Ll Northern Ontario locals play host to !.W.A. CANADA’s annual health ¢ Neil Menard, National 1st Vice President. This year’s National Health and Safety Conference was held in Tim- mins Ontario between June 23-25 at the Senator Hotel. Over 60 delegates and officers were present during the proceedings in the northern Ontario forestry and mining town. The event was co-hosted by I.W.A. CANADA Locals 2693 and 1-2995 who are both members of the Northern On- tario District Council, which is an amalgam of both local unions. Local 2693 President Wilf McIntyre greeted the Sisters and Brothers in at- tendance and reminded everyone that the I.W.A. is no longer a union of just loggers and millworkers and that health and safety programs mustreach out to workers in all sectors of the union. Local 2693 recently signed up workers at a tree nursery and already represents worker in a variety of oth- er non-traditional areas. Brother McIntyre’s local consists of about 50% loggers who have been drastically effected by tech change ° Fred Miron, National 2nd Vice President. and safety conference in President. over the past 5-6 years where about 30% of the jobs in the sector have been lost. Most of those changes have taken place as conventional cut and skid operations have been replaced by feller bunchers and grapple skidders. Correspondingly the fatality and se- rious injury rate has dropped but now workers are experiencing a new list of problems with repetitive strain in- juries to head, back and body joints. Norm Rivard, president of Local 1- 2995 said that the NODC is happy to participate and host the safety confer- ence and that each local can learn something from each other local by listening and exchanging information. He said that the union is worried about the Ontario NDP’s recent provincial election loss, as the right- wing government of Mike Harris is out to gut both labour and health and safety legislation. He said that a Har- ris government will try to change the WCB to the detriment of workers. This sentiment was also expressed ¢ Wilf McIntyre, Local 2693 ° Norm Rivard, Local 1-2995 President. by National Second Vice-President Fred Miron, who said that health and safety legislation is on the Harris hit list. Brother Miron informed the confer- ence that the Harris government has already put the Ontario Royal Com- mission on WCB on hold and that it is checking out the U.S. models as a re- placement. Miron also said that there is talk about privitizing the WCB in Ontario and that the future of the Workers Health and Safety Centres and Work- ers Health and Safety Agencies are un- known. National First Vice-President Neil Menard welcomed the delegates and visitors and acknowledged the pres- ence of several local union presidents who were in attendance at the confer- ence. Brother Menard said that health and safety activists must continue to put pressure on the WCB’s in their Timmins provinces to represent workers and not employers. He also briefly spoke on the Em- ployee and Family Assistance Pro- gram and the SAFER and SHARP pro @ grams in British Columbia. On the first day of the conference Brothers Dan Clements of Local 1-80 and Saul Marques of Local 500 pre- sented a seminar on filing WCB claims in the provinces of B.C. and Ontario. Following that there was a presen- tation on Ergonomics by Vern Ed- wards, Safety Director for the Ontario Federation of Labour; John Weir, Safety Director for the B.C. Federa- tion of Labour and by Ron Carscad- den from the Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers in Sud- bury, Ontario. : During the second day of the safety conference there were day long work- shops in four different subject mat- ters. Tom Graham of Local 1-417 and Joe Hanlon of Local 2693 led a workshop on Introductory Safety for Occupa- tional Health and Safety Committee members. Brother Menard and Jim Stimson of MacMillan Bloedel were present to give a seminar on establishing and maintaining Employee and Family As- sistance Programs and Assessment and Referral Services. There was a well attended work- shop on the prevention of muscu- loskeletal injuries and ergonomics in the workplace hosted by Wayne Glib- bery on the Ontario Workers’ Health and Safety Centre. The other workshop, on an Intro- } duction to Principles of Occupational Hygiene was hosted by Local 1000's Bob Hird and Local 1-217’s Jim Parker. ee Fight for ergonomic reforms a political one The struggle to get ergonomic changes in the workplace is a political one and not one based on science, said two speakers at the I.W.A.’s na- tional health and safety confer- ence.John Weir, Safety Director of the B.C. Federation of Labour and Verne Edwards, Safety Director of the On- tario Federation of Labour said that unions have to get busy and push gov- ermments on ergonomic reform. “The model (for ergonomic reform) is there, the science is not perfect, but it is quite solid,” said Brother Weir. “The question is how do we get things done.” Weir said that employers and em- ployer organizations are resisting er- gonomic reform each step of the way. He said the “industry is saying that it doesn’t want to be told what to do.” He said that employers do not want regulation because regulation in itself would be an admission that repetitive strain injuries and other occupational injuries are related to work. In British Columbia there are four employment sectors which lead in repetitive strain injuries. The sawmill sector is number one, followed by re- tail food stores, hospitals and the transportation industry. In 1992 a bi-partite Board of Gover- nors of the WCB said that there needs to be an agreement on ergonomic reg- ulations within 2-3 years. That, how- ever, has changed. With organizations like the Council of Construction Associations opposed. to reform, Weir says “we're really in for some tough times.” The construction association is so extreme that is believes that there is no evidence to health and safety regu- lations of any kind prevent injuries. say speakers ° John Weir, B.C. Fed Brother Weir said that unions are going to have to lead the way, and through collective bargaining, estab- lish public standards for ergonomic reform. “We, I think, are going to be expect- ed to break ground for other people,” said Weir. “The reality is that, unless we move ahead like the CAW (Canadian Auto Workers Union) has in its (collective) agreements, we are going to be forced with the vulnerability of the political process.” Verne Edwards of the Ontario Fed said the a Labour-Management Advi- sory Committee on WCB reform set up by former NDP Premier Bob Rae is faltering on the issue of workplace er- gomics. He said that in October of 1993 the Management caucus of the committee opposed a long list of reforms and, at the same time, then Tory opposition leader Mike Harris, who is the new Premier of Ontario, sided with that business caucus. The Tory agenda for WCB now in- clude opposition to compensation for soft-tissue damage and the number of claims being filed. The Harris government believes that workers exposed to traumatic stress on the job (i.e. fire-fighters, emergency ward nurses) should not be eligable for stress disability bene- fits at all. Edwards said that if the WCB does not recognize soft tissue damage, the workers will wind up being forced on to sick leave plans or onto welfare. He said that making any progress in ergonomics will be very difficult and that “you can be sure that we are not going to get a whole lot of support from the Ministry of Labour. It’s a safe bet that inspectors are going intimi- dated by the 13,000 jobs that the To- ries are going to cut from govern- ment.” He said that inspectors are tough enough to get a hold of right now and that it will be almost impossible to get them into operations in the future to deal with ergonomics. The OFL is trying to rejuvinate ac- tivism in the labour movement and is holding a series of forums on health and safety enforcement. The forums will be held in the fol- lowing areas: September 19 - Ottawa | September 21 - Sudbury © September 26 - Thunder Day October 5 - Windsor October 16 - Hamilton October 18 - Toronto . ° At a workshop on occupational hygiene Local 1-85 member Ron Corbeil (seat- ed left) tests for carbon monoxide from smoke filled glass held by Local 1-80's Dan Clements. Standing are Local 1-3567's Peter Hayes and course instructor Bob Hird from Local 1000. 8/LUMBERWORKER/AUGUST, 1995