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THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

INNO LLIN

CONGRATULAT

The Regional Council congratulates the Safety Com-
mittee and crew of the Alice Lake Logging operation
ee Bloedel and Powell River Limited at Port

y.

The accident frequency rate of this operation in 1960
was 70. In 1962 the accident frequency rate dropped to
8.7 — a dramatic achievement.

The company at a safety rally in Port Hardy pre-
sented white cardigan sweaters to the Safety Committee,
who had worked so hard. On behalf of the Regional
Council, Bob Ross, the Safety Director, addressed a
standing room only meeting. The safety program in this
operation has the enthusiastic support of the families,
and has become a real community effort.

ison Question Worth
Of Present Life-jacket

By ERNIE FREER
Financial Secretary, Local 1-71, IWA

Because of their dissatisfaction over the buoyancy equipment presently approved by the Workmen's
Compensation Board, boommen in the Sechelt area made an urgent appeal to the officers of Local 1-71,
IWA, for a meeting to be held with representatives of the Union, Workmen's Compensation Board and
Management to discuss the subject and investigate the feasibility of acquiring a more suitable type of
life-jacket. =
the boommen’s request im-

No Drownings

AUC

UTC NUT

LOU

Est)

Ernie Freer, Financial Secretary of Local 1-71, IWA, on learning o

mediately notified the interested parties and arranged a meeting. The following ts his report of that

meeting.

“T contacted Mr. Art Fran-
cis, Director-Accident Preven-
tion Department, Workmen’s
Compensation Board, and
during the first week of Feb-
ruary a meeting was ar-
ranged in the Compensation

Board Offices for the purpose
of a thorough discussion of
the problem. This meeting
was attended by Union, Work-
men’s Compensation Board
and B.C. Loggers’ Associa-
tion representatives.

Meeting Held In Gibsons

As a result of the discus-
sions which took place at that
meeting a further open meet-
ing was arranged for 8:00
p.m. February 27th, 1963, in
the Gibsons Landing School
Hall. It was hoped that this

meeting would be well at-

tended by the membership at
Vancouver Towing and M. &
M. Log Sorting, and that, as
a result, there would be a
better mutual understanding
of the entire question and
the many problems involved.
Unfortunately, Brother Bob

Ross was not able to attend
the Gibsons Landing meeting
due to prior commitments and
so I represented the Union
and chaired the meeting. The

Workmen’s Compensation
Board was represented at the
meeting by two well-known
members of the Accident Pre-
vention Department, Mr.
Murray Clarke and Mr. Doug
Watt and Vancouver Towing
Company Limited was repre-
sented by their Personnel
Manager Mr. Fred Collins.

100% Crew Attendance

Wide membership interest
on the subject being discussed
was evident by an almost 100
percent attendance from the
crews of Vancouver Towing
and M. & M. Log Sorting. I,
acting as Chairman, intro-
duced the guests and gave a
brief account of the back-
ground leading up to the
meeting, after which the floor
was turned over to Mr. Mur-
ray Clarke of the Compensa-
tion Board.

Mr. Clarke gave a compre-
hensive report of the back-
ground of drowning fatalities
which had led up to the pres-
ent regulations being enforced
by the Board in 1958. This in-
formation contained the fact

that there had been a total
of 43 drowning fatalities of
workmen within the confines
of the Compensation Act be-
tween the years 1954 and
1960. Of this total, Mr.
Clarke's figures disclosed that
13 of the fatalities were boom-
men. Mr. Clarke also stated
that to the best of the Board’s
knowledge there had been no
workmen’s fatalities due to
drowning where the work-
man was wearing buoyancy
equipment since the regula-
tions had been put into effect.
Mr. Clarke’s report also indi-
cated that any D.O.T. ap-
proved buoyancy equipment

was acceptable to the Work- .

men’s Compensation Board.

| Twenty Buoyancy Devices |

In order to demonstrate the
number of buoyancy devices
acceptable to the Board, Mr.
Clarke and Mr. Watt brought
a selection of approximately
20 different buoyancy devices
to the meeting. This selection
included examples of buoy-
ancy equipment containing
permanently inflated devices,
bicycle inner tubes in cloth
envelopes, buoyancy equip-
ment packed with kapok,
buoyancy equipment packed
with uni-cellular foam, man-
ually - inflatable buoyancy
equipment and self-inflating
buoyancy equipment. All of
these various types of buoy-
ancy equipment were ex-
“sym Se aimcantrated by

e Compensation Board rep-
- yesentatives during the course

of the meeting.

—— Self-inflating Jacket .

The Board representatives
also explained that in any
other type of equipment ex-
cept air-inflated life-jackets,
minimum buoyancy require-
ments of 14 pounds meant
bulk, and, therefore, bulk
meant some degree of discom-
fort to those people who, due
to the nature of their employ-
ment, were required to wear
them. In this respect it was
pointed out that the Work-
men’s Compensation Board
buoyancy requirements were
14 lbs., as against a minimum
requirement of 17 lbs. buoy-
ancy by the D.O.T. The rep-
resentatives of the Compensa-
tion Board stated that they
did not consider that they
could safely reduce the pres-
niet minimum buoyancy stand-

ing a relatively high initial
eost and requiring expert
maintenance to reload, check

be and test the trigger mechan-

recommended that each bot-
tle be discharged and the in-
flatable cape of the life-jacket
itself tested no less often than
each 50 days. This jacket was
also reported to have a relat-
ively short useful life span in
comparison with uni-cellular
foam packed or kapok packed
equipment.

For the reasons just stated
the representatives of the
Board did not consider the
Frankenstein type jacket as a
practical buoyancy device
under all types of working
conditions. They did, how-
ever, agree that as far as they
could see now new develop-
ments in self-inflating types
of life-jackets showed the
greatest promise of alleviat-
ing some of the problems of
bulk and discomfort associ-
ated with the present com-~-
monly known type life-jacket.

Another disadvantage
pointed out in regard to air
inflated types of equipment
was that because of their ex-
tremely high buoyancy factor,
workmen wearing them and
working in situations where
there was a danger of them
being swept under a koom or
barge by tide or current
could very well be -trapped
beneath such a surface ob-
stacle.

Mr. Clarke and Mr. Waitt
also reported on the amount
of testing that had been done
by the Workmen’s Compensa-
tion Board and also by other
agencies, such as the D.O.T.,
Royal Navy and Royal Air
Force, etc. In this regard Mr.
Clarke pointed out that the
Board had tested some 14 or
15 different designs of life-
jackets during the last year.

During the question period
following Mr. Clarke and Mr.
Watt’s report and demonstra-
tions, members of the crews
of Vancouver Towing and M.
& M. Log Sorting voiced their
objections to the present com-
monly-used types of buoy-
ancy equipment worn ‘by
boommen. Membership com-
ments in this respect pointed
out a number of factors.
Among the more important
were the opinions expressed
that there were varying de-
grees of hazard for workmen
employed in various kinds of
working conditions.

In particular, it was pointed
out by crew members speak-
ing on this subject that the
conditions in Howe Sound
where boommen never work-
ed alone or after dark and
where there were no strong
surface or submarine currents
to contend with, were far
less hazardous conditions
than, for example, boommen
employed in the Fraser River.
The Board’s position, as stated
by Mr. Clarke, in reply to this
point was that for obvious
reasons the regulations had to
be uniform in application and
could not be amended to fit

EU

|
}
_ |

OSCAR LEEMAN, a member of the Vancouver Towing’s
Boom Crew, gives his opinion of the present bouyancy equip-.
ment and the Workmen’s Compensation Board Regulations
governing bouyancy equipment.

heat of the summer months.
On this point. speakers stated
that in their opinion it was
one thing to wear a life-jacket
for short periods of time or
when not engaged in perform-
ing heavy manual labour, but
an entirely different thing to
wear the same equipment in
temperatures of 90 - 100 de-
grees when performing heavy
work, such as packing boom
chain and other necessary

In replying to these points,
Mr. Clarke and Mr. Watt em-
phasized again the necessity
of bulk in order to have mini-
mum buoyancy requirements
in foam or kapok-filled life
jackets. In discussing the
point that there had been no
fatalities due to drowning in
Howe Sound, the Accident
Prevention Department repre-
sentatives said that they could
not recommend relaxing the
regulations until there was a
fatality in order to prove the
point. They went on to say
that prior to the regulations
being enforced there were at

They stated further that
any suggestion which anyone
had or which anyone thought
of in future, designed to im-
prove buoyancy equipment or
eliminate one or more of the
present objectionable  feat-
ures, would be gratefully re-
ceived by the Board. They
also assured everyone present
that the work of testing new
types of buoyancy equipment
was still being carried out and
that they realized that the
ultimate in such equipment
had not yet been designed.

I believe that the results of

No Drownings In Sound

. Board Tests Still Go On

boom duties. ;

The difficulty of getting out -
of the water while wearing
commonly-used buoyancy
equipment was also com-
mented on, as well as the fact
that to the best of the knowl-
edge of anyone present there
had been no fatalities due to
drowning of anyone working
on Stationary booms in Howe
Sound during the last 20
years.

least two deaths per year due
to drowning in the Vancou-
ver-New Westminster area.
The meeting concluded in a
better understanding by both
the representatives of the
Compensation Board and by
the membership employed at
Vancouver Towing and M. &
M. Log Sorting, of the prob-
lems being experienced by
both parties. The representa-
tives of the Compensation
Board stated that they were
glad to have had the chance
to discuss these mutual prob-
lems so extensively with
workmen directly off the job.

there now exists a better
understanding of the entire
problem by all concerned. It
it entirely probable that as a
result of meetings such as this
further improvements in
buoyancy devices will be
made, improvements which
will decrease the objection-
able features while still main-
taining high safety standards.
We wish to thank the mem-
ey of the ecicars nae
on Department, Wor. en’s
Compensation Board, for the
cooperation which they have _
shown the Local Union in at- ‘
g to resolve this prob-

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