io ere The Task NDUSTRIAL accidents and sickness cost Canada millions ‘of dollars each vear. The cost in human suffering is incalculable; the value of lost production and the expense of treatment, rehabilitation and assistance is massive. In recent years there has been a change in attitude towards the inevitability of industrial accidents, and disease as a necessary cost of the production process. This has been largely due to the growing consciousness that danger on the job can be eliminated or sharply reduced. Trade union safety programs and safety clauses in collective agreements are responsible in large part for this improvement. Enlightened management has also played a role in making employment more safe and in promoting the idea that safety pays dividends. The job of the safety expert or the union safety com- mitteemen becomes more complex and a more respon- sible one every day. The importance of safety promotion and practices increases in almost direct ratio to the complexity of industrial production. As more chemical, electronic and atomic processes are introduced into industry, the greater is the knowl- edge required by those charged with insuring safety in the application of those processes. If an industrial worker of yesterday received a burn from molten metal, he could see the injury and the cause of it, probably detect the severity of the injury and assess the time needed for healing and rehabilitation. What of the worker employed in one of the 1,400 applications of radioisotopes now in use in Ontario industry alone? An industrial accident today may take place without the knowledge of the victim, while invisible, its effects may be serious, or even fatal, not only to the person directly involved but also to unborn generations. The potential for industrial accident and disease is greater today than it has ever been. There is little com- parison. possible between the dangers of a family ma- chine and a damaged nuclear reactor. This is why the job of health and safety is assuming greater and greater importance, the need for effective safety programs more urgent and the need for protective legislation increas- ingly imperative. Industrial health and safety depends for its adequacy and. effectiveness on the co-operation, particularly of labour and management, but also of government. No amount of energy spent applying inadequate safety rules can make them effective. Minimum safety legis!a- tion must be framed on the assumption that the least safety conscious employer will be called on to enforce it, A growing body of knowledge on safety hazards and their avoidance must be developed and its lessons applied. The study and application of these matters is the task of the Standing Committee on Occupational Health and Safety of the Canadian Labour Congress. The par- ticipation of more CLC-affiliated unions in the Commit- tee’s work will make that task much easier and more likely to be successful in reducing the toll of health and safety hazards in Canadian industry. —CANADIAN LABOUR THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES Probably the top enjoyment comes when you are old enough to know what you are doing but young enough to do it anyhow. —Ingham County News, Mason, Mich. Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER is July 4. Deadline of ad copy is June 20, THE WESTERN CANADIAN and for news copy June 24. PTT, q 4) Gh nh ty LIMO LE eS SIN 24 4) Published Twice Monthly on the First and Third Thursdays by INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA (AFL-CIO-CLC) Regional Council No. 1 Editor . . . Grant MacNeil REGIONAL OFFICERS: A MULTE .... Jack Moore ack MacKenzie Jack Holst .... Bob Ross President ...--.-.----- ist Vice-President .. 2nd Vice-President 3rd Vice-President - Secretary-Treasurer ............ Fred Fieber International Board Members. Joe Madden, Walter F. Allen Address all communications to: FRED FIEBER, Secretary-Treasurer 2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C, TR. 4-5261 - 2 Subscription Rates 2... $2.00 per_annum Advertising Representative ........... G. A. Spencer Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa, and for Payment of Postage in Cash. 27.500 COPIES PRINTED IN THIS ISSUE woe LETTERS TO THE R “Gandy Dancer” Editorial Dr es pe oe Praise, Scorn From Readers Having been in attendance at the opening ceremonies of Woodworkers’ House three years ago, I should like to comment on an editorial written in your last issue. I was sitting in the audi- ence listening attentively to the glib tongue of this La- bour Senator from the State of Oregon, and I came away very impressed. Here, I thought, was a rarity; a poli- tican for the working stiff. This illusion was quickly shattered a couple of years later when he spoke openly against lumber imports from Canada. So it seems that the Senator from Oregon is not a rarity after all, but just an ordinary politican, of which there are so many. The “Gandy Dancer’’ should be a real first and al- though it will step on some toes, I am of the opinion it is fully justified. I am looking forward to more editorials of the same calibre in the fu- ture. Congratulations. Van Nichols Local 1-217 In response to your editori- _ al article of the 2nd May is- sue entitled “Gandy Dancer,” Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon has made some strange and apparently con- flicting statements in recent: months. However, there have been other happenings over the years which may seem just as strange. When the political enthusi- asts in labour unions decide to support a politician be- cause he repeats the going trend of union-political dog- See “LETTERS’—Page 7 ‘ees Homelite’s 990 series is power-packed for profit and performance! You'll feel the difference from the first time you try one. 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