Nanaimo, Duncan, & District

Labour Council 

P.O. Box 822 Nanaimo, BC, V9R 5N2
Ph:(250)760-0547 labour@telus.net
 

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Nanaimo, Duncan & District Labour Council 

Editorial


Persistence Pays Off

The persistence of the fight to ban the use of 15 passenger vans for the transportation of students especially is beginning to bear fruit. As you can see on our Health and Safety page, Transport Canada has finally agreed to review the safety of these dangerous vehicles. (Click here for details Health & Safety )

That the matter is finally being reviewed is due to the persistence and push from a number of people and they are to be highly commended. They include Yvon Godin, NDP MP from Acadie Bathurst, who brought a private members bill to ban the vans. Second, the family members of people killed in horrific accidents, including Ms. Isabelle Hains, the mother of one of the victims of the Boys in Red tragedy in Bathurst, as well as Ms. Stella Gurr, of Nanaimo who also lost her son in an accident involving a 15 passenger van. They include Bryan Murphy, a mechanic and a member of his local's safety committee who toured the province to inform school boards and parents of the dangers, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who funded his trip. The pressure of the BC Federation of Labour on provincial politicians to deal with farmworker safety is also noteworthy.

The fight is not over yet. Many politicians, including the BC Minister of Education are quite dismissive of the issue as is "our" other Nanaimo MP, James Lunney.We need to be vigilant to see that the review results in action, not more words, but we're over the first hurdle.

On April 28, Remember: 'Zero Accidents' Can be Hazardous to Your Health!

Editorial 26-04-2010 From iuf@iuf.org

Unions around the world will be mobilizing again on April 28, each in its way highlighting the 360,000 annual workplace fatalities and 2 million deaths from occupational diseases. On April 28, as on every other day, some 960,000 workers will be injured in an accident at work, and some 5,300 workers will die of work-related diseases.

Flanked by an army of consultants and propagandists, employers increasingly promote the lie that workers are themselves to blame for this epidemic of illness and death. 'Behavior based safety programs' initially developed by the US insurance industry, later refined by chemical giant DuPont ("Better Living through Chemistry"), seek to divert attention from the organization of work, its methods, materials and hierarchies of time and space, to locate the source of blame with the individual worker. According to this scheme, it is unsafe behavior, rather than workplace hazards, which are at the root of this daily carnage.

Responsibility is shifted from the hazard to the individual: "Safety is everyone's business". In this scheme, you don't need a comprehensive workplace health and safety program, and a union health and safety committee which empowers workers to identify hazards and work through their union to eliminate them. Accidents are individual lapses; what is important is to hit the coveted 'zero accident' target. Bonuses are linked to zero-accidents, and workers are encouraged to seek individual medical treatment outside occupational protection schemes. Employees can be medically screened to identify their alleged propensity for 'unsafe behavior'.

In the run up to this year's Day of Mourning, there have been, as always, a succession of fatal accidents claiming many victims in enterprises - factories, mines, construction sites - which vaunted their 'zero accident' credentials. Many of the 'zero accident' practices described above are in force at Nestlé workplaces, singly or in combination. In its latest "Creating Shared Value Report" Nestlé states that "safety is non-negotiable". As with so many other things, Nestlé has again got it wrong. Safety must be continuously negotiated, because new hazards arise with each change in the production process, and change is continuous. And negotiation requires strong unions, in each and every workplace.

You will find comprehensive global reporting, in the original languages, of union activity for April 28 on the website of the UK Hazards. As our contribution, the IUF this year would like to propose a global fight back against the insidious doctrine of 'behavior based safety'. Its time to stop blaming the victim and again assert the absolute primacy of employer responsibility for health and safety on the job. Zero accidents can kill.



For Profit healthcare

Hey Brother, Can You Lend a Hand?


Recent outbreaks of C difficile in our local hospital merely prove what the overworked and underpaid staff have been saying for years. VIHA underfunding and the constant pressure to drive labour contract prices to the bottom, without considering the effect on cleaning staff and hospital cleanliness, are causing dangerous conditions in our health facilities.

Rather than seeing how much time is required to adequately clean and sterilize hospital rooms and equipment, the workers are constantly being told they have to do more in less time. Not enough time, LESS THAN ENOUGH TIME. Workers with health problems from the harsh chemicals used for cleaning are described as malingerers and troublemakers.

And because their contracts are never secure - because this government ultimately wants to drive unions out of health care, workers, like those at the Lodge on 4th, Nanaimo Seniors Village, Cerwydden Place and Sunridge are constantly having to re-organize their workplaces, and then to renegotiate collective agreements all over again.

And the residents of those long term care homes suffer, too. Because the workers there are,  for many residents, the only family they know. And because every time a contract is flipped the residents will spend months getting to know the replacement staff and will de distressed the whole time and upset by changes.

And of course, this is just one of the many parts of British Columbia they are tearing apart. 15 years ago, this labour council had 3500 IWA members in it's ranks. Today we have 700. And most of the mills have been closed while unprocessed logs are barged to the US or sent to China.

In 2013, we must replace this government with one that honours contracts, respects working people and health care patients and will live up to - not tear down the BC Medical Care system.

It's hard to see all the terrible things being done to working families without being mad at the Liberals and the federal Conservatives. They have done an awful lot of harm. But the ones we should be maddest at are the ones who don't bother to become involved - either with our unions, our political party or our communities.

That's us, folks. If WE don't get up off our asses, and do everything we can to replace Liberal and Conservative politicians at the Provincial and Federal level, we deserve to get our asses kicked. Because the Liberals and Conservatives aren't stupid (evil, maybe) and they will take advantage of everything they can to stay in power for their friends.

So make up your minds. Do you just want to hunker down and hope the bad stuff will go away without you having to do anything about it? Well, it doesn't work that way. And every generation has to learn it for themselves. Everything we ever got from our parents and grandparents - the 8 hour day, unions, vacations, sick leave - all of it is in jeopardy. They'll take it away from us in a heartbeat if we let them. And the existing activists can't do it all by themselves.

Go to your union meeting. Volunteer as a job steward. Serve on your union's executive. Go to Rallies. Volunteer to help fighting the HST. Join a political party. Hell, do more than join - run for office. Call your neighbours and friends and tell them what you're doing.

But brother or sister, can you think about this soon? We need your help now and every day!

This editorial is entirely the product of Robert Smits.


For our first editorial, we brought you a letter read into Hansard by John Horgan, MLA during the debate on legislation to force paramedics to accept the last offer by the government. As John concluded, we don't think anyone has said it better.

Respect?


I'm having a great difficulty understanding how I and all other paramedics deserve the level of outright disrespect shown to us by our provincial government. I have been a paramedic for almost 30 years. I have an impeccable record, as do most other paramedics. 

The only thing we have ever asked for was the respect of our employer and to be treated in the fashion of the other emergency professions. If any one of our politicians or their family members was ever in need of our services, we would be there for them, as we would be for anyone else who called 911.

We have never withheld emergency services, and we never would. We have consciences, and we understand the role required of us. Why is it that this government feels the need to disrespect us by initiating legislation contrary to any established legal and moral practices? It makes no sense whatsoever. 

Yes, I have provided emergency service to many people over the years that have spit on me, tried to harm me with weapons, cursed, scratched, punched and multiple other attempts to harm me, but those people were sick or injured. They have an excuse. This government does not. 

At the end of the day, this legislation will go to the Supreme Court and be found to be illegal. This will take a number of years and cost the taxpayers of this province millions of dollars. This government has done the same thing to other labour groups in the past. They know full well that eventually they will lose in the court of law, but in the meantime, they will have fulfilled their obligation for the secure pension and will no longer be accountable. 

If my job description is to serve the people of this province in their time of need and I fulfil that obligation, why am I treated with such disrespect for doing that job? The government's obligation is to serve the people of this province, and yet they hold themselves above the law and do what they please with impunity. I don't understand. 

The people of this province should be outraged and ashamed to have put persons such as this in a position to abuse those of us who care for and treat the sick and injured.






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