e At a meeting of the committee at the Somass operation are, l. to r. the IWA's Jack McLeman, union members Gary Thompson and Dave Bryant along with MB's George Brubaker and Jim Ritchie.

Port Alberni members activate pilot project at MacBlo’s Somass cedar mill

After all the great statements of in- tentions to help disabled workers out have been said, then comes the real work of actually putting something to- gether that makes sense and works. The testing ground for reintegration disabled workers is now designated as the MacMillan Bloedel Somass cedar mill in Port Alberni.

At Somass the IWA and the compa- ny have signed an agreement to put a new pilot project into place which will hopefully come up with some con- crete examples of how the disabled can be helped. Even though there is a lot of goodwill shown early by both sides, the program will not be easy to implement.

Both management and the union will have to work hard together to see that the program produces results and that it can serve as a model for other union operations. A similar agreement has been reached in principle be- tween MacMillan Bloedel and the Chemical, Energy, and Paperworkers union at the company’s Powell River

Government priority

Continued from previous page

with disability policy issues. The strat- egy will include ministerial resposibil- ity for disability issues, a regional resource group of people with disabil- ities based in communities, and an in- ter-ministry committee on disability issues.

The model was brought forward by the Premier’s Advisory Council for Person's with Disabilities.

The new office, expected to open its doors in September, will operate for 18 months as a pilot project to per- mit the government a chance to coor- dinate policies across ministries.

When asked as to whether or not the B.C. provincial government is looking at legislative measures to push employers to hire the disabled Miller responded.

“I am not actively looking at legisla- tion at this point in time,” he said. But he did not rule out legislation in the long run if efforts to reintegrate the disabled into the workplace go nowhere.

The Minister said that actions on disabled issues have to involve the disabled themselves and that trade unions and employers have to be part of the solution as well.

Miller says he is encouraged by the efforts of the unions in the forest sec- tor and their early pilot projects to get disabled workers back on the job.

“It’s very clear that right now the pace-setter (for reintegration) is in the private sector,” added Miller. To these ends his ministry has been assisting the parties in the forest industry get together to address the issue of fund- ing for the Disability Management In- stitute at the new North Island College campus in Port Alberni. In mid-April of this year Assistant Deputy Minister of Labour Roger Stanyer convened a key meeting of employer and union stakeholders from around the province to talk about contributions to the endow- ment fund.

But it’s not all up to the goodwill of those in the private sector. The gov- ernment has some employment equity initiatives underway. Employment and Investment Minister Glen Clark said that in major new construction projects the government is ensuring that the Crown corporations negotiate employment equity provisions into their collective agreements with pri- vate sector contractors. Those provi- sions will address equity issues for the disabled, women, natives, and other sectors of society which have tradi- tionally been discriminated against.

Clark is the Minister responsible for overseeing such Crown corporations as the B.C. Buildings Corporation, B.C. Hydro, B.C. Transit and B.C. Fer- ries. He said he intends to pursue some of the equity goals with applica- tion for funding through BC21.

On the upcoming Vancouver Island

¢ Glen Clark

Highway projects there will be em- ployment levels of over 2,000 persons per year for a period of six years. The government will ensure that a portion of those jobs go to persons with dis- abilities.

The Minister also said that the gov- ernment is aware of the disability Management Institute and supports its objectives, seeing its own Crown cor- porations as potential benefactors.

Clark says that very few of them have disability management programs in place and that this will be reviewed in the future.

pulp and paper complex.

The general agreement to set the program up was signed by IWA- CANADA First Vice-President Neil Menard and MB's Director of Labour Relations Manager Peter Lawrie in the fall of 1993. At Somass Division there was a specific agreement signed shortly thereafter to establish a Case Management model at the plant with active participation from management, and labour.

The Lumberworker recently visited the Disability Management committee at the Somass operation to see how things are going in the early stages of the program. As of press time the pro- gram is just getting up and running and so far enthusiasm for its objec- tives has been maintained. Sitting on the union’s part of the committee are sub-local chairman Jack McLeman, and IWA Local 1-85 members Gary Thompson and Dave Bryant. Sitting in for the company are personnel man- ager Jim Ritchie and saw filer fore- man George Brubaker.

At this early stage in the game the committee is trying to deal with a number of outstanding injury and dis- abled cases that have been outstand- ing even before the Case Management model was signed.

The key goal that the committee is trying to achieve is to establish a process that injured and disabled workers can go through to get back into the workforce.

“We want to make sure that work- ers know that there will be a system that can handle their cases, whether they are hurt or disabled on or off the job,” says Brother McLeman. “We re- alize that there are many obstacles to overcome in getting such a process in place and we are trying our best to do so.”

Many of the operations in Local 1- 85 have been looking for answers for injured workers within gradual return to work programs but none of them have looked towards a comprehensive program to reintegrate disabled work- ers.

The committee is considering just how it will implement a seniority sys- tem that will not violate the basic principle of seniority, yet be sensitive to the needs of the disabled and ac- tively create open positions for them to go to.

So far the committee is looking at three categories of disabled. They are the temporary disabled, the perma- nently partially disabled, and the total- ly disabled.

The committee is looking at creat- ing benchmark jobs that will fit the temporarily disabled and the perma- nently partially disabled. However since the forest industry is a heavy in- dustry with traditionally physically de- manding jobs, what may be a partial disability in other lighter industries may be a permanent disability in the forest industry.

“We are going to see that the jobs in the mill are evaluated and broken down and analyzed for the abilities that are required,” says Brother Bryant. “If there are accurate determi- nations made then those jobs will be- come benchmark jobs which we will be able to go by in the future. It is bet- ter for us to describe the job to a doc- tor than the doctor make a determination on his own because we know what the job is about. If a guy has to bend over frequently or slug heavy weights around then we will write that in the job description for the doctor's reference.”

Brother McLeman says that seniori- ty will still be a top priority in the op- eration. Somass now has two separate seniority lists, one for production, and one for maintenance. The committee is looking at developing a separate se- niority list for disabled workers. That will not, however, guarantee that a worker with a temporary or perma- nent partial disability will get a job.

“If divisional seniority won't let you in the plant gate then a disability won't let you in either,” says Brother

Continued on page ten

% ——— ————————————————_———_—————— LUMBERWORKER/JUNE, 1994/9