1.W.A. rep won
decades old WCB
eclaim for retiree

For those who know the case of
the late I.W.A. member Earl Vance,
their memories are bittersweet.
Injured and permanently disabled
in a sawmill accident in 1974,
Brother Vance, assisted by the union
nearly 30 years later, eventually
received settlements totaling some
$663,000 from the Workers
Compensation Board of B.C. by
January of this year.

In June of this year Brother Vance
peessed away following complications

rom a stroke a few months earlier.
He was at Local 2171’s annual

lelegated meeting in late February,

(001 to give his thanks to the local
union.

Local union business agent Sonny
Rioux took an interest in Earl’s case
after first meeting him in 1996. Earl
dropped by the union office in
Gibsons to see if he was eligible for
an I.W.A. pension. He had been
employed at the Bond Brothers
sawmill in Vanderhoof when he was
permanently injured after being
struck by a load of lumber in June,
1974.

He suffered a broken pelvis, facial
lacerations and a serious back injury
and was flown from Vanderhoof to
Vancouver where he was given
medical treatment in St. Paul’s
hospital.

Later, Earl lost a fight for a
permanent disability pension...

“When I heard his story it all
didn’t add up for me,” said Brother
Rioux. When he listened to Earl’s
story on the 1974 accident he told
him “I guess you’re obviously
receiving a WCB pension.” He
wasn’t, so Brother Rioux began to
look into the case.

Although a medical panel
rendered a final, binding decision

on Earl in 1977 that he had a
disability, somewhere along the line
somebody dropped the ball. Although
the board recognized the fact of
Earl’s disability, the case was never
forwarded for further assessment.

“Earl thought that when he was
paid additional money and once he
had a medical exam, that that was
basically it,” said Rioux. “My
argument to the board was ‘look -
yow’re either disabled or you’re not!”

“The WCB never asked if Earl
was permanently or partially
disabled when the medical panel
ruled that he had a 20% disability
in his back,” he added.

Earl should have got a WCB
pension and a retraining allowance
in 1977 after he went through the
original fight.

Rioux won Earl $2,347 for the
original retraining allowance he
was denied, in 1996.

Then, in the summer of 2000,
Brother Rioux won him $121,000 in
back pension.

Then Rioux argued that Earl was
entitled to wage loss compensation,
with interest, for all the years he
should have been retrained and
working. He effectively argued that
the WCB, under the WCB Act, had
a responsibility to provide Earl with
retraining because he was unable to
return to his normal job.

A settlement for some $530,000
went to Earl, thanks to Brother
Rioux’s digging and hard work.

Earl also was earning a $1000 per
month pension on top of the
settlement.

“T didn’t think they’d come through
with this much,” said Earl to a local
paper, following the victory early
this year. “I’ve been through other
avenues before in the past and they

Sask Mills

continued from page sixteen

mill in Hudson Bay.

“I think these issues need to be
ddressed,” said Hallen. “The
BE pay is not doing a full-blown
wood inventory. It is only looking at
where they can get the highest end-
product for the fibre types that are
out there.”

“Whether that translates into
stability for our mills and their
communities is not know at this
point,” he added. “We have always
relied on government forest
inventory figures to see if our mill
could operate.”

“They (Weyerhaeuser) might think
that in order to get the best bang
for the buck, out of certain species
of wood fibre, that they may want to
zero in on particular product lines
and get rid of others.”

In Hudson Bay the company began
perations at the “OSB 2000”
riented strandboard in the spring

of last year. The I.W.A. crew at the
older “OSB 1000” mill (the former
MacMillan Bloedel Aspenite
division) were commended for
roductivity and safety in mid-
but were not given any word

on when the operation would

“We, as a union are very proud of
our membership in the operation,
who are concerned about their
future, as they continue to meet all
the challenges they have,” said

Hallen. “We believe that if the
operation ever does shut down, it
will a decision of Weyerhaeuser’s —
not the workers.”

There seems to be little concern
over long-term timber supply for
oriented strandboard production.

NEGOTIATED PARTNERSHIPS

At OSB 2000, the crew has been
working hard to get the bugs out of
the production process. At the same
time the union has undertaken a
negotiated partnership workplace
system to create more efficiencies.
The new work systems have been
put into most Weyco operations in
Canada.

“] think it’s fair to say that due to
mill ramp-ups at both the OSB 2000
and the Big River sawmill,
considerable time and energy is
being taken from our members and
that the new work systems have
probably suffered as a result,” said
the local union president.

The collective agreement for Big
River was renewed earlier this year
for a three year period expiring on
March 31, 2004.

A deal with the same expiry date
was reached at OSB 2000 on May
18 of last year.

Plywood, sawmill/planer and
clerical division agreements covering
the Weyco plywood mill in Hudson
and the Carrot River sawmill expire
on March 381, 2004, while the OSB
1000 mill agreement expiration also
coincides with that date. m

=
3
£

e Sonny Rioux, business agent for Local 2171 (seated), seen here with Earl
Vance, dug into the case and won Earl some $663,00 in compensation.

thought it was a lost cause. I had
doubts I would live to see it.”

After the settlements, he bought
a car, built a dream house with his
wife Cecile outside of Duncan, and
had plans go on a long-awaited
vacation to Europe.

It was a huge victory for a man
who raised 4 children with his wife,
taking odd and low-paying jobs since
his accident. At times Brother Vance
and family lived on as little as $800
per month, when he worked in such
places as fishing camps and RV parks.

“It is truly unfortunate that Earl
didn’t live to fully enjoy his
entitlement that he should have
had,” recalled Brother Rioux. “He is
dearly missed. He was a courageous
man and kept up a strong sense of
humour about the whole issue as
we went through the battles to get
some justice done.”

Local 2171 safety director Jim
Parker told the Lumberworker that
Earl’s case is an exception in that
the Board should have accepted his
claim and taken action on it.

For the most part, most WCB
decisions have gone through the
appeals process.

Earl’s case had unique and rare
circumstances — ones that Brother

Rioux detected after investigation.

Brother Parker said that in old
cases, there needs to be an appeal
filed to get disclosure information
from the Board. The union can
examine such.information to see if
there is grounds to appeal.

“What we can do is ask the WCB
to adjudicate an issue that was not
properly adjudicated before,” he
said, noting once again that these
cases are rare.

Today appeals must proceed
within 90 days, and only if there are
appealable decisions, noted Parker.

“These days when you have a WCB
problem you have to deal with it
right away,” he added. “It’s
exceedingly unusual to get
something straightened out after a
long time like it was for Earl.”

Parker said it’s important to file
the claim promptly and appeal an
issue you don’t agree with.

“We need to get that advice out to
our members,” he said.

Like other local unions, Local
2171 puts considerable resources
into fight for WCB benefits
improperly denied the membership.
It has an admirable track record of
getting proper compensation for its
members. &

more because we're in sales.”

and the union’s opinion.

disparity issue.

CORRECTION AND CLARIFICATION

The Lumberworker has been advised that two parts of an article in
the September, 2001 issue (I.W.A. women add diversity to union —
Page 21) require correction and/or clarification.

The short article on Sister Sahar Khademi stands to be corrected as
follows. Sister Khademi claims she was mis-quoted as saying; “The
managers wanted us to wear more make-up and wear skirts to sell

The article should have said “a manager” instead of “the managers.”
Sister Khademi has informed the Lumberworker that the particular
individual manager no longer works for Alamo Car Rentals.

The article’s author wrote: “Management tried to give workers
money to keep out the union but failed.”

Sister Khademi would like this point clarified. In fact, during the
organizing campaign, Alamo raised wages for its employees to match
the rates that are paid to National Car Rentals employees. This was
done to curb the I. W.A.’s organizing drive, in both Sister Khademi’s

However, Sister Khademi would like to clarify the point that the
Alamo workers’ issues went beyond simply dealing with the wage

SESS

LUMBERWORKER/NOVEMBER 2001/19