B.C. Fed fights Liberal cuts to Workers’ Compensation On March 27, the B.C. Federation of Labour held a major rally to protest the watering down of OH&S regulations in the province. At the second of only two hearings on WCB changes, held in Richmond (the other was in Prince George), B.C. Fed President of Labour presi- dent Jim Sinclair condemned the Liberal government's actions. Despite 193 workplace deaths in the province last year and 4,004 per- manent injuries, the Liberals are deregulating and deleting many pro- tections that workers have achieved over decades. About one-third of WCB regulations are on the chop- ping block. Brother Sinclair said the move seriously threatens the safety PHOTO BY CLAUDIA FERRIS = IWA national safety director Ron Corbeil joined protesters. and health of British Columbians and encouraged the WCB itself to oppose the changes. IWA national safety director Ron Corbeil, who was present at the rally said the Liberals are Americanizing the WCB system. “Standards are being lowered without consultation with affected parties,” he says. In addition the Liberals are significant- ly cutting compensation benefits, and WCB pension benefits. National Safety Conference set for the Lakehead city The call for this year’s National Safety Conference has gone out to IWA locals and the union is looking towards a strong turnout at the event, to be held at the Travelodge Hotel in Thunder Bay between July 11-13. Local 2693, the IWA local cov- ering northwestern Ontario, will be hosting the event as it did in 1989. “Every local should come on up here and check out our city and local union,” says 2693 president Joe Hanlon. Les Veale, the IWA Canada’s National Safety Council chairperson, says the conference will include workshops on accident investigation, health and safety poli- cy, workplace harassment issues, emergency preparedness, commit- tee training, disability management and a list of other twelve and six hour workshop formats. The nation- al union has held safety conferences Les Veale | annually since 1988. PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA = Pictured are |. to r. national safety council members Les Veale, Norm Prevost, Bernie Rushton, Stan McMaster, George Rogers, and Saul Marques, with Norm Rivard and Ron Corbeil. NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL DEVELOPING A STRATEGY TO DO MORE Revisiting our safety program YOUR NATIONAL OCCUPATIONAL health and safe- ty representatives got together for strategic planning ses- sions in early May. Together they debated and discussed ways of improving the IWA Canada national safety pro- gram at various levels and providing better service to the membership. “We wanted to have a complete look at many of the efforts we have made in the past and build upon the strengths that we already have,” says national second vice president Norm Rivard, officer responsible for OH&S. “It was an opportunity to have a larger national discussion.” Tt “We are looking for the best ways of driving safety back into the workplace level,” says Rivard. “We need to stop the killing and maiming that is going on in our work- places and protect our members and their families.” First, members of the national safety council assem- bled to put all current policies and programs on the table and compare what is going on in different provinces, and locals across the country. They went through the myriad of efforts that are being made in areas including health and safety committee training, best practices in local unions, and activities of local safety representatives. The members of the National Safety Council are chair- person Les Veale of Fraser Valley, B.C. Local 1-3567, first vice chair Bernie Rushton of Alberta Local 1-207, second vice chair Norm. Prevost of Williams Lake, B.C. Local 1- 425, third vice chair George Rogers of Port Alberni, B.C. Local 1-85, fourth vice chair Saul Marques of southwest- em Ontario Local 500 and recording secretary Stan McMaster of Cranbrook Local 1-405. Brother Veale says that the process gave the council a chance to take a second look at what is working and what can work in terms of putting together better national programs and carrying out national union policies. “J don’t think there are any easy solutions out there,” he says. “We have such a diverse union that represents so many different types of workers. There are no ‘one size fits all’ solutions for the health and safety problems our members face. What we are looking for is a combi- nation of programs that will fit our needs.” Veale mentions the union’s current drive for the estab- lishment of a B.C. forest industry safety association, with the participation of the WCB and industry employers, as a provincial effort that intends to take on the issue of acci- dent prevention in a sector which is recognized as one of the most dangerous in the Canadian economy. Nationally the union is headed towards achieving a number of objectives. On May 2 and 3 the national safe- ty council, Brother Rivard, and national safety director Ron Corbeil, met with local union safety directors from various IWA locals across Canada. They included Local 2171's Jim Parker, Local 1-184’s Ray Dease, Local 363’s Erik Eriksson, Local 1-417’s John Silano, Local 1-424’s Brian Rourke, Local 2693’s Ken Paquette, and Local 2995’s Guy Bourgouin. Taking the preliminary results from a national survey, the council and safety directors developed an “IWA Health and Safety Strategy Action Plan.” The first step is to develop an OH&S program clearly outlining the responsibilities of national safety represen- tatives, local representatives, and committee delegates. It will analyze the best practices in local unions and look at how local safety councils operate, how safety reports are formulated and safety inspection tours are conducted. “The national office will take input from the local unions == = and compile them to have the best practices available,” says Brother Corbeil. “We are looking forward to the widest level of participation possi- ble to get the job done.” Local 1-184 safety director Ray Dease, who called the meeting a “great experience,” says that in many cases local unions are being very effective in dealing with OH&S issues. “By talking with each other, we find that our people have answers — we don’t need to reinvent the wheel in many instances,” he says. “We need to look at the experiences of locals all over Canada to tackle the tough issues.” A sub-committee will be struck to oversee the strategy action plan, which will include a train-the-trainer pro- gram used to train safety directors and advocates. The workplace surveys identified training as a high priority. The plan calls for identifying local trainers and develop- ing new ones. A generic check list to determine the health and safety needs of all indi- vidual workplaces will be developed and local unions will be asked to iden- tify existing the OH&S curriculum they utilize and send it to the national : office in Burnaby for a future refer- Guy Bourgouin ence and distribution point. Local 2995 president and acting safety director Guy Bourgouin, says “we intend to do a better job in the future on informing one another of our success stories.” Brother Bourgouin, who is handing over safety duties to local officer Jacques Jean, says “it’s not an easy task, but we must drive safety back to the workplace floor.” Other priorities include developing a protocol on infor- mation sharing and and strengthening communications between the national union, local unions and sub-locals. That would include better use of computers for commu- nication and developing ways of communicating with all operations to ensure the rank and file are up on the union’s health and safety policies and programs. Ray Dease JUNE 2003 THE ALLIED WORKER | 17