EBLE LABOR - Canadian and Soviet trade unionists got a glimpse of the two countries’ approach to occupational health and job safety — and the contrast between the role of the trade union movement — ata first-ever international symposium on occupational health and safety Dec. 11. Representatives of 12 unions, including the Telecommunications Workers, B.C. Nurses Union, Carpenters and United Transportation Union as well as two labor councils and the B.C. Building Trades Council sat down with a 16-member Soviet delegation which included a sur- geon, city medical director and several trade union leaders, all of them involved in occupational health and safety. In Vancouver for two days as part of a two-week, cross-Canada tour, the group has also met with administrators at the B.C. Institute of Technology, toured St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospi- tal’s burn unit and met with representa- tives of the B.C. Nurses Union. . ; The symposium was organized by the trade union committee of the Canada- dob safety focus for Soviet, Canadian unionists USSR Association and: marked the first © exchange on occupational health and safety between Canadian and Soviet trade unionists. A similar meeting was also held in Toronto when the group visited that ~ cit ot was a really useful meeting — and not just because we were able to compare notes on safety, but because were also got to talk directly to Russian unionists and got a little more understanding of each other,” said TWU safety director Norton Youngs, who also echoed comments made recently by the mayor of Quesnel that one- to-one meetings between Soviets and Canadians would help promote peace. Although the four-hour meeting, hosted by the TWU, did not allow time for detailed exchanges, Youngs said, unionists - did examine safety problems among tele- phone and construction workers. Youngs, together will Bill Denault, director of the joint construction industry-Building Trades safety council, outlined the problems of the two industries, asking the Soviets to explain how the problems are confronted in their country. Those cited included safety hazards related to video display terminals (VDTs), industrial disease from asbestos exposure Several Soviet, Canadian unionists pose for photo after symposium. and falls, a major cause of injuries and deaths in heavy construction. “Our inside workers have a lot of con- cern about VDTs;’said Youngs, adding that there is still suspicion that the devices may emit extra-low frequency radiation which may alter body tissue. ELF radia- tion has been considered as a factor in the incidents of birth defects and miscarriages among pregnant VDT workers. Youngs cited VDTs as an example of the different approaches in the two coun- tries on occupational health problems. “They told us that they’re also concerned about the effects. but because they don’t have all the answers yet, they don’t allow pregnant women to work on VDTs. “They’re saying that they still don’t have control of the problem, but in the short term, the objective is to protect the worker.” In an interview, Valeri Kukharenko, health and safety representative of the All- Union’ Congress of Trade Unions, emphasized that there are 100 research institutes around the USSR studying occupational health. Of those, seven are run by the ministry of health and are intended to set standards and another-six are run directly by the trade unions. “These standards — for example, the number of hours an operator may work on a machine, the acceptable levels of emissions — are set by these institutes after study and they apply throughout the Soviet Union.” Kukharenko and another delegation “a member, Vassily Grigoriev, secretary of the Engineering and Instrument-Making Workers Union, both emphasized that occupational health and safety is the primary responsibility for the entire trade union movement. But authority also goes with that responsibility and Soviet trade unions have the power to insist on full compliance with all safety regulations and the power to. shut down a job if it is deemed to be unsafe. “There are inspectors in every trade union which carry out inspections,” Gri- goriev said. “If they find that conditions are not safe, they tell management that conditions must either be improved or the job will be shut down.”” However he added most problems are worked out before that point and the emphasis is on prevention. “That’s something we’ve been fighting for a long time here,” Carpenters safety representative Colin Snell, one of the par- ticipants in the seminar, told the Tribune. ““We’ve maintained tha the union should have ‘functional authority’ on the job site — to shut down the job if the work is unsafe.” Both Soviets and Canadians were agreed in stressing the importance of trade union and other exchanges between the USSR and Canada and the need to extend them. They are useful in the field of occupa- tional health, they said, because they allow unions on both sides to take adyantage of research done by the other into job safety, health standards and accident prevention methods. “Td give a lot to be able to go over there and sit down and talk with their commun- ication workers about standards they have on hours of work, safety and other things — standards that we don’t have,” Youngs told the Tribune. “It would make it a lot easier for us then to go to the employer and say: “We want those standards, too. Never mind the polit- ics; those workers have more protection that we do and we want the same stand- ards.” ” Viatcheslav Prokofiev, a journalist with the trade union paper Trud, also emphas- ized the common concern for peace that had been demonstrated in the symposium. “We felt close to these people because our people are also very concerned about peace,” he said. “This meeting was a small drop in the creation of better understanding between the people of two social systems — and we need more such meetings.” TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN Season's Greetings to the labor movement Seasons Greetings: to all our members and a United Happy New Venr Fishermen to our affiliates and Allied their members and families vores Vancouver- New Westminster and District ae Building & Construction Trades Council ~ CEC MciNTOSH President SQUATAUALUUGESUOUSTOASUUUAAOUSEAOELONESECLOEEOAOEUOEOOSONEUUOEDONOI EOE UGE GORDON HEARD Secretary-Treasurer EUVATUNUUONQQQ0400U00Q4UU0GOHOQUUUOGEUUUUOOUUEUUUUUUUEEUUUEEELEEEEEETLLEEELEEET ELECT ELETHHHHETHTHHHHHTHHTTTHTHLTHTEETNE SUUUUNDUUUUUUUUUUENGUUUUUEGUUUUUEOQUUNEOOUAEUEGUOUUEGOOOEEOOOUOGEOUOTUEACOOEUOUULUEOUEELCREOUUUEEOOUEEUATOUUEUOOUOUREUOUU ES UAgUeeOuoUeeeHUa eT Merry Christmas Geason’ sg frectinns from Ife SVELUEVUUTUCUUEDUSUOEOAUAUUELUEVECUEEOCUACOACUEUE CECA EECA E OEE UO EASE Marine Workers and Boilermakers Industrial Union, Local#71 — and friends in the labor movement CANADIAN UNION OF PUBLIC EMPLO YEES LOCAL 389 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 19, 1984 e 5