Local 2171’s Gavin Idler (left) and Skipper Vic Pizzey, employees of Wildwood Logging, get ready to leave the dock near Sechelt, British Columbia.

co SR

5a So ey

Union and industry set crew boat
standards for safety training

qPhotos and article by Dan Keeton

na fair day in mid-Feb-

ruary, the four students

practise retrieving a float

from the boiling waters‘of

Beazley Passage near
Vancouver Island. “We’ve lost a
man overboard 60 seconds ago,”
shouts their instructor after the
float is tossed. “Now look at your
wash. It’ll disappear in a one-foot
ichopea =

It’s all part of the training sup-
plied by a crew boat safety program
backed by I.W.A. CANADA and for-
est companies. The small crew boat
safety course has trained more than
450 operators in the safe handling
and maintenance of a rapidly grow-
ing fleet of small craft for transport-
ing loggers. But there are many
hundreds more who have yet to take
the course and be instructed in dri-
ving, docking and rescue proce-
dures, along with the knowledge of
radar and radios.

Since 1994, I.W.A. CANADA and
Forest Industrial Relations (FIR)
have included in the collective agree-
ment a clause stipulating the train-
ing, at company expense, of small
crew boat operators. However, the
federal government still needs to
adopt and enforce regulations for
these craft, which carry less than 13
people and are under five registered
weight tons, say union officials.

Training crew boat operators is
the responsibility of a committee
working under the auspices of

8/LUMBERWORKER/APRIL, 2000

SAFER (Safety Advisory Founda-
tion for Education & Research).
SAFER struck a committee with the
task of finding an appropriate train-
ing course. The I.W.A.’s representa-
tives were I.W.A. Canada First Vice-
president Neil Menard, Local 1-8567
safety director Les Veale, and Bob
Patterson, then safety director for
Local 1-71. The committee had FIR
representative Cecil Salmon and
Local 2171 crew boat operator Gaven

Idler research the safety concerns of
crew boat operations and find an
appropriate trainer.

They chose West Coast Power-
boat Handling, headed by Jimmy
Watt, a North Vancouver resident
and a captain in the Canadian Coast
Guard Auxiliary. He and two other
trainers deliver a three-day course,
conducted near or where the opera-
tors work.

The committee had considered

¢ Pictured is the crew boat Scott and Melissa; from Friell Lake Logging,
pulling in on the Muchalat Inlet near Gold River.

other training courses, including
one offered by the B.C. Institute of
Technology. But the sessions
required students to travel to the
Vancouver area and stay for up to

two weeks — too long and costly for

many employers. Additionally, the

course offered only classroom

instruction.

“I said, that’s no good. These guys
need hands-on training. They Il
never forget it,” Watt said in an
interview. Two days are spent in
the classroom. The final day and
night is out on the water, with all
students taking a turn at the wheel
and all other functions.

Idler’s involvement was sought
because, “I was pretty vocal about
the issue,” he noted. He operates
crew boats in Howe Sound and
Sechelt Inlet for Wildwood Toros
Part ofhis research led to the SAFE!
Crewboat Operator Course, an out-
line of the problems in current crew
boat practice, and recommendations
for improvements in boat construc-
tion, operation and training for
operators. It also calls for improve-
ments to the construction of floats
(docks) and the proper maintenance
and inspection of safety equipment.

These can form the basis for future
collective agreements, the document
advises, but should not undermine
existing, appropriate government
regulations. The report stresses the
need for one regulatory body. Cur-
rently, penpengibaliny is divided
among the WCB, Transport Canada
Continued on page nine