allie a as Las At the Weyerhaeuser mill in Big River, Saskatchewan is Local 1-184 member and trim saw operator Kelly Paul. Safety improves at Weyerhaeuser Big River etting a meaningful occu- pational health and safety program up and running in any operation is never an easy task. However that task is made easier when the employ- er wants to achieve the same goals as the union. At the Weyerhaeuser Big River sawmill in Big River, Saskatchewan, both the L.W.A. and management have been working hard on a joint mandate for safety. A new safety program, which begun early last year, makes the issue a number one priority. Last year at I.W.A. CANADA’s Na- tional Safety Conference, held in Saskatoon, Local 1-184 President Den- nis Bonville informed delegates about ~ the efforts to achieve a safer work- place. Brother Bonville said that the program in Big River was showing some early promise and that he wished other employers would adopt similar mandates in cooperation with the union. Today it looks like the early promise is holding true in Big River. Workers and management are cooper- ating to get the program functioning and there have been some early suc- cesses. “In the past the management at Big ¢ for photo near log deck is (I. to r.) operator Ray Isbister, Dave and Ron Hartnett. River never paid close attention to the health and safety concerns of our members,” says Local 1-184 Financial Secretary Ted Becker, who services the operation. “We can say now that this has improved and there is some ways to go yet. Both sides are work- ing hard on a number of initiatives.” Armand Kazmiruk, a journeyman millwright who is the sub-local chair- man of the occupational health and safety committee, says that the com- pany has told the workers that safety is the number one priority. To do so all members of the OHC committee have been trained to per- form their tasks at a level that ex- ceeds government standards. The oth- er union members of the committee are Ron Crashly, Donna Peters, Alfred Peterson and Stephen Lamothe. “Everybody is pleased with the mandate and the committee is getting up to speed,” comments Brother Kazmiruk. “There is a growing aware- ness of safety issues.” Included in the program so far has been employee safety training in the plant and a special emphasis on lock- out procedures. Brother Kazmiruk says that the problem of not locking out mill equip- ment used to be a serious issue at the plant in the past and that proper pro- cedures were not followed. “When you get into high speed oper- ations, lots of things can happen fast. and workers feel pressured to clear up problems fast,” he says. To assist procedures, the company has put in remote disconnect switch- es closer to work stations to cut down on the time it takes to get to them. Kazmiruk says that lock-outs are missed on occasions, but that this is more the exception than the rule. Lock-out procedures are often the topic of crew talks that rotate through the operation. Another safety milestone area where there has been some headway is renovations to equipment. Near an edger the operator can now sit down instead of standing all shift. On an infeed area to a band saw there have been lifters put in so the operator doesn’t have to manually handle the boards. Before this hap- pened some workers got their hands caught between the sides of the boards or between the log and the rollers. The operator has also moved from a standing to a sitting position. Over a 15 year period there were 75 lost time accidents at the station. Those accidents have virtually been eliminated due to the renovations. In the sorter bin area of the plant, new hydraulic and cable locks have been put on to make it safer for clean- up workers to do their job underneath the bins. There are 32 J-bar bins in the mill and 39 in the planer, which produces 170,000 - 200,000 board feet per 8 hour shift. Other safety milestone areas that Weyerhaeuser and the union have identified are safety leadership, record keeping, hearing conservation, rules and regulations, safe reliable methods, employer/contractor orien- tation, emergency procedures, emer- gency procedures, housekeeping, safe operation of mobile equipment, acci- dent/incident investigation, confined space and hot work, W.H.M.LS., work- place inspections, wellness, respirato- ry protection and ergonomics. In January of this year the commit- tee took a one day course on accident investigations. “When we do investigations, we are looking for the root cause of the acci- dent,” says Brother Kazmiruk. “If there is a need for capital expenditure to fix a problem, then I think we'll get quicker action out of the company.” In February the workers were trained in fire prevention and suppres- sion techniques. Historically the mill has had two large fires, one in the 1920s and the other in the late ’60s. Weyerhaeuser has also taken com- mittee members to other company op- erations to do safety and health inspec- tion audits and create dialogue between divisions. Big River committee members have been sent to the compa- ny’s mill in Kamloops to do just that. “We went there to ask some pointed questions and start an exchange of in- formation between operations,” says Kazmiruk. The OHC has put the communica- tion of it goals, activities and accom- plishments and ongoing safety perfor- mance at the forefront. One proud fact is that of the 130 union employees at the operation, al- most 50 have received first aid and CPR training through St. John’s Am- bulance. The company has also budgeted to send union representatives to I.W.A. National Safety conferences. Last year it sent a company rep to the confer- ence in Saskatoon. “I think that the rest of the employ- ers in the local should have a close look at what has happened and is evolving at Big River,” says Brother Becker. “The company has come a long way from where it used to be.” A held in Vancouver in January. SAFER JACKET WINNER — Brenda Reitmeier, an account executive with West Coast Publishing Ltd. was the lucky winner of a jacket draw, spon- sored by the I.W.A. - Forest Industry Safety Advisory Foundation for Edu- cation and Research at this year's Truck Loggers Association convention LUMBERWORKER/APRIL 1997/13