JIM SHILLITO: These eyes of mine have seen enough.

’ by Michael Kelly

“Our statistics stink. We’ve

gotta stop killing people."
This assessment of the logging
industry’s safety record as
expressed by Jack Harmston found
agreement in both a panel of
experts and a hall full of focal

- loggers May 26, when the North-

west Loggers’ Association held a
safety seminar that they hope will
become the first of an annual
series.

The three-hour meeting was run
by a panel that included moderator
Cyril Shelford, a former Northwest
logger and MLA, Harmston, vice-
president of IWA 1-71, John Hind-
son from the Workers’ Compensa-

‘tion Board and Jim Shillito, fore-
man for MacMillan Bloedel’s
Cowichan woodlands division and
a 29-year veteran logger. About 50
local loggers, most of them com-
pany operators and foremen, came
to listen and ask questions.

What they were told is that
although they’re in one of the most
dangerous occupations around, it
doesn’t have to be a fatal occupat-
ion. Despite common knowledge
that standardized industry safety
precautions can prevent death and
serious injury on the job, however,
27 men were killed while working
in B.C.’s forests last year.

"These are the cold, hard facts:
all those deaths were preventable,"
said Hindson, the WCB’s field
services head for logging opera-
tions. To drive the point home, if
in fact he needed to, Hindson told
the group he had recently been to

‘sec a woman living on Bentinck

~ Arm (near Bella Coola) who had
just lost her third husband, like the .

previous two, in a logging accid-
ent.

. _ -Hindson reminded the loggers

. that-the safety standards to prevent - im
_ woods accidents.exist, but they are. “
. of no use if they arch’ l used.-Pro-
hibited practices like:domino-ing"

—_ making ‘culs on an entire stand

supper at a remote camp. When he
didn’t return after several hours his
co-workers launched a search and
found him dead under a felled tree.
An examination of the area he was
working in revealed 61 standing
trees cut, waiting for the wind to
come up.

The WCB has attempted to
implement industry-wide standards
for fallers, Hindson-said, but the
idea collapsed "because the indus-
try couldn’t get together". They
haven’t given up, however: Hin-

dson’ hopes to have mandatory’

training, approved by the industry,
in place for fallers and buckers,
and yarder, grapple yarder and
skyline operators by March 1991.

‘The programs -will be based on

revised and updated versions of the
WCB's manuals for those occupat-
ions.

Shillito began by saying, "After
30 years of seeing deaths and
injuries, I’m doing my part to curb
this, trend. These eyes of mine
have seen enough: no more." His
woodlands division on Vancouver
Island numbers their accident-free
time in periods of years, and
Shillito attributes it to attitude.

"You have to set high standards
and goals in this deadliest trade,"
he said. "And it is up to the super-
visors to set and maintain those
standards... the responsibility is the

supervisor’s. You cannot legislate
against accidents. Only education
works to develop safety-conscious
attitudes."

Logging is, amazingly, a trade in
which there is no standardized
training. Each company. has its
own method and program, and
Shillito says-some are good ~— and
some aren’t. He’s, concerned about

_the trend toward smaller comp-

anies, higher staff turnovers and
lack of standards for training green
loggers. "The inexperienced and
untrained’ workers” may ‘create
hazards by inventing their own
techniques," he said. "I think

injuries are. mostly due to little or
no training."

Shillito also addressed the macho
element of working im the bush.
"There are a lot of risks, but none
of them are worth dying for," he

‘said, adding that everyone in the

room had experience with taking
risks and suspending good judg-
ment due to fear of ridicule from
co-workers. In his operation, he
said, everyone follows the rules or
they’re down the road; and he has
the safety to prove that the
approach works.

"IF we didn’t think we could
improve, there would be no point
in this meeting. Your job is to
provide constructive leadership."

Harmston added his concerns
about the proliferation of small
contractors. "Are more and smalier
operators a safety problem? You
bet they are, they’re definitely
increasing the fatality rate." He
later added that the changing econ-
omics of the industry often results
in workers being pushed too hard
to produce. "Productivity comes
ahead of safety in many operations
— that’s bullshit. We (the.union)
will help, the WCB will help. The
pressure’s there, and there’s pres-
sure being added every day. -

"Lots of these operators are fly-
by-night, the same ones operate
under different names. Watch the
people coming into your area, they
drive on the same roads you do."
Harmston agreed that standardized
training is one answer, and said he

Terrace Review — Wednesday, June 6, 1990 A5

eadliest trade

would like to see a certification
requirement for fallers and trades
programs for every job in the
industry. "It’s ludicrous," he conc-
luded. "We're killing people every
day — and we know how to pre-
vent it."

Hindson agreed with Harmston
about fly-by-night contractors,
noting the problems the WCB’s
180 inspectors have in tracking
small operators that move around
a lot. He said a television news
item one night about a new U.S.
government satellite imaging sys-.
tem that can spot extremely small
objects from space caught his
imagination. "I figured they could
surely spot something as big as a
loader in a clear-cut," he said, and
told the group that he phoned the
U.S. agency in charge of the sys-
tem to see if the WCB could tap
into it to keep an eye on B.C.
logging operations. "They told me
it would be a breach of military
security," he concluded, and the
room erupted in laughter.

Cyril Shelford called the meeting
to a close, adding his own experi-
ence from a recent visit to Sweden
and Finland. Both countries have a
vigorous forest industry, and Shel-
ford said every worker there has to
learn not only his own job but also
receives training in the operations
and objectives of the industry as a
whole.

"There’s a lot to be desired in
our education, and a lot of concern
out there," he remarked.

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of trees-and waiting for the wind -B
to blow them. all down.at ONCE. —

continue. He’ related a recent ‘cast ~ - are

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