THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

SAFETY PAGE

IWA DELEGATES HOLD

SUCCESSFUL SAFETY MEETING

As provided in the Consti-
tution of Western Canadian
Regional Council No. 1 a Re-
gional Delegated Safety Con-
ference was held in Penticton
on Saturday, June 1, 1968.

The Conference was open-
ed by Bill Schumaker, Presi-
dent of “host” Local 1-423
(Kelowna) , who was followed
by Regional Secretary Treas-
urer Fred Fieber.

GUEST SPEAKER

In his address to the Con-
ference the Regional Secre-
tary Treasurer expressed his
appreciation and the apprecia-
tion of his fellow Regional
Officers for the work being
done in the field of safety by
the Officers of the Regional
Safety Council and the rank
and file members in the mills
and the camps on behalf of
their fellow workers.

He reviewed the history of
the safety program in the for-
est industry over the last
twenty years and stated that
in his opinion “the IWA is
way out in front of everybody
else connected with safety
programs in trying to protect
the lives and health of people

working in an extremely haz-
ardous industry.”
RESOLUTIONS

With Norm Kelly in the
chair the Conference dealt
with five resolutions and after
a healthy debate on each of
them referred the following
three resolutions to the Regi-
onal:Executive Board for final
disposition:

NEW MACHINERY

WHEREAS: Section 61 of
the Workmen’s Compensation
Act provides that no employ-
er shall commence the opera-
tion of his plant which has
not been in operation for
seven months, and :

WHEREAS: The same pro-
vision for inspection of any
substantial addition before op-
erations begin, and

WHEREAS: Pending in-
spection the Board may grant
a temporary permit to operate
the plant, and

WHEREAS: The coroner’s
inquest as a result of the
death of one of our Brothers
recommended that all new in-
stallations be inspected by the
Workmen’s Compensation
Board, now

a a... a

DELEGATES FROM ALL CORNERS of Western Canadian Regional Council No. 1 met

THEREFORE BE IT RE-
SOLVED: That this Safety
Conference rcquest the Re-
gional Executive Board make
representation to the provin-
cial government to amend the
WCB Act to provide that:

1. No permit be granted by
the Board pending inspection
of new additions.

2. All changes in work
methods through new machin-
ery be inspected before start-
up.

3. That all new additions,
whether substantial or not, be
inspected by the Board.

BE IT FURTHER RE-
SOLVED: That a Union
member of the Accident Pre-
vention Committee be present
during such inspections.

Submitted by Local 1-357,
IWA.

JOB SAFETY TRAINING

WHEREAS: Some Local
Unions are making an attempt
to institute some form of Job
Safety Programs, and

WHEREAS: There is no
uniform policy on Job Safety
training in Regional Council
No. 1.

ht ae |

in the Library of the Penticton Museum-Community-Arts-Centre on June 1, 1968, and
dealt with membership resolutions regarding-the IWA’s safety program, Local Union
safety reports and the Regional Safety Director’s report.

A WARM VOTE OF THANKS
well-conducted and constructiv
right: Eric Ewert (Ist Vice-C

hairman — member of ~Locai 1-217),

goes to the officers of the Regional Safety Council for a
e Safety Conference. Pictured above are, from left to

Jack Mumm (3rd

Vice-Chairman — Business Agent for Local 1-80), Pat Ewles (Secretary — member of

oe aan rane

Local 1-357), Bill Schumaker (2nd Vice-Chairman — President of Local 1-423) and
(Chairman of the Regional Safety Council — Financial Secretary for

REGIONAL SECRETARY-TREASURER Fred Fieber ad-

dressing Delegated Safety Conference in_ Penticton on
June 1, 1968. With him on platform is Andy Smith, Regional

Safety Director.

THEREFORE BE IT RE-
SOLVED: That the Regional
Safety Conference endorse a
policy of direct Job Safety
training, and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLV-
ED: That this Safety Confer-
ence strongly recommend that
the Regional Council formu-
late a uniform policy and en-
ter into negotiations with all
employers in Regional Coun-
cil No. 1, to establish this
policy at the plant level.

Submitted by Local 1-217,
IWA. ‘

EXTENSION OF

INDUSTRIAL DISEASES

WHEREAS: Many of our
brothers who by nature of
their particular job have rend-
ered themselves incapable of
further employment in the
forest industry, and

WHEREAS: No provision
has been made either by em-
ployer or Workmen’s Com-
pensation Board for remuner-
ation in their later years, now

THEREFORE BE IT RE-
SOLVED: That proper repre-
sentation be made to the
Workmen’s Compensation
Board to have coronary, arth-
ritic, and respitory conditions
in industrial diseases.

Submitted by Local 1-118,
IWA.

REPORT

Special attention was given
by the Conference to the fol-
lowing report delivered by
Andy Smith, Safety Director
for Western Canadian Region-
al Council No. 1:

Accident Prevention Regu-
lations are being frequently
broken. This becomes increas-
ingly clear when studying ac-
cidents which have occurred
over the past year. In too
many cases involving injury,
the evidence points conclu-
sively to the fact that non-
compliance with Workmen’s
Compensation Board or com-
pany regulations has been re-
sponsible.

The WCB regulations are
minimum safety requirements
set up by a co-operative effort
of union, management and
government to control hazards
of the various industries.
These regulations are widely
distributed and should be well
known.

FUNDAMENTAL
CONTROLS
Violations of regulations
which result in injury means
that workmen are disregard-
ing some of the fundamental
accident prevention controls
set up for their protection.
When this happens, it must
reflect on supervision of the

department. Occasionally
these violations may be com-
mitted without a supervisor’s
knowledge, but it seems un-
likely that they can be re-
peated many times without
his becoming aware. If he
knows regulations are being
violated, the supervisor places
himself in the position of con-
doning this disregard, and in
the eyes of the law is as guilty
as the worker who breaks the
regulation. Furthermore, he
has shown very clearly to his
crew that he does not consid-
er accident prevention impor-
tant. There can be no defense
of a supervisor who is aware
of the regulations being brok-
en in his department and ig-
nore this until injuries occur.

Company rules must be re-
garded the same way. They
are drawn up to cover more
adequately the hazards and
conditions peculiar to the com-
pany or the: job’s require-
ments. They are not as gen-
eral as the WCB regulations,
and therefore should be of
even greater assistance to a
supervisor because they relate
directly to his work. If com-
pany rules are not necessary
nor completely practical, they
should be rewritten or dis-
carded. If they are good, prac-
tical rules based on a definite
need, they should be enforced.

WORK ORDERS

Perhaps some inexperienc-
ed supervisors look upon en-
forcement of accident preven-
tion regulations as an added
and not too pleasant chore.
This reasoning stands up until
we consider the problems aris-
ing from non-enforcement and
then it is clear that the only
way a supervisor can do his
job properly is by making cer-
tain that all rules are followed.
This is done as a matter of
course in other areas of su-
pervisory responsibility. For
example, work orders are be-
ing closely supervised and
workmen are not permitted
to be consistently late for
work. If the same attention is
paid to enforcing WCB and
company accident prevention
regulations, the supervisor
will find that he has taken a
big step toward overcoming
situations which produce acci-
dents. Only when a supervis-
or is certain that all rules per-
taining to his department are
understood and are being fol-
lowed by his crew, can he feel
confident of their safety.

Continued Next Issue