Mr. Chairman and Fellow Delegates: Having been the Regional Safety Director for only four months, my report to you will be quite short. First of all, may I express my sincere thanks and ap- preciation to all of the Offic- ers and members of the Local Unions that I have visited, for their co-operation and thoughtfulness that made my visits enjoyable, and I hope, successful. My first endeavour was to acquaint myself with the log- ging section of our industry.. Owing to the technological changes taking place, I was THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER Victoria. The new regulations should be in the hands of our members some time in Octo- ber of this year. FIRST TASK It will be a first task of the Regional Safety Director to present to our members a summary of the changes in regulations so that we may be in a position to make ef- fective on the job improve- ments which we know to be contained in the new regula- tions. ADRES OS: | - REGIONAL SAFETY DIRECTOR Andy Smith reporting to the Convention. To the right is Del Pratt, Regional 2nd Vice-President. at a complete loss, and to this end I have spent consid- erable time in logging opera- tions. Industrial fatalities in Can- ada for the first quarter of 1965 totalled 268, down 18 from the same quarter in 1964, but up 93 from the pre- vious quarter. Twenty-five of these fatal- ities for the period occurred in the forest industry. Complete and accurate fig- ures for our Region are not available at this time, but in the main, it appears that the frequency rate is much the same as last year. METHODS However, with the rapidly ehanging work methods and machines, the Workmen’s Compensation Board will have to enforce the regula- tions strictly, and issue orders where regulations do not cover. We await with great inter- est the results of the Commis- sion of Inquiry into the Workmen’s Compensation Act and are sure that value in determining the future of ~ Workmen’s Compensation in B.C. will come from its find- ‘It will be of interest to you ‘know that the huge task of writing and modernizing ident prevention regu- A by-product of consider- able importance emerged from the extensive public hearings on the Safety Regu- lations; a commitment was obtained from the B.C. Lum- ber Manufacturers’ Associa- tion Safety Department and the Regional Council to meet under the chairmanship of the Workmen’s Compensa- tion Board in an endeavour to lay down safe work pro- cedures in falling and buck- ing throughout the province. We are all aware of the dis- proportionately high fatality and accident rate in falling and bucking. Your Safety Di- rector will therefore be call- ing on logging locals for as- sistance in the way of skilled fallers prepared to give ex- pert advice in this matter. We are proposing to meet as soon as possible after this conven- tion, At this point I must em- phasize that the enforcement of the best possible safety regulations will not save lives or prevent accidents beyond a bare minimum. There is no substitute for a dynamic, co- operative safety program. “YOU CANNOT LEGIS- LATE SAFETY!” The dictionary defines the word “safety” as ‘freedom from danger’. To the average individual this simple defini- tion may not be significant. But to us, when the phrase ‘freedom from danger’ is ap- plied to the lives of the ple whom we are privi- ged to represent in our in- dustries, it becomes of prime importance to our organiza- tion. We believe that ‘free- dom from danger’ can be- SAFETY REPORT come a reality instead of a phrase from the dictionary, if a sound program of acci- dent prevention is installed and made to function effec- tively. We, as a labour organiza- tion dedicated to the protec- tion of our members, have been successful in our pro- gram of accident prevention because we are constantly aware of the objective we are seeking and we are fully cog- nizant of the responsibility that relates to this objective. The objective we seek is the prime purpose of accident prevention, which is to pre- vent personal injuries’ and death. It can be said that for both labour and management to have such an objective and to pursue a program that is dedicated to this end, is truly the humanitarian approach to this most serious problem. APPROACH To apply the humanitarian approach to accident preven- tion, we as a Union, feel that when accidents occur it is our duty to take a personal interest in each case. Instead of our safety committee talk- ing about man-hours lost, fre- quency, severity, etc., which are affected as a result of the accidents, they first concern themselves with the immed- iate suffering of the person who has been injured and whether or not such person has received some type of disability as a result of this accident. The loss of earning power as a result of an accident can- not be ignored because of the economic effect it has on the injured worker and his fam- ily. Even though the injured worker may receive compen- sation, it is impossible to cal- culate how much some per- manent disability will reduce a worker’s future earning power. LOSS We are all well aware of the effect of loss of earning power on our members when they are disabled as a result of an accident. We know that the public relief and social welfare rolls today, are jam- med with people who, in a substantial number of cases, have histories of industrial accidents, and are no longer able to work, but instead, must turn to public relief for help. In addition to the loss of income suffered there are eases where homes have heen broken up and mothers have been forced to find jobs to support a disabled husband and children. In an effort to seek the ob- jectives of preventing -acci- dents that result in death, partial or total disability, and to instil in our members a feeling of safety responsibil- et tte tt ee 2nd Issue Sept. 1965 GIL INGRAM, Local 1-85 Business Agent and Chairman of the Safety Council, centre, is seen here with Bill Schu- maker, President of Local 1-423, left, and Art Damstrom, Bresident of Local 1-405, talking over the Regional Safety rogram. : LOCAL 1-417 IWA CONVENTION DELEGATES ity, the primary function of the Region is to assist Local Unions to set up joint La- bour - Management Safety Committees in every com- pany under our jurisdiction, in order to prevent accidents and eliminate unhealthy con- ditions. The increase in production speed in industry over the past few years has caused an increase in industrial acci- dents. In the light of publish- ed facts and figures which show an increase in industrial accidents and in order to re- duce such accidents to a min- imum, we feel that it is in- cumbent upon. management, government and labour to in- crease their activities in the field of safety and health. In conclusion I commend Local Safety Councils for the job they are doing in Safety, and would request the Local Unions to extend to their Safety Council a full measure of credit and co-operation so that they may continue their important contribution to our Safety program. Respectfully submitted, A..D. “ANDY” SMITH, Safety Director. HANEY BUSINESS GUIDE ESQUIRE MEN’S WEAR (Graham Mowatt) Complete Stock of Work and Dress Clothing “THE STORE WITH THE POPULAR BRANDS” HANEY STORE HOURS OPEN 9 AM to 5:30 PM CLOSED ALL DAY MONDAY OPEN FRI. 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