e I.W.A. National President Dave Haggard addressed delegates from the National Safety Conference and from Local 1-424 Job Steward classes. ¢ LOCAL 1-424 JOB STEWARDS had two full days of workshops and seminars on June 13 and 14 at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, when their conference coincided with the I.W.A.’s National Safety Conference. Some of the classes held included (clockwise from above), a workshop on “Workplace Harassment,” a course on “The Steward as an Educator,” with Local 1000’s Michael McCarter (standing), and an ORG I course instructed by National Education Director Lyle Pona (right In line with the MB presentation, Haggard gives speech to 5 national and local delegates I.W.A. CANADA National Presi- dent Dave Haggard took special occasion to make a joint address to delegates from both the National Safety Conference and Local 1-424’s Job Steward Conference which were both held at the UNBC campus. Brother Haggard said that the union has never been able to find “the magic answers” needed to elim- inated workplace fatalities and deaths despite decades of efforts and the education of its members on occupational health and safety com- mittees. He encouraged the safety confer- ence particpants to take the lessons they learn at the conference and workshops back to their plants, camps and operationns wherever they be. “The I.W.A. has accepted the chal- lenge to eliminate all accidents, and get rid of unsafe and unhealthy work conditions,” he said. “Those are some of the things that our union is about.We can sit down with man- agement and work on solutions for safer workplaces. “Our mottos along the way into the future are going to be organiza- tion, motivation and education. “Right here at this safety confer- ence we can see the education tak- ing place. Safety education, job stew- ard education, and everything other kind of education necessary to make us become better trade unionists will be done in our organization.” Turning to the state of the union, Haggard said that in spite of layoffs and the economic turmoil the indus- try is experiencing, the union has gone, in the last six months, to train 130 organizers at different levels. He commended members in the audience from the Quesnel and Dis- trict Credit Union who were on strike for their first contract at the time of the conferences. He said that the I.W.A. would stand with the Sisters and Brothers until they would get a fair and just agreement. A collective agreement was reached and the new members went back to work on July 14. MB Safety Continued from page six us. If the employer was listening you (SMART) might not have a job to do.” Local 1-417 member Elmer Dodds from the Federated Co-op division in Salmon Arm, B.C. who has been involved in safety for over 17 years said MB’s initiative is admirable. He said he would like to see MB get its future safety statistics out to local unions which, in turn, would take them to individual companies. “You guys (on SMART) are get- se broader sense of doing things ; be these other companies like ated Co-op or Ainsworth can look at what your achieving, said Brother Dodds. safety consultant Randy Kelpert, gave a presentation a employee-dri- ven safety programs. _Kelpert, who worked for Interna- tional Forest Products for the last decade, told the delegation to “watch what these guys do. If you’re in - MacMillan Bloedel, keep the pres- sure on because this is one of the most meaningful movements in safety in the province of British Columbia that I’ve seen.” He said that workers have to look at the program to ensure that is really is employee. » “Management hasn’t delivered,” he added. “The raw, gutty issue here is that in sawmilling and logging in B.C. over the last ten years we are exactly in the same spot or worse than we were 10 years ago.” LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1998/7