every two years in a cen- tral location where we can all get to- gether to talk about our national or- ganization and what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. ’ LW: So you're looking at perhaps a Prairies Conference, an Eastern Con- ference and a Western Conference. NM: Well no, I think that because of our size in British Columbia, we would probably have maybe two in British Columbia. We've got a very large log- ging section and we've got a very large manufacturing section, primary and secondary. There’s an number of sug- gestions out there and we really haven't made any final decision as to whether we have them based on the primary industry and then something sepa- rate for the secondary industry or simply have seminars, rather than conferences, for the two different sec- tors. There are a number of sugges- tions around. Hopefully at this fall’s National Convention we will have a recommendation to go to the National Officers, and the National Executive Board to receive their approval. Then we can have a new structure on how we deal with occupational health and safety. LW: OK. Most delegates to this year’s Spring Health and Safety Con- ference in Courtenay called for fund- ing in WHMIS education from the IWA Forest Industry Health and Research fund that was negotiated in B.C. Do you agree that these funds should be used for education and training? NM: First of all I think as far as WHMIS is concerned, it’s a responsi- bility of the employer to put on the necessary educational seminars or sessions within their operations to update people on what WHMIS is all about. The first thing that we have to do is put some people in place or a committee. An interim committee, as I understand, has already been ap- pointed to start the process of decid- ing where that money is going. The fund starts on the 15th of June. There have to be trustees and an advisory committee put together to deal with what should happen with the money. I’m not one that favors, at least at this time, that the money should be used for research and research only. I think the important thing in making occupational health and safety better is through education and training and that we should work jointly with the industry to improve the training and the awareness and the importance of occupational health and safety on the job. We should start working together I think in the same fashion as we have with a number of our employers in setting up our employee and family assistance programs. LW: You've already sort of answered the question — How are decisions going to be made where the money will go from the fund? NM: We think that it will be this advisory committee that is put to- gether from the union and industry which should be represented from those areas that are putting the money in and there should be a committee to assist with how the money is spent, and both sides will probably make recommenda- tions and suggestions as to what should be done. That committee will make the final decision and the trustees will be there to oversee that the money is being spent correctly. LW: Will the IWA be deciding who the trustees are on our side of the table? NM: Yes. The officers and Jack Munro will be making the necessary appointments as to who the trustees of the plan are going to be. LW: Is the national occupational health and safety program experienc- ing growing pains with this national union membership? NM: Definitely, everything we’ve talked about in these last few minutes has been how do we deal with the growth, the geographical size of our organization in order for us to do a better job of occupational health and safety. So we're in some very serious growing pains. We still have to keep working very hard at remembering that we're a national organization now, we're not an international and we're not regional and you have to think differently in reference to being a national organization to make sure you fulfill the needs of the member- ship. LW: There has been talk of the IWA developing a new National Safety Guideline book for all locals in Canada. Can you update us on this? NM: I have appointed a committee from the National Safety Officers to take a look at the old guide book, and we are going to put together a new one. We are not sure of the format of that yet, although a lot of the writing has been completed. We're having an Officers’ Meeting of the National Safety Officers on the 29th of June. Hopefully the writing will be comple- ted with the suggestions as to what the guide book should look like. We hope to have it in the hands of the locals prior to our convention this fall. LW: Which Safety Officers did you appoint to look at that book? NM: Verna Ledger, Bob Patterson (Local 1-71) and Edith Skiber (Local 1-405). LW: So what's this Safety Guide Book going to look like? NM: That's one of the things that we're going to discuss. They have come up with some suggestions. We want to develop it for the purpose of occupational health and committee members. We're talking about a loose leaf type binder so that when we make changes we can take pages out and put pages in. We're also talking about doing a separate smaller booklet that will have the policies of this organiza- tion so that the members could have something to put in their pocket. But as far as the guide book is concerned, that’s something for assisting com- mittee people. It’s going to look a little bit different. So it will basically be done in two parts. There are poli- cies towards occupational health and safety and then the guidelines for committee members which will beina separate type book. Lockout accidents continue Four delegates to the Spring Health and Safety Conference told their fel- low unionists of continuing death and injury due to lockout violations in manufacturing plants. Two recent deaths were reported along with one permanent disablement and an ac- count of a sawmill being fined for non-compliance with proper lockout procedures. All the incidents were related to failure to de-energize power sources before doing work on the machinery. Everyone working on a piece of machinery must, by law, lockout the power source with a personal lock before doing any work on it. If a worker assists his fellow workers in the job, then that individual must also join in the lockout procedure. All power sources must be locked out, whether they be electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, water, or air. “In the high speed mills that we have today, pressure to produce is a major factor in accidents,” says Ralla. He says that workers are often pres- sured by foremen to quickly fix prob- lems and that lockout procedures are forgotten. According to New Westminster Local 1-357 Safety Director Peter Hayes, some employers provide ade- quate lockout training, while others “turn a blind eye” to violations. _ After the source of energy is neutral- ized, then testing must be done to assure the lockout is safely in place. Jack Ralla, Safety Director at Van- couver Local 1-217 says that each plant that has a lockout procedure must explain the procedure to the © Local 1-217 Safety Director Jack Ralla demonstrates scissor clamp lockout proce- dure at Fletcher Challenge's Vancouver Sawmill Div. Each individual must have an identity tag on the padlock before commencing work on machinery. employees and demonstrate its prop- er application. Brother Ralla says it is part of a normal job safety break- down. Both Safety Directors agree that maintenance workers are better trained on lockout procedures than fellow wor- kers. However, they agree that all work- ers must be equally and adequately educated. “We have a process in place where the employer is encouraged to ensure that everyone locks out,” says Broth- er Hayes. “However the W.C.B., who is responsible to police that process is not doing the job.” The New Westminster local, through its Safety Council and Safety Committee members, tries to contin- ually promote awareness of lockout procedures. Brother Ralla claims in his local there are a few mills which need com- pliance orders from the Workmen’s Compensation Board in order to pro- vide the workers with a proper lock- out procedure. In the Vancouver local, joint Safety Committee members have designated person(s) to analyze and write up lockout procedures, which are then submitted for W.C.B. approval. Any new equipment or change in lockout. procedure is to be thoroughly exam- ined by the Board. One area of danger noted by Broth- er Ralla is when locks are not removed between a shift change. By law a supervisor must make every attempt to contact the worker who locked out the ower source if he has left the premises. If that worker can’t be found then the machinery area must be searched for the worker. Only when a foreman is contacted and a witness helps to sign for a key, may a lock be removed and a power source reactivated. SR 8/LUMBERWORKER/JUNE, 1989