a lid e SMART members from various I.W.A., CEP and PP’ ting in were Local 1-3567 President Sonny Ghag (left of photo) and Local 363 President Sy Pederson. MacMillan Bloedel sets out to clean up safety and health in its operations acMillan Bloedel, one of Canada’s forest com- pany giants is step- ping up to the plate. We’re not talking about baseball however, — we’re talking occupational health and safety. MacBlo’s fast-track minded CEO and president Tom Stephens has bit rei on the challenge of eliminating workplace fatalities, lost-time acci- dents, injuries and occupation related diseases. In order to do that MB has put together a “Safety Management and Accident Prevention Resource Team” (SMART) consisting of management and worker representatives from its solid wood operations. The team, which includes I.W.A. CANADA members, is gearing its activities for five different outcomes. And it is highballing its agenda. By September 1, it intends to implement a new “flexible inte- grated safety management system” with “defined roles, accountablities and statistically sound measures.” By the year 2000 it wants to cut its “medical incident rate” (a mea- surement that includes lost time accident days, time lost to medical treatment, restricted work days, first aid reports and medical aids) to a level that is one-tenth of its 1997 level. By the end of 1998 all divisions in the solid wood group are directed to have improving bottom lines on safety in “employee driven” safety projects. Other stated goals are that, by January 1 of next year, all MacBlo divisions will be “engaged in an edu- cational process to continue to shift the culture from adversarial to part- nership,” and that the SMART will have a disability management sys- tem in place. The SMART is also looking at enlisting the services of the Employee and Family Assistance Program to encompass “a holistic approach to health, safety and well- ness. It wants divisional EFAP plans in place by July 31, 1998. All of these changes that MB is seeking are big ones which are to be pulled off at the same time the com- pany is driving for higher produc- tion. 10/LUMBERWORKER/JUNE, 1998 In January of this year, Stephens announced that MacBlo is eliminat- ing about 2,700 of 13,000 jobs com- pany wide. In B.C. the company is pushing up production targets. I.W.A. CANADA Local 2171 Safety Director Bob Patterson, who is work- ing on the SMART safety project, says that both labour and manage- ment are separating health and safety issues from production issues. In other words, safety is a number one priority. “My understanding of MB’s senior management is that, whatever the safety initiative is, at both the cor- porate and divisional level, the costs of the measures that we need to take, will not be added onto the costs of production board feet or the pro- duction costs of lumber shipped.” On Stephens, Brother Patterson says: “He believes it’s no longer acceptable to injure and hurt or cause disease among their employ- ees and that employees demand a safe place to work.” Patterson says that MB is the first company that is coming out in the open on safety and health issues following workshop meetings that were held in October and November of last year between I.W.A. CANADA leader and the CEO’s and presi- dents of 20 major forest companies and associations. The meetings were called for by the SAFER and SHARP councils which set the itinerary to look for new pro-active management sys- tems to better the record of compa- nies operating in the logging and sawmill sectors. It was a chance to put some indus- try and union leaders together who have decision-making clout. Among other areas of agreement that came out of the workshops, was the need to develop a “safety first” culture in the B.C. forest indus- try. There was also a call for indus- try-wide training of workers and ¢ I.W.A. CANADA National First Vice President Neil Menard (right) addressed SMART members. WC operations met with I.W.A. officials in the union’s national board room in early April. Also sit- better standard of working safely. “We're taking MB real serious on this one,” says Patterson. “If you look at the way this company has worked for nearly 20 years, jointly with the I.W.A. and other unions to change the corporate culture on the issue of Employee and Family Assis- tance Programs, then I don’t think we could have chosen a better com- pany to work with.” “We want to work for successful results which we will be able to take to the rest of the industry as a pack- age,” he adds. “We have to get this industry off of the plateau that it’s on in reducing fatalities, injuries and diseases.” On April 8, members of SMART met with I.W.A. CANADA national officials to fill them in on what is taking place at MB. They had only started up the process on March 4. National First Vice President Neil Menard and officer responsible for safety and the EFAP, told the group that last year there were 31 loggers killed in the province and four fatal- ities in the manufacturing sector. “That’s an absolute disgrace,” he said. “None of us should be proud of it. Our organization has tried any- thing and everything to get the attention of our members and the ences “We have to be able to develop a system to take care of our co-work- ers whether it be on or off the job, he said. “If the L.W.A. is able to play an equal role in all of this then we can make it work.” ¥ National I.W.A. President Dave Haggard told the group that the union totally supp “whatever is necessary to stay ling and maim- ing our people.” ‘ fe aaa Hee sometimes the union and management have different views on how to move safety pro- grams ahead. ag “Out of that difference of opinion come the solutions,” he said. “Acci- dent prevention and health and safety don’t come from one solution, they come from a thousand.” Local 363 President Sy Pederson added a word of caution to the issues of production and safety. No matter what we say or do, we can’t divorce safety in the work- lace from the pressures that are uilding on our employees to pro- Continued on page sixteen