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MARINE WORKERS CHARGE:

‘WCB wants blood to splatter’

before okaying accident claims:

‘By BERT WHYTE

It’s easier to find the proverbial needle in the haystack than to discover a trade unic :
ist in B.C. who has a kind word to say for the present Workmen’s Compensation Board sa
Labor’s position — “Fire the WCB” — was recently presented to the provincial cabi
by an eight-man delegation of leading officials from Vancouver and District. Labor Cone:
2

B.C. Federation of Labor and the Brotherhood o

Premier W. A. C. Bennett
asked the delegation to supply
him with a list of claims that
have been rejected by the
WCB in recent years. - (Pre-
sent chairman of the board,
Vancouver lawyer J. E. Eades,
was appointed on May 1, 1955.)
. This week I dropped into
Pender Auditorium to have a
talk with Jack Lawson, busi-
ness agent of Marine Workers
Union, about unsettled claims
affecting his union’s members.

“Tf you’re looking for drama,
you won’t find it here,” said
Lawson. “Fighting compensa-
tion “cases is a slow, painful
job. We have been battling
away on some cases for years,
doggedly and persistently. The
thing is never to give up, even
though you get runaround after
runaround, legalistic argument
after legalistic argument, year
after year.

‘Right now our union is
fighting 17 rejection cases.
Eight of them deal with spat-
tered glasses (the issue of eye
glasses that have to be replac-
ed, owing to the amount of
spatter that has accumulated
on the lenses) and another
seven cases deal with back
injuries.”

“What kind of back in-
juries?” I asked.

“Not the kind where a man
falls or is crushed, and the
blood. splatters,” said Lawson.
“The WCB isn’t so hard to deal
with if they can see lots of
blood around. They get tough
in eases where a worker strains
his back lifting a heavy weight.
Then chairman Eades acts like
the lawyer he is — and de-
mands proof that an accident
has occurred. The WCB has
a form letter used in such cases

JACK LAWSON
Runaround after runaround

— -here’s one, take a look at
its?

I picked up the letter he
tossed across the desk and
read:

“It is noted that you were
lifting and carrying a part of
a tank, following which you
felt a pain in your back. How-
ever, as it has not been proven
that you met with an accident

while engaged in this work .-

your claim would not appear
to be one to which the Work-
men’s Compensation Act ap-
plies. Therefore we are un-
able to assume responsibility
for payment of time loss com-
pensation or medical aid ex-
pense.”

“T guess you're right; they
want to see blood,” I said.

“The Workmen’s Compensa-

tion Act needs some revisions,
but lit isn’t so bad in itself,”
said Lawson. “But the way
it is applied is totally unsuit-

Irwin says hell work

for end to H- tests

“So far as nuclear weapons tests are concerned I am very
sincerely and definitely, against their continuance,” Tom Irwin,
MP (SC, Burnaby-Richmond) declared this week in a letter to
Carl Efickson, chairman of the B.C. Peace Council.

Members “and supporters of the B.C. Peace Council are

interviewing MPs before they
leave for Ottawa to attend the
coming session of parliament,
urging them to speak in the
House against the continued
testing of nuclear weapons.

“T want you to understand,”
continued Irwin in his reply
to a letter from Erickson,
“that I am not against the test-
ing of nuclear power for com-
mercial use. The continuance
of tests designed to perfect
methods of destruction, how-
ever, must be curbed, and it
is to be hoped that the nations
will eventually come to this
thinking.

“It is essential that negotia-
tions to the above end sffall
continue unremittingly and so
far as I am concerned I will

do all that I can to see that ©

negotiations never flag.”
Erickson said that people
wishing to join a B.C. Peace
Council delegatiori to visit their
MPs could secure information

‘by phoning MArine 9958 be-

tween 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

“Tf you cannot see your MP
in person, write him a letter
giving him your opinions
against the testing of nuclear
weapons,” he - said.

f Railway Trainmen.

able to labor. Since Eades
became chairman the WCB
has steadily veered towards a
position that places legalistic
interpretation of the act be-
fore the welfare of the work-
ers).

“How-about a review of one
of your rejected claims?” |
suggested.

“All right,” said Laws
“Take the case of Gasnse
March, a burner, now working
at Burrard Drydock, and suf-
fering considerable distress
from an old back injury.

“In this case, the union is
still fighting — we never give
up on claims — to win March
full time loss compensation
from August 12, 1955 to Oc-
tober 17, 1955.” z

‘It seems that March injured
his back in a fall while work-
ink as a burner on a construc-
tion unit of a naval destroyer
escort vessel. That was away
back on February 23, 1953. He
had to undergo operations in
1953, 1954 and 1955. His pen-
sion, arising out of the original
accident, is $26.65 a month.

While working on a punch_
press at Western Bridge on
August 12, 1955, he had to
leave his employment because
of his back condition. He visit-
ed his doctor, was told that
another operation was neceg-
sary. No hospital bed was
available at the time. He had
to wait, but he was unable to
continue working and because
of his “‘voluntary separation”
from his job, he was unable
to obtain Unemployment In-
surance. He couldn’t live on
his WCB monthly pension of
$26.65 and-had to apply to.the
Social Welfare for assistance,

Welfare asked for a medical
certificate and Dr. P. M. Mc-
Lean signed one, stating that
March was unemployable be-
cause of a “non-fusion of spinal
fusion L.4-L.5 level,” and it
would be necessary to perform
an operation for spinal re-
fusion before he would be em-
ployable.

Marine Workers asked the
WCB to put March on full
time loss compensation for the
period he had to wait for a
vacancy in the hospital—from
August 12 to October 17. After
his operation on October 17
the board placed him on time
loss compensation, but rejected
the claim for compensation for
the interim period.

“That’s the story,” said Law-
son. “We're still fighting the
case. ~ We'll continue fighting
it until we win. And we’ll con-
tinue battling the WCB until
its members make the Act
function in the interests of the
workers in the manner in
which it was originally intend-
ed.” fice.

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