- Mike ‘Rygus, the Canadian
vice president of the Machin-
ists Union called on the new
Conservative government ‘‘to
end one of the biggest frauds
and waste of taxpayers’ money
“ever dreamed up.”
Rygus said he wants the Cor-
rations and Labour Unions
Act either amended to
allow unions to fully disclose
_ their finances or Se away
with.
4 “What we have now is a law
which requires us to delib-
erately file incomplete and
misleading information to the
government,” he said.

“The government’ then
publicizes that information
which, because it is incomplete
shows that more union dues
are being collected in Canada
by international unions than is
being spent here.”

The information that Rygus
referred to is published by

and service industries.

FACTS ABOUT THE
FOREST INDUSTRY

1. The forest resource supports 300,000 jobs directly and
up to 700,000 jobs indirectly in secondary Peeoereceiranie

Statistics Canada along with
union membership growth and
types of affiliation. Statistics
Canada recently reported that
dues and assessments paid by
Canadian union members
amounted to $198.4 million in
1977. Of this amount, $75.3 mil-
lion was paid to international
union headquarters. In return,
payments totalling $29.9 mil-
lion were made to Canada by
international unions in respect
of salaries and wages, strike,
pension and welfare benefits,
down from $34.0 million in 1976.

Rygus charged that the law
prohibits unions from re-
porting all their expenses.
Items such as office rent, tele-
phone and other communica-
tions costs, travel expenses for
officers and staff, as well as
convention and conference
costs are not included in the

survey.
“Tt is increditable to find the

2. The forest products industry is Canada’s leading
} commodity sector in terms of sales, employment, export
- earnings and regional dispersion.

“ «63. The Canadian forest is an important factor to our $3
billion outdoor recreation industry.

4, The Federal Government receives some $1,000 million
from forestry activity dependent revenue while Provincial
Governments get about $650 million from it.

5. Although Canada is cutting only about 7534 of-its an-
nual allowable cut, much less than half of the apparent

year in Canada.

® All have a backlog.

"silvicultural operation at a
- $56,000,000.

_ distinet components:

human activities.

sua reid

reserve timber is economically accessible.
6. About 2,000,000 acres of forest land are cutover each

7. No province can claim adequate regeneration on all
current forest harvesting or areas distrubed by natural
disasters although the actual imbalance varies consider-

ably from province to province and within each province.

_ §. Of current forest harvesting, approximately 20% of the

total annual harvested area has
_ regeneration of desirable species established within an
acceptable post cut period. The remaining 80% is renewed
through natural regeneration, planting, seeding and
current annual total cost of

little or inadequate

9. Inadequate forest regeneration in Canada has three

a) an annual accumulation of 374,000 acres of
inadequately regenerated land following forest har-

vesting
b) an additional 300,000 acres annually due to natural
catastrophies which restrict or destroy adequate forest

‘c) a huge backlog estimated as ranging from
11,000,000 to 70,000,000 acres due to both natural and

40. An estimated annual cost of $110,000,000 would dispose

required to adequately reforest backlog areas
20-40 year period. The solution to current and backlog
proble would require a minimum annual expenditure of

% “additional $100 million nnually would put a
a rogr SEC deocins hata emera tion

»

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER |

[GUS CALLS FOR END TO
\MBOUR UNIONS RETURNS ACT

federal government spending
millions of taxpayers’ dollars
each year to collect, publish
and distribute misleading
information to discredit inter-
national unions,’’ Rygus said.

“We believe in full dis-
closure. We’ve been asking the
government for years to allow
us to fully disclose our finan-
cial statements under
CALURA.

“We publish full accounts
semi-annually in any case.
These reports go to our mem-
bers. We think the public has
an equal right to know the
fruth,’’ Rygus said.

“Tf Prime Minister Clark is
serious about cutting waste,
this would be a good place to
start. If he doesn’t want to do
away with CALURA, he should
at least change the law so that
the money spent on collecting
the data will go to getting the
whole truth,’ he said.

Two NDP caucus members,
Health critic Bob Ogle and So-
cial Policy critic Bill Laikie
recently began a five-city tour

to examine ‘first-hand’ the
issues facing Canada’s medi-
cal health care system.

The New Democrat MP’s
said that they would visit
Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina,
Edmonton and Vancouver
where they will meet with
medical specialists and profes-
sionals, tour health care facili-
ties and meet with MLA’s,
cabinet ministers and govern-
ment officials involved in
health care delivery. Follow-
ing the tour, the two MP’s will
draft a report on their conclu-
sions for the NDP caucus.

“‘Over the past five years, we
have seen a deterioration in
our health care system as
more doctors opt-out of provin-
cial plans and as more and
more deterrent fees are at-
tached to basic hospital and
medical services. The NDP
raised this important issue
during the recent election
campaign and we don’t intend
to let it drop as long as the
situation continues to worsen,”
they said.

“In addition to the problems
with existing programs, there
are also many gaps in current
coverage. Chronic care pa-
tients are forced to spend their
final days in hospitals rather
than with their families be-
cause adequate affordable
home-care is not available.
Children are hospitalized with
conditions that could be con-
trolled at home if the drugs
they require were provided
under provincial plans. -

“These are just two exam-
ples of inadequacies which
must be addressed. Dealing
with such problems effectively
would not only mean better
quality health care but would
also reduce rather than in-
crease health care costs,” they

Women’s health will decline
as more women continue to
enter industrial occupations

which have poor health
records, according to a report
on occupational health hazards
to women.

Prepared for the Advisory
Council on the Status of Wo-
men, the study points out that
women are increasing their ex-
posure to occupational health
hazards as they enter the
workforce in greater numbers
and do a wider variety of jobs.

The report discusses the
health hazards in a number of
occupations dominated by wo-
men. It notes that:

e dentists, dental nurses,
assistants and technicians
exposed to anesthetic
gasses, mercury and radia-
tion risk increased incid-
ences of liver disease,
central nervous system
changes, danger to fetuses
from radiation and mer-
cury crossing the placenta,
‘and_an increased rate of
spontaneous abortion;

© hospital employees such as
nurses, . doctors, lab
technicians, cleaning and
laundry’ staff, cooks and
dieticians exposed to anes-
thitic gasses and radiation
may face higher incidences
of spontaneous abortion,
congenital abnormalities in
children, and cancer;

© airline flight attendants
experiencing fatigue,
caused by changes in time
and climate, jet lag, work
stress and loss of sleep may
suffer changes in heart-
rate, body temperature,
blood pressure, liver and
kidney function and men-
strual cycle; and ~

© textile industry workers ex-
posed to a variety of chemi-
cals, lint and dust, fatigue
and asbestos risk higher
rates of skin, internal
cancer, and lung diseases,
and asbestosis.

When pregnant women re-
main in the work force, there
are hundreds of substances or
conditions which may
jeopardize the health of the
mother or fetus, the study
says. A few of the suspected
hazards are anesthetic gasses,
beryllium, carbon monoxide,
sy sthelnd hormones, heat,
Eaection: lead and pesticides.

Discussing occupation health
hazards peculiar to women, the
report notes that factory work-
ers to a combination of
hydrocarbons like benzene,

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1979

toluene and zylene, and viscose
factory workers exposed to
carbon disulfide risk changes
in. menstrual patterns,
especially more intense and
prolonged bleeding:

It also challenges the long-
held assumption that. fatigue
suffered by many working wo-
men is the result of women’s
bodies not being able to with-
stand the same work as men.

“Some theorists now believe
that fatigue is not due to sex
differences as such, but is
attributable to the fact that
women often have two full-
time jobs. As well as employ-
ment in the workforce, the
mother is often manager of the
home and family. The latter
jobs is time-consuming, and
may be physically, emotional-
ly; and psychologically de-
manding,”’ it says.

Though the report deals with
the 45 per cent of women in the
paid workforce, it points out
that the remaining percentage
of women work and face health
hazards, and also face indirect

‘risks through their husbands

and families. It notes that one
American study found a
significantly increased rate of
spontaneous abortion among
the wives of dentists exposed to
anesthetic gasses.

“Home duties have a
number of specific occupation-
al hazards, such as exposure to
solvents, boredom, and numer-
ous types of accidents.”’

The report concludes that
much research on occupational
hazards to women is incon-
clusive, and that in Canada
there is not the attention to
hazards affecting women that
there has been in other
countries such as the United
States.

“Why does most research
concentrate on males, when
two-fifths of the workforce is
female,” the report asks.

PAINT
WARNING

Oil-based paint, thinners and
other solvents are just as

_ dangerous when you use them

at home as they are in the
workplace, warns the Workers’
Compensation Board.

Remember that the vapours
are highly flammable and a
furnace pilot light or electrical
spark could easily set off an
explosion.

f