in wake of mine tragedy

Alberta weakens mine safety laws

By J. FELIX EDMONTON — Two weeks

after the tragedy at Grande.

Cache, Alberta’s Health and Safety Minister Bill Diachuk plans to weaken mine safety legis- lation, and tensions are high among the workers at the mine. Four miners were killed Feb. 29, when a tunnel roof collapsed at McIntyre Mines Rieff-Terrace operations northofGrandeCache. It was the worst mining disaster here since 1942, when five work- ets died in a flash flood at Cado- min. ; _.. A team of investigators was ap- » pointed by Diachuk, but their full ‘inquiry may take several weeks. ‘Diachuk, however, was quick to ~ exonerate management two days after the accident, saying: ‘‘We have to accept that all safety prac- tices were carried out,” and that the collapse was ‘‘spontaneous,”’ -not the result of unsafe removal of roof tops. Ian Reid, MLA for the area said the accident may have been “‘an act of God’’.

Diachuk and Reid were con- ~

tradicted by a preliminary re- commendation of the investiga- tion team on March 10. After re- ceiving testimony from miners and supervisors, investigators told McIntyre to increase the number of roof supports during some operations, such as retreat- ing from mined-out shafts; to re- view methods of roof support in shaft use; and, to look at ventila- “tion proceduresicen se) ors

Problems Aren’t New

““We’ ve been arguing for better supports and methods of extract- ing coal for a long time’’, said Steelworkers’ Local 7621 presi- dent Phil Oakes, ‘‘those problems didn’t just pop up in the past few days.’’ Oakes and other miners suspect that improper use of sup- port could have caused the disas- ter.

Protest strikes over safety con- ditions before and after the acci- dent indicate the mood of the workers. After a similar cave-in early in February, miner Jim Pet- rie was dismissed, leading to-a two-day walkout by 600 miners.

In a similar incident March 3, another miner was _ indefinitely suspended, after refusing to work at a wall he feared would collapse.

orten

Tensions are high among the min- ers who point out that 14 men have died underground and more above ground since operations

began 11 years ago at Grande Cache.

Workers were also angered at not being given paid time off on

March 4, the day of the funeral. °

“All the company is concerned about is production and nothing else’, said Ray Martin, vice- president of Local 7621. Many took the day off, but production continued. :

New Bill — More Disasters’

In a related “development, Local 7621 has charged that pro- posed changes in provincial safety legislation increase the chances of further mining disas- ters. The Tories plan to pass Bill 71 at the next session of the Legis- lature. This would replace Alber- ta’s Coal Mines Safety Act, by an amendment to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, thus changing the jurisdiction which mines come under.

Keith Stanley, safety chairman of Local 7621, says the union op- poses the amendment on several grounds. It would require employers to provide only “reasonably practical’ safety, which has been interpreted in courts to mean a balancing of

costs against risks, which isnot’

acceptable to miners. Government safety inspectors would no longer have unre-

‘Stricted “access to - mines: —

management could refuse access

or refuse to carry out inspectors’ .

orders, leading to lengthy court actions. Standards for new in- spectors would be lowered. All four present inspectors, ap- pointed under the Energy Re-' sources Conservation Board, have been involved in mining all’ their working lives. Under the Occupational Safety department, if Bill 71 passes, the next two in- spectors will need to have only 10

. years of mining experience, and

only half of that on the job. Paid With Lives

Speaking to the Tribune, Oakes blasted the changes as a ‘‘political move’’ by the Tories. ‘‘It took miners 100 years to get this Coal Mines Safety. Act’’, he said. “*They paid for it with their lives.

AFL demands inquiry

EDMONTON — The Alberta Federation of Labor (AFL) called for a full-scale inquiry into the op- erations of McIntyre Mines at Grande Cache, March 13.

_“*The deaths of four. miners

Feb. 28, 1980 and the govern- ment’s lack of action since the horrendous event clearly de- monstrates the need for an un- biased, comprehensive review of this Houston-based multi- national corporation’’,. AFL secretary-treasurer Eugene Mitchell said in calling for in- quiry.

‘*This company’s insensitivity to the situation was demonstrated even more clearly when McIntyre Mines chose to suspend a miner who, only two days after four of his brothers died, refused to work because of conditions he deemed

unsafe,’’ Mitchell said. ‘‘And to.

top it off this industrial giant re-

fused to pay miners for the time they. took off work to pay their respects at a memorial service for their fellow workers.”

Mitchell reminded Alberta Oc- cupational Health and Safety Minister Bill Diachuk that “his mandate and departmental re- sponsibility is to help preserve the health and safety of Alberta’s working people . . . not toensure a healthy profit picture for MclIn- tyre Mines at the expense of human life.’

The AFL treasurer charged Diachuk with trying to destroy workers’ legal right to refuse to perform unsafe work. ‘‘Mr. Diachuk’s assumption that Al- berta miners must accept death and injury if they work in the Rockies is an assumption that col- lides with the responsibilities of his mandate’’, Mitchell said.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 28, 1980—Page 8

€

Set

In the wake of the death of four miners at the Mcintyre coal mines, miners are increasing pressure for ;

strengthening the mine safety act. The Alberta Tories however have plans to weaken the existing legislation.

And now the government wants

.to take it away from us.”’

Oakes called for placing the Coal Mines Safety Act under the Occupational Safe Health and Safety Act intact, and then im- proving it, not weakening it. The miners are willing to take action to force this to be done, he said.

Diachuk has come under fire recently, as concern mounts over safety on the oil rigs and in the mines. Speaking to a meeting of

The secretariat of the World Federation of Trade Unions, the largest trade union federation in

the whole world, with more. than

190 million members in both the capitalist and the socialist parts of the world, has just published an appeal for new efforts in united actions to safeguard trade union rights and democratic liberties. In view of current imperialist attacks on world peace and dem- ocratic rights in general and the rights of organized labor in par- ticular, with which we are all familiar, we hereby take the lib- erty to quote excerpts from this excellent and most timely appeal: ‘*Basic trade union rights won after years and decades of bitter struggles are now under attack in many capitalist and developing

countries. This attack is spear-

headed by big business groups,. transnational corporations and the governments they influence.

‘*Military dictatorships in countries such as Chile, Uruguay, Sudan, Pakistan, etc., have to- tally banned or severely restricted all trade union activities. Many trade union leaders are in jail. In Indonesia, leaders of the WFTU affiliate SOBSI have been in jail for 15 years. Trade union rights for the majority of workers do not exist in apartheid South Africa, and in Arab territories occupied by Israel.

‘*Trade unions are suppressed by some governments to make it more congenial for transnational corporations to invest. The un- holy alliance between the trans- national corporations and reac- tionary governments completely ignores international labor stan- dards laid down in the Inter- national ‘Labor Organization’s Conventions.

‘*As a consequence of the shar- pening capitalist crisis, millions are unemployed and denied the right to work.

“‘Workers are agitating to safe- guard their jobs, against the re-

senior safety representatives from industry on March 10, how- ever, he called, not for more workers’ control over safety con- ditions, but for greater senior management involvement in safe- ty. He stressed that while atten- tion is often focused on prevent- ing injuries, » “‘significant economic losses”’ are also caused by accidents.

‘*Bill Diachuk knows perfectly _

well that senior management is

of action for

not interested in workers’ lives: only in profits,” charged Kim f Cariou, Edmonton organizer ° the Communist Party. “Whats — happening in the resource indus — try is murder for money, includ- ing at Grande Cache. The enti labor movement in Albert@ should fight to save the | Mines Safety Act’s provisions: and to see that bosses responsible for workers’ deaths face crime — charges.” ... , sith

— trade union rights

duction in real wages and for bet- ter working and living conditions. To weaken the trade unions and

_to prevent workers from organiz-

ing united action, new anti-trade union laws are being arbitrarily pushed through. Strikes are ban- ned. Workers are arrested and jailed for going on strike. Workers and trade unions are harassed through criminal prosecution and prolonged legal proceedings.

‘‘Workers are dismissed from jobs if they become trade union activists ... or criticize manage- ment policies. For instance, for daring to suggest a scheme for better management of the enter- prise, a shop steward was dis- missed in British Leyland. That is the bosses’ answer to the trade union demand for joint consul- tation and participation in management.

“All these repressive attacks increase as the crisis of the capitalist social system intensifies and attempts are made to resolve ‘the crisis through the greater exploitation of the working people, through militarization and preparation of war.

“The attacks on trade union rights and the ~suppression of trade unions are part of the anti- democratic and anti-social policies, being put forward solely to defend big business profits at the risk of the peace of the world

and the well-being of the working

people. “The struggle for trade union rights is therefore not only a ques-

tion for workers and trade unions ©

but involves all democratic and progressive forces. It is a struggle for a democratic alternative, real democratization of all aspects of economic and social life from democratization. of the enterprise management to popular participa- tion in policy-making at national level and, in the developing coun- tries, democratic participation in the development process in all its aspects. In many countries such a

broad front of struggle in the making.” ‘| - What the above appeal brings to mind, is the growing urgency of ; world-wide trade union solidarity” and unity in action. Such unity existed following the Secon — World War. But that unity waS- sabotaged and broken by the imperialist-inspired and directed cold war campaign that split the world trade union unity estab lished following the war with thé then active participation of bo the British and North America® trade union movements. Ba The result was McCarthyis®™ instead, with dire consequences — for labor in the United States,

is already

‘Canada and Great Britain. We

need to remind ourselves of this — on the eve of the Winnipes Convention of the Canadial Labor Congress. in May, and take steps to repair the damage done: It is not-yet too late, but the time 18 fast running out, unless * new policies of united labor action 08 ~ both the national and inter national scale are developed: policies that will once again unité world labor in struggle for peaces democracy and progress.

The importance of this cannot be overestimated if we recall cul- rent developments on the Cana-_ dian labor scene, such as the Nova Scotia ‘‘Michelin Bill”, the — attack on the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Ontario Pub- lic Service Employees Union, and the jail sentences imposed on the leaders of the two last named unions. —

To this we can add efforts to impose phoney “‘right-to-work”’ laws, the purpose of which is to — scuttle the union shop, and to- abolish union security provisions © won in the 1945 Ford strike settlement in Windsor, Ont., — through the now well-known Rand Formula for dues checkoff etc. The list is endless but enough — said.