S ate of shocking accounts of bureaucratic
Pes, atment and a devastating indictment of the
Sere € grain industry highlighted the first round of
view of the Saskatchewan Workers’ Com-

Nsation Act in Regina last month. The review of

yempensation Board must be held every four
Alben tt will continue in Saskatoon and Prince
“dert in April.
Aan of the most dramatic presentations came
es whose lives were shattered, first
a ices. § €job injuries, then by inhuman WCB prac-
4 ork ed told of being forced to seek full-time
B Were €spite bad back injuries; others said they
treated “‘like criminals’’ and ordered to pay
jobs compensation benefits after finding part-time
¥ as was plenty of evidence for the claim
Piet skatchewan Injured Workers Association
a tive Ernie Jelinski that the Board: is
uerstaffed and unsympathetic.
Border 00se Jaw woman described how she was
a er oo to go to Regina for physiotherapy, despite
ire Octor’s warning that travel could endanger her
énancy — a warning which came true with
Sic results when she suffered a miscarriage.
if eg unions made strong presentations cal-
8 hs improvements in the Act, such as an end to

fhe

t ; ered Es
oe deeming’? system, better rehabilitation,
ES ger rights to re-employment for injured work-

= ee higher compensation rates. The Sask-
ae ask wan Federation of Labor, Fire Fighters, the
Be atchewan Government Employees Union,
| <t¢'Grain Services Union were sharply critical in
ir briefs,
* eal veral employer organizations, for their part,
PS; ie for changes which observers say would seri-
atch. damage the system as it stands. The Sask-
Ps; €wan Chamber of Commerce, for example,
__. S8ested shifting the responsibility for reporting
tries onto employees. The Chamber also said
ego mployers should be able to appeal Board
» ..“\Slons and be given access to confidential medi-
Woulg mation about claimants. Such changes
Clearly. undermine the basis of workers
Mpensation, which was established to spare ex-
h Bee lawsuits for individual employers, and to
_ **Svide a minimal fairness to injured workers.

From Regina

Act and the operations of the Workers |

_ Grain industry defies Saf

Kimball Cariou

The most comprehensive brief was given by Bill
Gilbey, a former official of the Grain Services
Union. His demand for a full enquiry into the use of:
“lifestyle” in determining Board decisions won
support from several major unions.

Gilbey, a leading figure on the left of the labor
movement in Saskatchewan, gave forceful backing
to the arguments presented in other briefs. He
focussed on the record of the grain industry.

As Gilbey related, it took grain workers and their
unions over 20 years, until the early 1970s, to win
recognition that grain dust is a health hazard. Dur-
ing the ’70s, at least 16 different studies found that
‘exposure to grain dust caused lung damage and
permanently impaired the health of the, grain
worker so that he was forced to leave that
employment”’, and often became unable to do any
work.

‘Life style’ Considerations

Around 25 per cent of claimants in Saskatche-
wan who have won compensation for “‘grain-
handlers disease’ have never smoked. Many
others smoked very little, or had long since quit.
Yet the grain companies, noted Gilbey, have ar-
gued that the worker’s “‘lifestyle’’, especially
smoking habits, is a major factor in the disease.

In 1977 the Board voted to fund a research pro-

‘ject into the links between grain dust, smoking, and

grainhandlers disease — but that study has never
been done. Instead, the Board has accepted the
industry’s argument that 50 per cent of lung dam-
age is caused by smoking, thereby allowing the
companies to raid the ‘‘second injury”’ fund. It also
slashed the assessment rates for grain companies,
helping them to add to their already substantial
profits. (The U.S. grain multinational Cargill took
in $257-million profits in fiscal 1985; the Sas-
katchewan Wheat Pool reported $66-million profits
for 1984 which does not include patronage di-
vidends paid to members.)

ety ruling

_ The practice continues despite accumulating
evidence that smoking has little to do with grain-
handlers disease. Gilbey quoted from a recent
major study by two B.C. doctors, who in fact found
that ‘‘the effect of grain dust exposure on lung
function was particularly evident among
non-smokers’’. They suggest that in this case,
non-smokers may be in more danger than smokers.

Violation of Orders

Meanwhile, all eight companies in the industry
continue to violate an explicit order from Labor
Canada to install modern grain dust removers in all
primary elevators by October 1981. Former Lib-
eral labor minister Charles Caccia accused the
companies of dragging their feet in a 1983 speech.
He stated that only some two-thirds of elevators
had such ventilation, and that the companies were

not complying with over 80 per cent of Labor —
Canada directives on their health and safety viola- —

tions. The situation exists to the prepsent day, as
the grain companies simply refuse to follow regula-
tions, preferring to stall and seek exemptions until
elevators are shut down. As Gilbey pointed out,
this means that ‘‘a large number of grain workers
will have been exposed to lung-damaging grain

dust for nine years longer than Labor Canada’s -

regulations allowed”’.

Gilbey also condemned another practice of the
Board, which allows the grain industry employers
to raid the ‘second injury” fund of the system to
cover compensation costs for injured grain work-
ers.

The ‘‘second-injury’’ fund was never meant to
be used in this way, he pointed out — it is meant to
cover costs of claimants who become re-injured,
and as a reserve in case of a major industrial catas-
trophe. The present practice, he said, is in fact a
way of using the funds deducted from employers in
other industries to subsidize the grain industry.

It remains to be seen which political party will be

in office in Saskatchewan after this year’s pro- —
vincial election, but it is clear halfway through the —~

current review that there is strong pressure for a
Compensation Act and a Board more closely
geared to the needs of working people, not corpo-
rate interests.

em RRO EEE RRR ON RETRO OER E A EE ARRAS UN SAE

Oped tuction workers in Alberta had
ildin 86 would bring a new surge in
in vem the year opened the oil and
fthe he was proposing development
“of aVy oil deposits near Cold Lake,
Nds Edmonton, to expand the tar
Mu Production facilities at Fort
Rive, .2Y- The Shell plant in the Peace
a area Was also under review. Now
ey PrOjects have been put on hold.
ti eo and apartment construction,
“Men, ,-Dtly showing signs of improve-
ae Stopped and office vacancy
litte 20 per cent means there will be
te,’ @hy, new construction in that

i, World oil prices and a sharp de-
Ves eed available for new projects
4 86 showing every sign of being
kt ema than last year. A projected
keveig nN oil and gas exploration and
Ra pment from $8-billion in 1985 to
ie this year is an indication of
Ne deep the crisis is expected to go.
Ome Ployment and welfare have be-
StrycyPetmanent fixtures for many con-
Wore. 0! Workers. To make matters
Maggi Contractors are making full use of
a Unemployment in the industry
Nona, ltrarily end contracts and form
p ofits Spinoffs to slash wages and
With joy, Many construction workers
fe. have seen wages and benefits
ten $19 to $25 an hour in 1984 to as
$8 today.
‘struction Workers Retreat

ch 1 Financial Post, in an ar-
adlined ‘‘Construction work-

From
Edmonton

David Wallis

ers lead labor’s retreat’’, claimed that
‘roughly 90 per cent of construction in
the province is now done at non-union
rates’’. The same article boasted that
‘industry leaders, aided by favorable
labor board rulings, simply proceeded as
though the contracts did not exist.”

The new federal government’s $75-
million Canada Place, in Edmonton, has
gone primarily non union. IBEW and the
plumbers and pipefitters union have
signed job site agreements for $13 per
hour — way below the union rates. Non
union carpenters on the project report
wages of $12 per hour with only a
selected few getting benefits. This is a
sharp cut from the 1982-84 agreement of
$18.50 plus benefits.

_Fair Wage Clause

Construction unions in Alberta have
appealed to the federal Tory Govern-
ment for a fair wages clause on the pro-
ject. Bill Marlow, President of the Build-
ing Trades Council, recalled that before
the 1984 election Brian Mulroney had
promised fair wages on government jobs.
But the Tories are claiming that this is not
a federal project as far as they are con-

cerned, claiming it’s being privately de-
veloped. This is stretching the point, for
under the ‘rental agreement’ the Federal
Government will own the building in 25
years after the developers have skimmed
off a good profit.

The province’s pro-big business labor
legislation makes an organizing drive at
Canada Place difficult. Some workers
have expressed the opinion that Ellis

_ Don, the general contractor, is keeping

the number of pro-union workers on this

project at a minimum. The situation is

aggravated by a long standing reluctance
among construction unions to cooperate
and organize against their common
enemy.

But contractors still want more from
construction workers through cuts in
wages, travel allowance, travel time,
pensions and other concessions. They
have seen: the U.S. example where
workers on out of town projects not only
pay their way to the job site but take
along their own trailers for ac-
commodation.

Bill Marlow is predicting a further as-
sault on construction workers if the To-

ries win the next Alberta election. He |

Concessions pressed on construction workers

expects legislation to facilitate the move
towards multi-skill workers that would
cut the number of trades down to 5 or 6.
The large petro chemical and processing
plants and construction companies are
pushing the government to go multi-skill.
The originator of this scheme is Al Olson
of Olson Construction. Olson served as

Don Getty’s campaign manager during

his successful bid for the Tory leadership
last summer.

Memberships Shrink

Clearly the attack on the organized
construction unions is far from over in
Alberta. The declining strength of the
construciton unions can be seen through
their shrinking membership. The Car-
penters local in Edmonton, a fact typical
across the trades, has seen their
membership drop from 6,000 in 1984 to:

under 2,500 today. Of these only 600 —
-have their union dues checked off.

Waiting for the Tories to pass fair

wages legislation or to provide jobs will

be a long time coming. The answer will

only be found through a united campaign

by the buidling trades, backed by all

labor, to organize the unorganized and to —

mount a massive campaign to force the
governments to provide jobs through
new construction. Just as Alberta’s

nurses have shown their determination _

to defy no strike legislation’so can con-
struction workers defeat anti-union legis-

lation affecting them. With militant
leadership they can get around the labor

act and organize.

"PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 16, 1986 67

ae tastiest Aso