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Mourn for the dead, fight for the living

A youngster places a rose on the memorial to injured workers at North Bay city hall. Photo by Phil Novak, BayToday.ca.

A youngster places a rose on the memorial to injured workers at North Bay city hall. Photo by Phil Novak, BayToday.ca.

Here are excerpts from remarks made by Barry Doyle, a senior CUPE officer, during Thursday's Day of Mourning ceremony at North Bay city hall:

April 28th is extremely important because it recognizes that the deaths of these five brothers, and of all workers, are more than just statistics to be quoted. Each death is not only a tragedy for their families; it is a tragedy for their co-workers and for all of society.

As we stand here today, in much the same way that workers in over 100 countries around the world are doing, we are clearly saying that we collectively feel a sense of tragedy and loss.

We know that most workplace fatalities and occupational diseases are preventable. But the political, economic, and moral will must be there on the part of governments and employers to prevent workers from dying and getting sick from their jobs.

We know that the members listed on the Day of Mourning plaque in Ottawa and killed workers in North Bay did not die as a result of fate. Most died because of the lack of enforcement of laws that were created to protect them.

In addition to the three workers who die from their work every day in Canada, we estimate that at least a dozen Canadian workers die each day from occupational disease as well.

They didn't die by coincidence or as a result of their lifestyle, but from deadly agents in their workplaces. Workers who die from occupational disease suffer extreme pain and distress: it is a harrowing end to a life sacrificed by the ignorance and inaction of some employers. To add to the injury, most of their deaths are unrecognized by the workers' compensation systems across Canada.

There are many, many workers we must remember today, and every day. We must remember the high number of young and new workers who are injured and killed at a much higher rate than mature workers.

Not because they are reckless, but because some schools do not teach them about the hazards they will face in the workforce and their legal right to be kept safe in a workplace. Also, some employers don't train their new workers at all when it comes to health and safety.

We must remember the countless workers who die as a result of exposure to a deadly assortment of cancer causing agents that needlessly circulate throughout our workplaces.

We must remember women workers whose health problems go unrecognized because they are often ignored and not acknowledged by health studies and biased viewpoints of the powers that be.

And we must remember the working wounded who are forced to continue to work because they are unable to get compensation to which they are entitled.

Today offers us an opportunity to reaffirm our solidarity and commitment to health and safety. It offers us the chance to publicly state that no injured, sick or killed worker can go unrecognized. Today offers us a chance to never forget our health and safety history, our struggles, our rights as workers, and the things we have to change in order to make our workplaces safer.

On that note of change I want to address the growing movement to change our joint health and safety committees. CUPE has focused a lot of its health and safety work on joint health and safety committees in recent years. There have been successes in injury, disease, and fatality prevention but challenges remain.

I believe CUPE members need to question and resist the friendly, co-operative approach many employers promote at the joint committee.

Despite our health and safety laws, our rights and our joint committees, the harm to workers continues in Canadian workplaces. Let us never forget the utter contempt for workers that some employers have.

Let us never forget the morning of May 9, 1992 when an explosion at the Westray Coal Mine in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, killed 26 miners. ;.

Two weeks before the explosion, Westray Mines was awarded the John T. Ryan Safety Award by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum.

However, during the weeks leading up to the explosion there were 56 inspection reports and orders, citing serious violations like rock falls, cave-ins, high levels of methane gas and coal dust, and dangerous work practices such as blasting by unqualified personnel.

At no point was there any enforcement. Instead, the Nova Scotia Department of Labour relied on courteous requests and consultations and accepted the company's assurances that the safety of workers was being looked after.

Workers were being told the same thing and also being told to remain calm because everything was okay according to Westray Mines. Obviously, it wasn't okay. What happened at Westray happens to varying degrees throughout Canadian workplaces.

I will remind you that no corporate officers, managers, or supervisors from Westray Mines were brought before the courts. What we got, after the fact, from the Westray tragedy was Bill C-45, an amendment to the Criminal Code that now holds corporate officers criminally liable for safety negligence in the workplace.

In Canada one work-related injury occurs every seven seconds; one worker is killed
every two hours of each working day. This results in just over 1,000 deaths per year. But this doesn’t include the numbers of deaths caused by exposure to toxic substances in the workplace. Occupational health doctors estimate that between 3,000 and 6,000 Canadians die from occupational diseases every year.

To be blunt, Canada's safety record is poor - even the United States does a better job than Canada.

We have employers who neglect safety training and safety equipment, who won't eliminate hazards and fail to inform workers of the harmful effects of chemicals. It is rare for any level of government to intervene to protect workers from harm in a sustained and meaningful way.

Instead we have entered into the era of voluntary compliance, which really means that employers can do whatever they want and only have to answer after a worker is injured, made sick or killed. This is not prevention, it's negligence with intent to harm workers.

Our experience over the last 25 years shows that joint health and safety committees have not significantly increased workers' influence over health and safety decisions.

So part of the April 28th message should be about the rejuvenation of joint committees in order to prevent injuries, disease and fatalities.

We need to establish union health and safety committees consisting of safety reps that have close links and accountability to the Local union executive. Health and safety problems should be treated like any other issue and management can't delay several months until the next joint committee meeting to act on workers' concerns.

A union committee should meet regularly and maintain communication with the membership. And we need to use our collectively strength to build and maintain healthy workplaces. The union movement was born out of health and safety concerns -let's bring the movement back home.

Let's mourn for the dead and keep on fighting for the living."