Some of the safety and health
concerns of IWA-CANADA workers
in Ontario's corrugated and packag-
ing sectors are being represented by
Local 1-500 member Verne Warren.
Brother Warren, a sub-local chair-
man and double-backer operator at
MacMillan Bathurst Inc.’s corrugat-
ed plant in St. Thomas, has been
sitting as the president of the
labour-management controlled
Ontario Pulp and Paper Makers
Association (OPPMSA) since the end
of May.
iS Brother Warren is presently serv-
ing as president for a one-year term
after having served as the OPPM-
SA’s secretary-treasurer for one
year. The OPPMSA’s new bylaws,
peared after the 1991 amendments
to the Ontario Occupational Health
and Safety Act (Bill 208), specify
that representatives from manage-
ment and labour must rotate as
eescent and secretary-treasurer
from year to year.

Prior to 1991, the OPPMSA was
exclusively funded and controlled
by employers. With legislative
changes it, as well as safety associa-

tions from other industrial -sectors,
is now a bi-partite organization
with representation from labour in
addition to management.

The 1991 Bill 208 changes also
created the Workplace Health and
Safety Agency, which oversees
funding to 18 sector organizations,
including the OPPMSA. Money to
run the organizations comes direct-
ly from Workers’ Compensation
Board assessment. This year the
Agency doled out about $58 million
to the various sector organizations.

The OPPMSA uses the money to
do industry specific training, which
is in addition to training specified
under the Occupational Health and
Safety Act.

Under current laws, each work-
place in Ontario must have two peo-
ple (one from management and one
from the workforce) which are given
core training in understanding the
provisions of the Occupational
Health and Safety Act. Training is
delivered to workers at the Ontario
Federation of Labour’s Health and
Safety training centres throughout
the province.

Ergonomics

Continued from page twelve

nomics within an organization.

The curriculum will have three
components; the 3 day training ses-
sions (and possible follow-up),
resource reference materials and
teaching aids (video tape and over-
heads).

The courses to be put on will not
ff concentrate on theory as much as pro-
eaanaiding She participation with more

es of what ergonom-

: ies has done and can do for the forest

industry. Therefore there will be a lot

of hands-on type learning by looking

at video tapes of ergonomic problems

% in logging and manufacturing. In the

classes the participants will try to
identify and solve problems.

In forestry and logging the course

Ev Flannery

Continued from page fourteen

Ey first became a shop steward at.
J.R. Murray where in the early
1950’s he fought for a 5¢/hour
inerease. Because he could not get
the 5¢ Ev became deeply involved in
local union activities.

In the 1950’s a union committee
member's time was spent a little
differently.

“In those days a lot of committee
time was spent signing members up
because there was no automatic
check-off system,” says Ev.

At the T-Ply operation where he
_ worked throughout the plant, Ev
_ Was the sub-local chairman for

roximately 10 years and worked

‘ and on as a part-time business
a og for New Westminster Local 1-

In 1963 he was appointed as
ird Vice-President by then presi-
nt Wyman Trineer. Eventually
Ev hem positions in the local
union except presidency. From 1969
-71 he held office as the financial
secretary, which was a full time
position.

___ From 1971 - 73 he returned to T-
and then was hired in 1973 as
aluator for Regional Council No.
, by then IWA-CANADA President
k Moore, to replace a retiring Al

Ey worked on the puvead job
evaluation system which was in
e since 1959 and in early 1970's
wmill evaluation program was

will hold practical discussions on
such topics as equipment design, visi-
bility, seating, location of controls,
dials and display, noise, vibration,
proper posture, back strain and pos-
ture.

The course will also include looking
at ways of minimizing stress and
injuries in difficult environments, lift-
ing and handling problems and hand-
arm vibration.

In the manufacturing section, the
course will examine postural stress,
over exertion injuries, repetitive hand-
arm work, design of worksites, infor-
mation processing, high-speed work,
stress and a whole lot of other topics.

Participants in the Ergonomics pro-
gram should be active members of
joint safety committees, have experi-
ence in, or an aptitude for training and
have good problem solving and evalu-
ation skills.

put into place in southern interior
sawmills.

As a result of the union’s experi-
ences with the 2 evaluation pro-
grams a new rate determination
system for job categories was adapt-
ed for mills on the coast.

The rate determination system is
based on similar factors from
sawmill and plywood evaluation.
Under an 11 man committee, rates
are gauged by benchmark jobs.

Brother Flannery was trained by
Moe Walls and Tony Vanderheide
and became proficient in evaluation
systems and rate determination.

Many times he reviewed jobs
under the collective agreement or
followed IWA organizers and nego-
tiators to make sure new job rates
were properly put into place.

Like many other IWA’ers Ev wit-
nessed sweeping technological
changes which eliminated thou-
sands of IWA jobs.

In the plywood industry the big
changes were made in automated
lathe systems, the green chains,
and stacking units.

“In an operation where we had
100 people working 20 years ago,
they can now do with 20 - 25 work-
ers,” says Ev.

Brother Flannery has also wit-
nessed the death of the plywood
industry on the coast. In some case
he thinks industry drove plywood
out of the market by pricing peeler
logs too high and selling peelers
overseas, mostly in Asia.

Ev also said the industry made
some “slipshod” panels which also
caused a loss of the market.

“We see ourselves (the OPPMSA)
as complimenting other training
that goes on through the
Federation,” said Brother Warren.

Since the association has become
a bi-partisan organization, Warren
says more can be done to benefit
workers in the pulp and paper sec-
tor. Before the bi-partite structure
was formed, OPPMSA’s activities
were mostly pro-employer and
many times did nothing to improve
worker health and safety.

The OPPMSA board of directors
consists of 18 members (9 from
labour and 9 from management)
chosen from areas of the province in
which the concentration of industri-
al activity is the greatest.

Four unions are represented
among the 9 labour representatives.
They are IWA-CANADA, the
Canadian Paperworkers’ Union, the
International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, and the
Canadian Union of Operating
Engineers.

The association has 5 main areas
of coverage throughout Ontario.
The regions are: the Northwest
(Thunder Bay/Sault Ste. Marie);
Algonquin (north of Toronto to
Huntsville, North Bay and
Sudbury); Eastern (east of Toronto);
Niagara (south of Toronto); and
Central Ontario (Toronto and west).

Each region has a branch office
(Central Ontario has three) where
the association receives input from
the trained safety specialists in
each operation.

Brother Warren says that struc-
turally, when workers on the floor
bring up concerns to their safety
committee, some of those concerns
may go to a branch of the associa-
tion to be dealt with.

One of the first major issues that

_ Paper workers represented on safety assoc.

7

e Verne Warren, Local 1-500 member
is president of Association.

the association is dealing with is
the issue of musculo-skeletal (repet-
itive motion) injuries. In the past
several years, as the industry had
speeded up, there has been an

increase in chronic repetitive strain _

injuries in the corrugated sector.

Later this month the Workplace
Health and Safety Agency will be
presenting some research data to
the OPPMSA, which concerns this
serious issue.

Such are the types of issues and
projects that workers can now par-
ticipate in.

“I believe that the labour move-
ment has to work within the safety
association,” said Brother Warren.
“We can’t get on the outside looking
in to accomplish what needs to be
done for workers.”

He pointed out the importance of
having a labour friendly (NDP) gov-
ernment in Ontario that has
allowed for labour’s participation.

“We have to accomplish as much
as we can now,” says Warren. “If we
ever lose a friendly government,
then we'll lose friendly legislation
as well.”

CORE Safety

Continued from page twelve

important are people skills require-
ment.

Mr. Savage said the graduates of the
course will have to understand that to
solve problems “there are often many
ways to skin a cat and that it’s impor-
tant to find out what the group wants
to do to skin the cat.”

Thus the graduates of the course
will have to focus on identifying the
issues and solutions and have the abil-
ity not to focus on people or personal-
ities which would hinder finding solu-
tions.

When the graduates finish the
course work they will be able to go
out in the work world. Mr. Savage rec-
ommends for the first few sessions,
that graduates of the program work

together for the first while anyways.

“Instructing is not an easy thing to
do if you're not used to it,” he says.

Savage also says that the good thing
about the nature of the SAFER pro-
gram is that it involves real people
from real work sites. This should give
the program added credibility.

“It’s not somebody coming from
some ivory tower or somebody flying
in from the big city to instruct joint
health and safety committees,” adds
Savage. “The people out there have
been in the mills and have been the
logging operations, so they will have
added credibility when they speak.”

Says Savage: “Over the years there
hasn’t been a very high percentage of
safety committees that have been able
to optimize their effectiveness. I think
the CORE program is a recognition by
both labour and management that
they can create a safer work environ-
ment by working together.”

ag

“The fat cats of the plywood
industry lived high on the hog,”
says Ev. He also says lack of fore-
sight and innovation “drove many
mills into the ground.”

“It’s almost to a point now where
if you want to buy sanded plywood
in a lumber yard, you have to buy
American made.”

Ev worked mostly as an evaluator
in the sawmills of the northern B.C.
interior and Alberta. He says it has
been a pleasure all along working
with the membership in assisting
them to get better wages.

As for his own part Ev comments:
“lm sure that without belonging to
the union I wouldn’t have been
making the kind of wages and bene-
fits over the years that my family
has enjoyed.”

Although life away from the fami-
ly and on the road has been tough
at times, Ev feels that the benefits

LUMBERWORKER/OCTOBER, 1992/15

of working for the union have out-
weighed the difficulties.

As for the future of the industry
and the workforce, Ev thinks there’s
more tech changes along the way.

He predicts that in plywood mills
they will eventually introduce a
lathe system which feeds veneer
directly into dryers. In sawmills he
predicts automated dry kiln sys-
tems.

Therefore, there’s some further
job losses ahead. Ey predicts that
things won’t get easier over the next
few years. He also says the industry
has not been sensitive to the effect
that tech change has had on the
workforce.

“Setting aside the land-use prob-
lems, and environmental problems,
we've got enough problems just in
tech enenre alone,” says Ev. “We
have to take care of the people we
have left.”

“