Union revitalizes efforts
for faller trade certification

After many years of efforts to estab-
lish an education and training pro-
gram for fallers in B.C., it appears that
IWA efforts to seek such a program
are drawing favourable responses
from both government and industry.

On June 5, representatives from the
Workers’ Compensation Board of BC.,
the Council of Forest Industries of
BC., and IWA-CANADA met to dis-
cuss the unacceptable situation of
accidents and fatalities among work-
ers in the logging sector of the
industry.

The meeting focused on establish-
ing some education and training pro-
grams for fallers and buckers, who are
subject to the highest incidences of
industrial accidents.

The meeting was a result of initia-
tives by IWA-CANADA National
Safety Director, Verna Ledger and
Loggers’ Local 1-71 Safety Director,
Bob Patterson who contacted both
the government and industry to revi-
talize efforts in logging health and
safety.

In a May letter to Lyall Hanson,
provincial Minister of Labour, Sister
Ledger urged the Minister to call
together a meeting of labour,
employer, and government officials
for the purpose of developing a similar
training program to that which has
been recently established in Ontario.

In late spring of this year, the
Ontario Ministry of Labour and Skills
Development, developed a program
for mandatory training of the prov-
inces more than nine thousand wood
cutters and skidder operators.

Ontario recognizes logging as one
of the most dangerous industries in
the province with more than sixteen

IWA-CANADA has developed anew
Occupational Health and Safety Com-
mittee Guidebook. The 136-page doc-
ument was circulated to Local Unions
across Canada in August to gather
input for final completion.

At the 1988 National Convention,
delegates passed a motion instruct-
ing the National Executive Board to
make funds available to publish a
guidebook for safety committee mem-
bers. A writing committee of Verna
Ledger, National Health and Safety
Director; Edith Skiber, Safety Direc-
tor Local 1-405; and Bob Patterson,
Safety Director Local 1-71 was formed
to develop the guidebook.

“The last Health and Safety Guide-
book was developed in 1976,” said
Sister Ledger. “At that time it was
developed for a regional membership
of the old international union. Conse-
quently, after we became a National
Union, the old book became out-
dated.”

The final document according to
Sister Ledger, will be in loose-leaf
form. It can then be supplemented by
Local jurisdictions in subject areas
such as provincial legislation.

According to the Policy Outline
contained in the guidebook, Occupa-
tional Health and Safety is developed
from “job tested experience of work-
ers, being processed through local
unions, assessed at National Health
and Safety Conferences, with final
approval formulated at the National

Convention by membership delega-
tions.”

OH&S guidebook
seeks approval

¢ Finishing off an undercut in a western hemlock is Local 1-363's David Farmer of
MacMillan Bloedel’s Menzies Bay Division. [WA-Canada is pushing the B.C. govern-
ment, forest industry, and W.C.B. to implement a trades certification program for
timber fallers.

hundred injuries and seven deaths in
1988.

Also in her letter to Lyall Hansen,
Verna Ledger pointed out that in 1988,
the Workers’ Compensation Board of
BC. recognized claims for 51 fatalities
in the forest industry, of which 38
occurred in the logging sector.

In 1988, twenty-nine of those 38
deaths occurred in non-union
operations.

The letter to the Minister resulted

The guidebook will provide infor-
mation which IWA-CANADA occupa-
tional health and safety committees
may use to assist in developing their
own comprehensive workplace spe-
cific health and safety programs.

In addition to seeking policy guide-
lines for all union members, the guide-
book will explain the duties of union
health and safety committees and
explain how to develop an accident
prevention program.

The guidebook will also detail
proper occupational injury and dis-
ease investigations and emergency
procedures.

Each union member will be made
aware of his/her legal right for refusal
of dangerous work. Local unions are
encouraged to include an insertion on
the right to refuse laws in their
jurisdictions.

Details on Workplace Hazardous
Materials Information Systems
(WHMIS) and an overview of Work-
ers’ Compensation Boards are also
included in the book.

Instructions on proper health and
safety audits, workplace design, and
personal protective equipment are
also subjects covered in the new
manual.

The information contained in the
book should prove of invaluable assis-
tance in helping sub-local union mem-
bers become more involved in health
and safety issues — areas where
organized labour has always been in

the forefront.

in the June 5 meeting and a written
response to Sister Ledger on May 17.

“I share your concern that, over the
years and despite a number of efforts,
no real success has been achieved in
reducing the number of fatalities and
serious accidents,’ wrote the Minister.

Hansen advised Sister Ledger that
he had asked WCB Chairman Bill
Greer to call the meeting to “start a
process for determining what courses
of action might be initiated in

© Verna Ledger, IWA-Canada National
Safety Director.

attempting to address the serious
problems of this industry.”

After the June 5 meeting, Sister
Ledger was optimistic, but also con-
cerned industry may hesitate and con-
sider training-trade certification as a
matter for negotiations.

“I got the impression that we all
wanted to move in the same direc-
tion”, says Ledger. “However, indus-
try is mistaken if they think we're
going to turn trade certifications into
a bargaining chip for our members.
We are interested in the trade certifi-
cation from a purely health and safety
aspect and not a monetary one.”

Ina January 27, 1989 letter to Bert
Hawrysh, Vice-President of Occupa-
tional Safety and Health at the Coun-
cil of Forest Industries of British
Columbia, Local 1-71 Safety Director
Bob Patterson stated that industry
should join with the union in putting
together a submission to the provin-
cial Ministry of Advanced Education
and Training for trade apprenticeship
in the logging sector.

Brother Patterson was acting on a
resolution passed at the 1988 Log-
gers’ Local Annual delegated meeting
which instructed the Local Officers
and Safety Director to seek trade

certification in the entire logging
sector.

“This thing has been sitting in
mothballs and it’s high time we revi-
talize all our efforts,” says Brother
Patterson.

The Local Safety Director says that
the last major attempt to achieve
training for loggers was the failed
efforts of the Forest Industry Safety
Advisory Committee (FISAC) in the
early 1980s.

In 1980, interested persons from
the Workers’ Compensation: Board,
IWA, and later industry met to
develop educational criteria and train-
ing standards for industry workers.

A sub-committee was formed to
develop a standardized training pro-
gram for the falling phase of the indus-
try. The consensus at the time was
that all loggers be trained but certifi- @
cation procedures be put in place only
for fallers.

The FISAC Committee met for two
years after its inception, and before
its final training program was to be
presented, forest industry representa-
tives withdrew their participation,
claiming that training should be a
matter for negotiations.

But it appears attitudes from indus-
try are changing. In a July 5 letter to

Ross Stryvoke, Senior Industrial
Relations Advisor at Forest Indus-
trial Relations Ltd., Bert Hawrysh
wrote that the time to establish some
sort of a program for workers is long
overdue and added that “... we need
to take a few more steps to ensure a
comprehensive program which
includes faller and bucker training
but also deals with some of the other
important factors to create a safe and
protective environment for this sector
of the industry.”

A present, the WCB is revising the
Fallers’ and Buckers’ Handbook into
a more comprehensive guidebook or
manual.

John Hindson of the WCB says he
is considering a training program
based on the revised guidelines, which
could be given at the workplace.

Although Hawrysh says that such
an initiative might be useful for pro-
viding workers with basic skills, he is
concerned that such a basic WCB
program “does not address some of
the other important elements of a
good program such as job planning, ®
work procedures, first aid and safety
practices, chain saw operation, and
personal protective equipment,
etcetera.”

Responding to Hawrysh on July
12, Stryvoke wrote: “If both parties
are committed to work and partici-
pate... there is every reason to believe
a training program could be
developed.”

Union officials are optimistic that
further progress can be made in this
area.

© Local 1-71 Safety Director Bob Patter-
son.

are
14/LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1989