e At IWA-CANADA'S National Health and Safety Conference there was a special presentation on the issue of dis-
abled workers. L. to r. are IWA First Vice-President Neil Menard, MB’s Director of Labour Relations Peter
Lawrie, and Wolfgang Zimmerman, Executive Director of the Disabled Forestry Workers' Association of Canada.

Union and industry boost support
for reintegration of the disabled

he issue of rehabilitating in-
ijured workers has never
been fully addressed in a
comprehensive and cohesive
way in Canada. In recent
years there have been increasing ef-
forts among some union’s and em-
ployers to deal with the issue. But by
and large, efforts have been piecemeal
in nature and there are no federal or
provincial rules and regulations to in-
sure that the injured get a fair shake
and are given an opportunity to lead
productive and meaningful lives.

IWA-CANADA, like may other
unions and employers, has a strong re-

alization of the problems and obsta-
cles involved in getting the injured
and/or disabled workers back to work.
Statistics say that about 5% of the B.C.
forest industry covered by collective
agreements are off on long-term dis-
ability, workers’ compensation, or pri-
vate insurance. Those numbers can be
replicated across Canada.

In human terms the costs are much
more severe. In terms of emotional
and psychological well-being of dis-
abled workers and their families and
the erosion of skills and self-confi-
dence of persons with disabilities, the
costs are immeasurable.

So we as a trade union have to con-
tinue to do something about the issue.
Doing something about it is as impor-
tant as our efforts for preventative
health and safety measures in the
workplace. We should not only care
about our Sisters and Brothers before
they go to work, we should also do
our level best to help them in the un-
fortunate event that they have sus-
tained a disability either on or off the
job.

At a recent IWA-CANADA National
Health and Safety conference the is-
sue concerning disabled workers was
addressed with the intention of giving

the conference delegates the notion
that now is the time to take the final
step to instituting joint labour-man-
agement run reintegration programs
in the workplace.

“It’s an important program that
needs to be looked at, accepted, and
done,” National first vice-president
Neil Menard said to the conference.
“We always, as union people think
about the welfare of our Sisters and
Brothers when they get hurt on the
job.”

But Brother Menard said that all to
often, we slough off people onto
Workers’ Compensation benefits,
health and welfare benefit programs
or long-term disability programs and
the disabled become “out of sight, out
of mind.”

Working people with
disabilities must be
entitled the pride of
bringing home a
paycheque to their
Jamilies

— EARL FOXCROFT
IWA’s National Injured Workers’ Rep.

Disabled workers become frustrat-
ed, says Menard, because “we are sup-
posed to be their union and we are
supposed to be developing programs
to help them out instead of saying
‘you've go weekly indemnity or you’ve
got WCB’.”

“All of these (disabled) members -
at least a lot of them at some point in
time, have changed abilities but they
still have ability to come back into our
operations,” added Menard. “The first
thing that comes up in the red flag of
seniority. We're forgetting that a lot of
these (disabled) members are senior
people that get hurt and they have a
right to get back into the workplace.”

The IWA has embarked on a joint

labour-management operated pilot
project with Macmillan Bloedel. The
first testing grounds for the pilot are
at MB’s Somass cedar mill in Port Al-
berni (See story next page)

A lot of eyes will be on the Case
Management model program to see
how things turn out.

Also present at the National Safety
Conference was Earl Foxcroft, retired
IWA president of the Port Alberni lo-
cal, who serves as the union’s Nation-
al Injured Workers Representative. In
his role with the IWA and as an Exec-
utive Director with the Disabled
Forestry Workers Foundation of
Canada, Brother Foxcroft has been
active on the issue for more than 12
years.

He says the time has come when
the union and the companies have to
take the final step at the operation
level.

“We can spend all the time that we
want talking to CEO’s and industrial
relations people and talking to our
union officials about what should hap-
pen but it all has to come down to
commitment at the operational level
in the plants and in the logging opera-
tions.”

“Working people with disabilities
still must be entitled the pride of
bringing that paycheque home to pro-
vide a reasonable living for them-
selves and their families.” added
Brother Foxcroft. “Most workers are
no longer satisfied with weekly in-
demnity, long term disability or other
forms of compensation payments.”

The simple fact is that persons with
disabilities across Canada live well
below the poverty line. More than 60%
of working age people with a disabili-
ty receive under $10,000 a year in in-
come.

Brother Foxcroft told the safety
conference delegates that efforts to
re- integrate workers cannot succeed
unless there is a joint program in
place.

He said there is no question about
MB's commitment to the joint labour-

management program. He also said
that other major employers such as
International Forest Products, Weld-
wood Canada, and Fletcher Challenge
Canada are interested is possible
coming in with similar programs.

Peter Lawrie, Director of Labour
Relations with MB, said that work-
place-based joint labour-management
programs are the only way to make
things happen.

In 1990 at a national conference on
disabilities, MB and IWA-CANADA an-
nounced an agreement to cooperate
in searching for solutions to work-
place reintegration of disabled work-
ers. Four years later, after many
investigations, the program is getting
ready to go.

ay feed, to get past the good inten-
tions and develop programs that actu-
ally mean something on the shop
floor,” he said at the conference.

He said that often employers have
been worried about the financial costs
of reintegrating disabled workers but.
that those worries are really a “red
herring.” He also said that experience
and research has shown that an aver-
age cost of accommodations in the
workplace are in the $600-700 range.

Sometimes when an individual is in-
jured, said Lawrie, higher barriers are
set for their return to work.

He said that with perseverance and
good will, a lot can be done for in-
jured workers.

He also said that, not unlike the
Employee and Family Assistance Pro-
gram, the objective of a jointly admin-
istered Occupational Disability
Management program is to focus on
the outcome for the individual.

Speaking at the conference was
Wolfgang Zimmerman, Executive Di-
rector of the Disabled Forestry Work-
ers Foundation of Canada.

“It's taken a long time to get where
we have gotten today. We’re making
progress because of the commitment
that is there.”

He said that we need to analyze, in-
dividually and collectively, all we can
do to assist the disabled.

“We in Canada are the only ones in
a modern industrial country who have
not handled this in a cohesive fash-
ion,” commented Zimmerman. “Soon-
er or later the day will come when we
will have no choice but to impose
some clear requirements which may
not be to the liking of a whole lot of
people.”

Government gives
priority to
disabled issues

When talking to top level Cabinet
members in the B.C. government it is
obvious that there is considerable
awareness and a resolve to do more
for disabled workers than has been
done in the past. The Lumberworker
recently went to Victoria to see what
both Dan Miller, Minister of Skills,
Training, and Labour and Minister Re-
sponsible for Disability Issues and
Glen Clark, Minister of Employment
and Investment would say about the
plight of the disabled.

“I am not satisfied that we do
enough generally in our society to as-
sist people who have disabilities to
find a meaningful role in our society,”
said Mr. Miller.

He also said that too often society
sets people aside with a social assis-
tance cheque or long term disability
insurance payments.

“There’s a strong feeling amongst
the representatives of people with dis-
abilities that that’s not good enough,”
said the Minister. “They (the disabled)
want to be gainfully employed and a
part of this economy.”

In early June Premier Mike Har-
court announced that the provincial
government intends to establish an
Office for Disability Issues to coordi-
nate an integrated plan for dealing

Continued on next page

Ce

8/LUMBERWORKER/JUNE, 1994