HIGHLIGHTS

EFAP making progress
during past fiscal year

National First Vice-President Neil Menard gave
a report on the Employee and Family Assistance
Program (EFAP) and its progress over the past
year since the last convention.

Brother Menard was pleased to announce that
more members are involved in changing their pro-
grams from an Employee Assistance Program
(EAP) to the EFAP.

The EFAP/Assessment Referral Service (ARS) is
the most common service provided to union mem-
bers, having been conceived of over 15 years ago.

Today there are 19 ARS Societies in five Canadi-
an provinces compromised of over 200 work orga-
nizations ranging in size from 2 to 2,000
employees. Both union and non-union workplaces
are involved and over 100 private and public sec-
tor unions participate. The 19 ARS societies pro-
vide services to over 65,000 employees, 165,000
family members, and 20,000 retirees.

In the province of Ontario two EFAP/ARS mod-
els are up and running. One is in North Bay and
the other is in Pembroke. The North Bay operation
covers several IWA certifications, of which Colum-
bia Forest Products in Mattawa is the latest to
join. This was done due to the efforts of Local 1-
1000 president Joe da Costa and financial secre-
tary Mike McCarter.

In the area of Kirkland Lake Local 1-2995 is sup-
porting the set up of a new EFAP program, hope-
fully with the support of the forestry, mining, and
services sectors.

In Manitoba there are two programs operating
in Flin Flon and The Pas. There is also interest be-
ing expressed in the Winnipeg/Selkirk area, where
there are over 300 IWA members.

The one ARS in Saskatchewan still operating is
in Hudson Bay, but needs some refinancing and re-
structuring to continue. There are two Local 1-184
operations in the community. There is strong in-
terest in ARS in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

The union is proud that Local 1-207 is participat-
ing in the first ever Alberta ARS which is located
in Hinton. Local union president Mike Pisak
played a key role in getting the project going,
along with other trade unionists from Hinton and
Grande Cache.

B.C. leads the program with 13 ARS societies.
The latest to be established was in Fort
Nelson/Liard. It began operation at the end of Oc-
tober. Local 1-424 president Frank Everitt and offi-
cer Gerry Smith both played a key role in working
to support the new program. :

On Vancouver Island the Campbell River ARS
has expanded to bring on new members in Tahsis,
Gold River, and Courtenay. The ARS has three
counsellors and a new sub-office in Courtenay. Lo-
cal 1-363 executive board member Jim Work has
worked hard to expand the total scope of the oper-
ations.

Brother Work also represents the IWA on the
Board of Directors at a new residential treatment
centre for chemical dependency in Nanaimo called
Edgewood.

Brother Menard also announced that the
EFAP/ARS was the only employee assistance pro-
gram to be recognized by the Canada Committee
for International Year of the Family.

e Representing the Occupational Health and Safety Resolutions committee were Local 2693’s Joe Hanlon

(L.) and Ray Dease of Local 1-184.

Delegates adopt numerous occupational
health and safety policies unanimously

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY CENTRES - the
union will work establish worker administered,
government funded, Occupational Health and
Safety centres in provinces where they do no exist
already.

WCB LEVEL III FIRST AID - the IWA will lobby the ap-
propriate provincial ministries and WCB so that
the WCB will institute the Level III first aid ticket
as the minimum standard for the B.C. forest indus-
try. és
NATIONAL SAFETY DIRECTOR - the convention di-
rected the national officers to appoint a full-time
safety director when finances permit.

SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE - appropriate provincial
agencies will be lobbied to ensure that all identi-
fied hazards are rectified immediately.

WCB CLAIM DELAY - the union will lobby appropri-
ate agencies to ensure that when a claimant’s doc-
tor terms an injured worker is not fit to work due
to a work-related accident or incident, that the
WCB will start to pay the claimant immediately.
CLAIMS CONTROL CONSULTANTS - the union will
take action to ensure that the release of confiden-
tial information regarding worker’s compensation
claim history is not released without written au-
thorization of the worker.

DUST CONTROL - the union will call on the appropri-
ate government agencies and Workers’ Compensa-
tion Boards to implement and enforce regulations
which would require the control of dust at its
source.

COBALT EXPOSURE - the IWA will lobby safety regu-
latory agencies to reduce cobalt exposure limits to
0.005 mg/m3, to regulate controls on fluids use for
grinding and cutting, and will demand further
studies of the health effects of occupational cobalt.
exposure.

ANTI-SAPSTAIN CHEMICALS - testing and studies of
exposure to temporarily registered anti-sapstain
chemicals must be completed immediately and
only fully registered chemicals can be used.
MENIERE’S DISEASE - IWA-CANADA will lobby the
WCB to finally recognize Meniere’s Syndrome as
an industrial disease.

MUSCULOSKELETAL INJURIES - the union will fully
support the introduction of a joint management-
labour prevention program for musculoskeletal in-
juries.

WORKING IN ISOLATED AREAS - when workers are
required to work alone or in isolation there must
be mandatory fail-safe man check systems put into
place. The union will lobby the appropriate gov-
ernment agencies.

° Seated as part of the Local 1-71 delegation were (1. to r.) Kay Waring, Darrel Wong, Jim Mag, Carl
Chester, and Chandra Lal.

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1994/11