Canadian national trade union body CLC-CTC has published a comprehensive nationwide listing of activities planned to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day. More
Tag Archives: Canada
Canada: USW District 3 Day of Mourning Telephone Town Hall | USW Canada
Every April 28, Steelworkers gather in communities across Canada to mark the National Day of Mourning for workers killed and injured on the job. It’s one of the most important events in the year as we remember those we’ve lost and recommit ourselves to fighting for the health and safety of every worker.
Once again, due to COVID-19, we are unable to gather, but it is important that we still connect. That’s why you are invited to mark the Day of Mourning by joining our Telephone Town Hall for Steelworkers on April 28.
Let’s come together on the phone to mourn for the dead and fight for the living.
Join our Day of Mourning Telephone Town Hall for District 3 members on Wednesday, April 28 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific.
If the union has your current phone number on file, you will receive a recorded notice one day before the telephone town hall. If you do not receive the call, please fill out the registration form below. On the day of the event, all you have to do is answer the phone when we call you on the evening of Wednesday, April 28. You simply stay on the line to join the telephone town hall.
https://www.usw.ca/events/d3-dom-teleth
Canada: A message from CUPE National Officers on the Day of Mourning
A message from the National Officers on the Day of Mourning
On April 28, the National Day of Mourning for Workers Killed or Injured on the Job, we remember all the workers we have lost, and we vow to keep fighting for safe and healthy workplaces for everyone.
Watch a message from CUPE’s National Officers:
Every year in Canada, around 1,000 workers lose their lives on the job. Their deaths are preventable and should not happen. And each one is a tragedy.
Since the last Day of Mourning, CUPE has lost 14 members to workplace-related fatalities. 10 of these deaths were due to COVID-19.
“Our love and solidarity go out to the families, friends, and co-workers of those we have lost,” said CUPE National President Mark Hancock. “A healthy and safe workplace is the right of each and every worker under the sun, and this is why we fight for the living.”
This is never an easy day. It is especially difficult this year because of the pandemic.
“We want to express our solidarity and support for all workers who are continuing to offer essential public services, despite the risks to their health and to that of their families,” said CUPE National Secretary-Treasurer Charles Fleury. “More than ever, this crisis highlights the need for us to stand together for safe working conditions.”
This April 28, and every day, CUPE will continue to fight – for better legislation, for better education, and for the vital personal protective equipment our members need.
Get up to date news and information
https://cupe.ca/message-national-officers-day-mourning
Canada: Cargill Covid-19 infections a 21st-Century Version of the Westray Explosion – USW Canada
Just a few weeks before the 28th anniversary of the Westray Mine explosion that killed 26 workers in the early hours of May 9, 1992, the United Steelworkers union (USW) says calls for a criminal investigation into the death and infection of workers at the Cargill meat processing plant in High River, Alta., are justified.
“The events leading up to the death of a worker who died at Cargill this month are eerily similar to those leading up to the explosion of the Westray mine 28 years ago,” said USW Western Canada Director Steve Hunt.
“An inspector, despite recommended social distancing and safety warnings in the COVID-19 pandemic, declared the workplace safe not long before one worker died and hundreds more tested positive. At the Westray Mine in 1992, inspectors declared the mine safe, despite clear violations of safety protocols and a buildup of methane-producing coal dust.”
Hunt said the Cargill situation is as predictable as the mine explosion, with workers working in close proximity and little or no protective gear.
At the Westray Coal Mine in Pictou County, N.S, in 1992 the USW was in the process of organizing workers, whose primary concern was the safety of the mine.
“Workers were signing union cards because they knew the company was negligent and they feared for their lives,” Hunt said.
Hunt testified at the subsequent inquiry undertaken by Justice Peter Richard, whose conclusion was that the disaster was the result “of incompetence, of mismanagement, of bureaucratic bungling, of deceit, of ruthlessness, of cover-up, of apathy, of expediency, and of cynical indifference.”
The Inquiry ultimately led to the 2003 unanimous passage in the House of Commons of amendments to the Criminal Code. Called the Westray Law, the amendments are intended to hold corporations and their directors and executives criminally accountable for workplace death and injury. The USW has campaigned for many years for better enforcement of the Westray Law.
“Too often employers plead guilty to negligence in workplace death or injury in exchange for a fine. Killing workers should never be just a cost of doing business. Cargill is no exception. This must be given a full investigation and, if warranted, result in criminal charges.”
Hunt said in 2020, deadly infection caused by COVID-19 is as much of a workplace hazard as any so-called “accident” involving heavy equipment, poor safety protocols or control.
“We are now living in an era with added risk to workers,” he said. “The Westray Law must apply in this case, and be investigated through a criminal lens.”
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For further information:
Stephen Hunt, 604-816-2554, shunt@usw.ca
Canada: Day of Mourning action call by CUPE
National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job
On April 28, the National Day of Mourning for Workers Killed or Injured on the Job, we remember all the workers we have lost. On this day, CUPE also joins with the Canadian Labour Congress and other unions around the county to demand that all governments enforce the laws, including Westray provisions in the Criminal Code and occupational health and safety laws.
We urge CUPE members to observe a moment of silence and lower flags to half-mast on Tuesday, April 28. Show your support by prominently displaying our poster at your workplace.
Every day in Canada, workers lose their lives on the job. Their deaths are preventable and should not happen. It boggles the mind that we lose almost 1000 workers every year.
In 2017, the most recent year that full statistics are available, the officially recorded number of workplace fatalities rose to at least 951. As with every year, we say “at least” because we, in the labour movement, have always known that the number is higher.
Last year, a new report called Work-Related Death in Canada has attempted to quantify the number of workers lost who are usually uncounted. These are people who are not in the compensation system, or are self-employed, or work “off the grid” in precarious work. Or they are considered to have had a “natural” death, or were commuting to and from work, or who died from an occupational disease or cancer that was never related back to their working conditions.
If we include all the uncounted, the research suggests that there may be 10-13 times as many people dying because of work in Canada than we officially accept in our compensation system. But while there may be no insurance payment for those left behind, their loved ones are gone just the same.
We implore governments and employers to invest in prevention, including strong health and safety committees. We call for a robust enforcement regime to enhance prevention through pro-active inspections, and to punish those employers who refuse to fulfill their duty to ensure a safe workplace. We also call on the federal government to reinstate the definition of danger that existed in the Canada Labour Code before Stephen Harper weakened it without consultation in 2014.
Day of Mourning flag **New Design!**
https://cupe.ca/event/day-mourning
Canada: Janitors’ union ‘invisible to essential’ campaign
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2 in Canada has launched an ‘Invisible to Essential’ campaign, calling on property owners, managers and cleaning contractors to work together to make immediate improvements to cleaner’s working conditions. SEIU Local 2 represents more than 10,000 janitors across Canada.
The campaign demands include an immediate Can$2 per hour raise; keeping cleaners employed during the crisis; and ensuring all cleaners are working safely with the required training and Personal Protect Equipment (PPE).
Local 2 represents janitors in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.
More information can be accessed at: www.justiceforjanitors.ca/campaigns/from-invisible-to-essential/SEIU
Canada: This national Day of Mourning, Tell your story – CLC
April 28th marks the National Day of Mourning, to recognise the hundreds of workers who lose their lives or have their lives changed forever because of something that happened in their workplace.
The vigils we hold this year to commemorate these workers will be virtual – yet another way COVID-19 has changed the way we live and work.
Tell your story and what this day means to you right now.
https://canadianlabour.ca/this-national-day-of-mourning-tell-your-story/
Canada: Paper and related workers start year long safety campaign on 28 April
Global unions target safety at work in pulp, paper, graphical and packaging in a year of action
CONTACT:
Leeann Foster, lfoster@usw.org, 412-225-5964
Jess Kamm Broomell, jkamm@usw.org, 412-562-2444
Workers in the pulp, paper, graphical and packaging sectors, represented globally by IndustriALL Global Union and UNI, are using this 2019 Workers Memorial Day to kick off a yearlong campaign around the three fundamental worker rights needed to make work safe: (1) The Right to Know – workers must know the hazards and risks in their workplace; (2) The Right to Act (commonly known as the Right to Refuse Unsafe Work Without Punishment); and (3) the Right to Participate in the programs and structures that manage safety in the workplace. Each of these Rights will be highlighted with action by workers across the global pulp, paper, graphical and packaging sectors.
May and June 2019 will focus on a Worker’s Right to Know. Right-to-Know laws typically focus on a worker’s right to know the hazardous substances and dangerous chemicals they work with, but workers require information on so much more that could endanger them at work. Workers require:
- Information on all workplace hazard information, including dangerous chemicals and materials but also hazardous tools, equipment, work processes and the way work is organized;
- An accurate evaluation of hazards. Where gaps in knowledge exist they should be filled;
- Hazard and risk assessment done with workers participation. The only people with the moral authority to assess a risk are those who must face it;
- This means industrial hygiene surveys belong to workers. Toxicology studies belong to workers. Ergonomic surveys belong to workers.
“We invite the global pulp, paper and packaging sectors to work with workers and their representatives to fully facilitate the right to know and, by doing so, build safer and healthier workplaces, “ said Joaquina Rodriguez, president of UNI Graphical and Packaging.
“All health and safety standards exist because of trade union action and we invite the pulp, paper, graphical and packaging industries to share information, build safety programs and provide a safeguarding course for their workers, “ said Leeann Foster, IndustriALL Pulp and Paper Working Group Co-Chair and Assistant to the International President at the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (USW).
Similar international mobilizations will be conducted in September/October 2019 around the Right to Act and focusing March/April 2020 on the Right to Participate, culminating with Workers Memorial Day 2020.
Workers Memorial Day, observed by unions across the globe on April 28 of each year, is dedicated to remembering those who have suffered and died on the job and to renew the struggle for safe jobs. Worldwide, more than 380,000 workers die tragically at work each year, and another 2.4 million die from work-related illness.
The pulp, paper, graphical and packaging sectors are extremely dangerous, with a number of fatalities and even more life-altering injuries occurring across the globe annually. Transparency with workers on information relating to their health and safety and employer engagement with workers and their unions is fundamental to address loss of life and limb in the industry.
The two international unions, IndustriALL Global Union and UNI, bring together unions on all continents across these four industries. See more on the two global union websites: www.industriall-union.org and www.uniglobalunion.org.
Canada: 951 fatalities in Canada in one year – HEU
Every worker should be able to return home, at the end of the shift, healthy and safe.
But the most recent statistics from the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada show that in 2017, there were 951 workplace fatalities in Canada, 46 more than the previous year.
And among these deaths, 23 were young workers aged 15-24.
In addition to the fatalities, there were 251,508 accepted claims for lost time due to a work-related injury or disease, including 31,441 claims from young workers. These statistics only include what’s reported and accepted by the compensation boards, and doesn’t reflect the total number of injuries that go unreported.
But statistics don’t tell the whole story. Loved ones, family members, friends and co-workers are also directly affected.
Health care workers now have the highest injury rate of any sector in the province. And in long-term care, the injury rate is four times higher than the provincial average.
Across the health system, workers are rushed off their feet – coping with extreme workloads, short-staffing and hospitals that are routinely admitting more patients than they are designed to accommodate.
All this puts health care workers at a heightened risk for injury and illness. That’s why safer, healthier workplaces are a top priority in all unionized work sectors.
But developing and enforcing health and safety programs in a health care system fragmented by privatization and reorganization is an ongoing challenge.
In the recent round of bargaining, the Facilities Bargaining Association, led by HEU, negotiated new language to tackle the unacceptable high injury rates that deal directly with workload, violence, and the ability of OH&S stewards to enforce members’ rights to safe workplaces.
The FBA secured $8.5 million to establish a new Provincial Occupational Health and Safety agency that will benefit all health care workers. And they bargained measures to address workload, establish regional workload committees, strengthen OH&S representation, fund OH&S stewards to work on pilot projects focused on injury prevention, create an MSI prevention project, and more.
As we mark this year’s National Day of Mourning, we renew our commitment to hold all employers accountable for ensuring safe and healthy workplaces, and strengthen our resolve to use every tool we have to make health care a safer, healthier work place for all our members.
To learn more about Day of Mourning events in your community, check with your local labour council or visit the Day of Mourning BC website.
Canada: Governments are “largely ignoring” the Westray safety law – IAM
April 28 is a Day of Mourning for thousands of Canadian workers killed or injured on the job each year, or who die from work-related diseases. On this day, we mourn, but it is also a time to insist that all levels of government do more to enforce existing health and safety laws and vigorously prosecute violations when a worker is killed or seriously injured.The labour movement worked for years to get changes to the Criminal Code so that corporations who kill are held criminally liable. This amended law, often called the Westray law, holds employers accountable if they fail to take steps to protect the lives of their employees.
Unfortunately that law is largely being ignored by governments. There have been only a handful of prosecutions for criminal negligence and only one conviction.
It is time for fair and equal treatment before the law for workplace injuries and deaths. We have made progress protecting workers’ health and safety, but together we have to keep fighting for safer workplaces for everyone.