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February 3, 2012 - No. 12 British Columbia Massive Explosion at Babine Forest Products• Massive
Explosion at Babine Forest Products - Charles Boylan British Columbia Massive Explosion at Babine Forest Products
Sympathy, solidarity and practical help was immediately expressed for the Burns Lake community and the Babine Forest Sawmill workers. TML joins workers and people across Canada in extending sympathy and solidarity with the community of Burns Lake, especially the families, coworkers and friends of the injured and deceased. Nineteen of 25 workers on shift were injured, some seriously, when the mill blew up and burned down. Two workers, Carl Charlie, a mill-worker of Carrier nationality and Robert Luggi Jr. of Wet'suwet'en nationality sadly perished in the explosion and fire. Burns Lake is a town of 3,600 people with two Native communities, Burns Lake Reserve and Babine Lake Nation. It is located 222 km west of Prince George on Highway 16. The Babine Forest Products Sawmill (BFP), the main economic base in Burns Lake, employs 250 workers directly plus many loggers, truck drivers and contractors.
Steve Zika, Chief Executive Officer of Hampton Affiliates, told a press conference in Burns Lake two days after the explosion, that his preference was to rebuild the mill but the company would have to assess various factors before committing to do so. Steve Hunt, director of United Steel Workers wood sector, said he hoped the mill would be re-opened given the good supply of wood fibre in the area. Frank Everitt, President, Local 1-424 USW, the union representing BFP workers, told TML Daily that his local is preoccupied now with helping the workers, their families and the community to cope with the tragedy. Many workers have suffered life-altering injuries and the families of the deceased are greatly suffering. He said he would comment later on the future of the mill and the union's role in investigating the cause of the tragedy. Premier Christy Clark attended a meeting of 300 people
in the community on January 22 promising to assist in the recovery but
made no concrete assurances that the mill will be re-opened. Another
meeting attended by 500 people was held on January 23 in Burns Lake. Burns Lake Band Chief Albert Gerow estimates about 30 per cent of the local economy is directly linked to the mill with numerous spinoff jobs. Gerow, who is also president of the Burns Lake Native Development Corp., expressed hope the mill would soon be rebuilt given the central importance it has to the regional economy. The mill workers and fire fighters deserve high praise for their heroic rescue efforts. The health care providers have been praised as well for their long hours of work in the emergency room. However, the provincial government has been sharply criticized because Burns Lake, like many small industrial communities in BC, has insufficient medical personnel and an inadequate hospital facility. The fire fighting infrastructure is also insufficient to cope with disasters like the mill explosion. Workers at the site reported smelling gas on the day shift but the cause of the explosion has yet to be determined. A Worksafe BC spokesperson said two sources for a gas explosion could be either propane gas used to fuel forklifts and other equipment, or natural gas used to fuel the drying kiln. The drying kiln was not damaged by the explosion and fire, but the main mill burned to the ground. The RCMP, Worksafe BC, the Coroner's Office and possibly the company and union will be involved in the investigations. There have been three major mill fires in BC in the last three and a half years. On May 27, 2008 the Canfor North Central Plywood mill in Prince George burned down with a loss of 260 jobs. Two workers suffered smoke inhalation injuries. January 25, 2011 the Mackenzie sawmill in Surrey burned down. There were no injuries but 142 jobs were lost. Neither mill has been rebuilt. The mill fire at Burns Lake is the most disastrous with 19 injured and two fatalities. (TML, Canadian Press) Concessions and Privatization Are Not Solutions!
To turn health care, education and care of the most vulnerable into targets of profit for the private monopolies is perverse in our modern socialized society. Publicly funded, comprehensive free health care, education for all, care of the most vulnerable, and a myriad government services including monitoring and regulating industry standards to protect the well-being of workers and the entire population are hallmarks of a modern society. By their very nature, these are services that humans provide other human beings to maintain our humanity and the coherence of our society. They are not luxuries but necessities for the health and well-being of workers, youth and seniors and for the general interests of society. The workers who provide the services should be treated with respect and dignity and given the modern right to determine their claims and working conditions in consultation with their peers. These modern services funded from the social wealth that is produced by the working class, including many workers in public services such as mass transit and city engineering, etc., form part of the claims that people have as a right as members of society and by virtue of being human. The fact that there is truth in the claim that governments are in difficulty providing these necessities does not justify the perverse logic that workers should both accept lower wages and more difficult working conditions so that public funds can be diverted to pay the rich. The working conditions and respect shown to public sector workers by paying them wages commensurate with the services they perform create the proper conditions in which the services are delivered to the people. Any difficulty in funding public services arises directly from governments gearing the state to serve the private monopolies and to the loss of manufacturing. Manufacturing in large measure generates the added-value necessary to fund public services. The shutting down of almost all the sawmills and pulp and paper mills on the coast, privatization of public services and other aspects of the economic crisis demand a new direction of the economy that favours the people and the provision of public services. A human-centred alternative and new direction for the economy would begin to solve the problem of properly funding public services. For public sector workers preparing to do battle in defence of their wages, working conditions and against the insatiable demand of the private monopolies for privatization and concessions, they must advance their own perspective for a human-centred alternative and that governments must defend public right not the claims of the monopolies. This includes the modern right that the services people require for their development and well-being must be provided within the public sector without profit sucked away by private monopolies. This includes the modern right that public sector workers receive pay, benefits and pensions commensurate with the work they perform and have working conditions that reflect the vital nature of the services they provide. Concessions and Privatization Are Not
Solutions! From "Net Zero" to "Cooperative Gains" --
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Hampton Affiliates of Portland, Oregon
purchased an 89
per cent share in 2006 and jointly owns the sawmill with the Burns Lake
Native Development Corporation that retains 11 per cent ownership.
Hampton Affiliates owns and operates eight sawmills in Oregon,
Washington and BC with a softwood manufacturing
capacity of over 2 billion board feet making it one of the largest
lumber manufacturers and marketers in North America.
According to the
capital-centred outlook of the
government and public sector employers, workers are merely a cost. With
the BC government determined to satisfy the ever-increasing demands on
public funds of the pharmaceutical, construction,
finance, "hospitality services," contract labour suppliers and other
private monopolies, workers and their wages and working conditions
become the target of cuts. Public funds are shifted from workers to pay
the rich in various schemes rather than have public services completely
not-for-profit and public by progressively
cutting out private monopoly profit altogether.
People will recall the
massive imbalance between the
pro-
and anti- HST television ads in the recent referendum. The anti-HST
forces managed to get their message out through organizing, reminding
people of the broken Liberal promises, and remaining focused despite
the fact that their advertising campaigns
were at a disadvantageous ratio of something like 15 to 1.| Liberal | NDP | Conservative | Green | ||
| Jan
25,
2012 |
Forum |
26 |
39 |
22 |
9 |
| Jan
4,
2012 |
Forum |
23 |
34 |
23 |
15 |
| Jan 4, 2012 | Oraclepoll |
25 |
44 |
16 |
15 |
| Nov
5,
2011
|
Angus-Reid |
31 |
40 |
18 |
8 |
| Oct
7,
2011 |
Ipsos-Reid |
38 |
45 |
12 |
6 |
(Source: BC2013.com)
Enbridge Pipeline Review --
Just Who Is Getting
Hijacked?
Protest in Prince Rupert against the Enbridge pipeline, May 12, 2011. (Friends of Wild Salmon)
Prime Minister Harper has recently made comments that the Enbridge pipeline review process is being "hijacked" by "outside interests." By this he means that certain environmental groups and other organizations have accepted funding from U.S. sources to oppose the pipeline.
Who Is an "Outside Interest"?
So let's first take a look at the Review panel that the Harper government has appointed to conduct hearings and make recommendations on whether the pipeline should go ahead. All three panel members just so happen to come from Alberta or Ontario. Given the risk to British Columbia because of its mountainous terrain and extensive waterways, and given the strong opposition in the province, why wasn't someone from BC put on that panel? Was there no qualified person from the four million people who live in British Columbia? One thing is for sure -- it is a telling omission on Harper's part.
What about the Enbridge Corporation itself that will be responsible for the hundreds of kilometres of pipeline across Northern BC? Six of the twelve Directors of Enbridge are based in the U.S., including David A. Artledge, who is a resident of Naples, Florida, and James J. Blanchard, who is a former governor of the U.S. state of Michigan. The other six directors live in either Alberta or Ontario. Many of these twelve directors, whether Canadian or American, are connected, in one way or another, to various foreign multinationals through former positions or current directorships.
What about major shareholders in Enbridge? According to the fund tracking site Stockzoa, the largest shareholder is "Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec." The next largest is FMR (Fidelity Investments) which is a U.S. financial services multinational. Third largest is Sumitomo Trust and Banking Company, which is tied to the giant Japanese conglomerate "Sumitomo Group." Fourth in size is Bank of America, one of the largest banks in the U.S.
According to Enbridge's own site, its publicly traded shares are 48 per cent "Canadian institutional" and 23 per cent foreign and U.S. But, 50 per cent of its directors are based in the U.S. According to Stephen Harper's own definition, doesn't that amount to "outside influence"?
Enbridge, despite the Calgary location of its head office, cannot really be classified as "Canadian" but rather "North American" or "global." It has extensive operations in various U.S. states, including Michigan where, in 2010, an Enbridge pipeline leaked 840,000 gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo river. Indeed, the company boasts that its vision "is to become the leading energy delivery company in North America" and "our assets connect North Americans with energy they need."
Principal Financial Backers of the Enbridge Pipeline Project
The names of five of these backers were released recently. One of them is "Total EP," which is a French-owned global energy monopoly with head offices in Paris, France. Another is Sinopec, which is a state-owned energy corporation based in China. Nexen is an energy multinational with operations in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Africa. Suncor is mainly based in Canada, but has operations in the U.S. MEG Energy is 16.9 per cent owned by the giant Chinese company CNOO.
Don't at least some of these companies count as "foreign interests" in Stephen Harper's calculation? By his definition, doesn't their substantial financial backing of Enbridge amount to "outside interference" and "highjacking" of the pipeline review process?
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Daily
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca