The Marxist-Leninist Daily

Canada Pays Its Respects

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

L to R: Escuminac, New Brunswick Fishermen's Monument; Lunenburg, Nova Scotia monument to
workers lost at sea; Bathurst, New Brunswick monument to forestry, mining and smelting workers.

L to R: Pictou, Nova Scotia monument to those killed in Westray mine disaster; New Waterford, Nova Scotia monument to Bill Davis who was shot during a protest by striking miners; monument in Valleyfield, Quebec to Irish workers killed striking for better working conditions during construction of Beauharnois Canal.

L to R: Monument in Buckingham, Quebec to forestry workers shot in fight to unionize Maclaren mills;
Ottawa monument to workers who died in the construction of the Rideau Canal.

L to R: Sudbury Miners Memorial; Sudbury memorial to workers killed in 1929 Falconbridge disaster.

L to R: Kirkland Lake, Ontario miners' monument; Blind River, Ontario loggers' memorial;
Port Elgin, Ontario autoworkers' monument.

L to R: Toronto memorial to workers killed in Hoggs Hollow disaster, constructing water tunnel;
Toronto memorial plaque to nurses who died on the job during the 2003 SARS epidemic.

L to R: Toronto, Chinese railwaymen's memorial; Memorial quilt to young workers killed on the job;
Hamilton April 28 Day of Mourning monument.

L to R: mural on the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike; Edmonton Day of Mourning workers' memorial;
Fort McMurray April 28 workers memorial.

L to R: gravestones of coalminers in Estavan, Saskatchewan and in Cumberland, BC of mineworkers' organizer Ginger Goodwin, all killed defending right of workers to organize; Vancouver ironworkers' memorial to nineteen construction workers killed in 1958 when parts of the Second Narrows bridge collapsed.

L to R: Net and Needle fishermen's memorial in Steveston, BC; Lake Cowichan,
BC forestry workers' memorial park.

Condemn the Workplace Massacre of Workers
in Bangladesh

TML Daily joins workers in Bangladesh and throughout the world to express its horror and condemnation of the mass workplace deaths of workers in Bangladesh. On April 24, an eight-storey garment factory building in Bangladesh collapsed while thousands of workers were inside. Bangladeshi news reports say the number of workers inside when the building collapsed could be as high as 5,000. Figures released by the Bangladeshi Army on April 26 confirm that more than 300 workers were killed and 1,000 injured. Hundreds of other workers are still missing and may never be accounted for. Children in the on-site child-minding crèche may also be among the killed and injured.

Workers throughout the Bangladesh garment industry have left their workplaces and launched demonstrations to demand the arrest and punishment of the building owner and the factory operators and an end to workplace deaths. In Savar on the day after the building collapse, thousands of workers demonstrated in the factory area, blockading highways, closing factories and clashing with the police as they marched. All garment factories in Dhaka, Savar, Ashulia, Gazipur, Narayanganj and Maona, which make up 60 per cent of the garment industry, have been closed because of the strikes and demonstrations.

On the occasion of the Day of Mourning for workers killed and injured on the job and as International Working Class Day approaches, Canadian workers have this latest workplace massacre of Bengali workers on their minds. TML Daily denounces the international financial oligarchy, the global retailing monopolies and their stooges in Bangladesh for organizing the slaughter of Bengali workers on the job. It also denounces Canadian media disinformation which sheds crocodile tears while excusing the killers by claiming that Canadians want cheap clothes and this is the price to pay.

Demand Governments Guarantee the Right to Safe and Healthy Working Conditions!

April 28, 2013 marks the 29th anniversary of the first Day of Mourning for Workers Killed or Injured on the Job. Workers around the world are holding ceremonies, meetings and moments of silence to mourn the dead and fight for the living. At the heart of these actions is the demand that governments uphold public right by guaranteeing the right to safe and healthy working conditions for all workers.

The International Labour Organization estimates that every day 6,300 workers around the world die as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases. This amounts to more than 2.3 million deaths per year. Deaths and injuries take a particularly heavy toll on workers in the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean due to the super-exploitation of the peoples of these countries by the monopolies. The International Labour Organization estimates that of these 2.3 million work-related fatalities per year in the world, 321,000 are caused by accidents and 2.02 million by occupational diseases.

In Canada, about 1,000 workers die each year from workplace injuries and work-related diseases. This official figure is well below the real number because governments and their compensation boards refuse to recognize many work-related diseases, especially those that stem from the use of toxic materials. Workers are told that the number of work-related injuries has been drastically reduced to the point where between 2005 and 2011, the last year for which national information is available, injuries at work have allegedly dropped by more than 25 per cent, from 337,000 to 249,511. It does not make any sense that injuries have decreased while work-related fatalities officially remain at about 1,000 per year; neither does it correspond to the workers' experience. It is not the number of injuries that has dropped, but the number reported to and accepted by compensation boards. This is happening as health and safety matters have become a preferred means to criminalize and discipline workers who report injuries or demand safe working conditions, or conversely to reward workers who do not report their injuries. More importantly, it is a means to attack the collective defence organizations of the workers and have them fend for themselves and deal with the companies on an individual basis. Similarly, the righteous-sounding "zero accident" policy of many monopolies is an anti-worker policy that spreads disinformation to cover up what really happens in work places and also undermines the ability of the workers to collectively defend themselves.

Death from occupational diseases results from a broad spectrum of illnesses, including cancers, tuberculosis or other pulmonary diseases as a result of exposure to toxic materials, as well as mental disorders such as stress, anxiety and depression that lead to heart attacks or even suicide. In the last two-and-a-half years, seven postal workers committed suicide in the Greater Montreal region. In a number of cases they confided to their fellow workers and loved ones in the days before taking their lives that they could no longer stand the inhuman working conditions of the Modern Post.

The actions of governments to guarantee monopoly right instead of public right is a major factor in creating an atmosphere of chaos in the workplace with deadly consequences for workers and their communities. Workers' strikes and lockouts by the monopolies have become an occasion for the latter to run workplaces in contempt of safety norms and procedures, using untrained personnel and experimenting with new sub-standard safety measures that they try to impose on the workers when they return to work. The governments give the monopolies their blessing to violate safety norms as if the matter is purely a "business decision" that is of no concern for the workers and society. The climate of criminalization that is rampant in the workplaces around the issue of health and safety is also the result of the abdication of social responsibility of governments for the health and well-being of workers.

The refusal of governments to uphold public right is also shown in their protracted war against the injured workers who are demanding adequate compensation as a matter of right. The governments are claiming that the compensation systems in Canada face an "unfunded liability" and therefore compensation benefits should be reduced or cut off entirely, allegedly to make sure that the system is still there for the future generations of workers. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of dollars are diverted from compensation to workers and transferred into the coffers of the monopolies.

On April 28, workers make the point in solemn commemorations of their fellow workers who were killed, injured and made sick at work that governments are duty-bound to take up their social responsibility and uphold public right by guaranteeing safe and healthy working conditions, not so-called monopoly right which comes at the expense of the workers' lives and limbs.

Interviews

Ron Thomas, President, United Steelworkers Local 5795,
Iron Ore Company Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador

A lot of our members contract silicosis. We still have huge problems with dust conditions at the workplace even today. We have to keep on top of the company to make sure that things get fixed, that the dust collectors are up and running and make sure that dust levels are down.

Since January, we've had two new workers' compensation claims accepted for silicosis. One of the workers has passed away and the other one is still fighting. On my board right now I have eight names that I am working on, trying to get them accepted by workers' compensation, most for silicosis, some for asbestosis.

The biggest thing for us is to honour the people who passed away and honour the people that are still fighting to live. My main emphasis is that I want to make sure that the workers are working in a safe and healthy workplace, that dust levels are down. What we need is not band aid measures, we need things fixed. If the dust conditions can be prevented, we should be working on that.

At the end of the day, we want to make sure that all workers, not just unionized workers, come home safe. We need a safe work environment.

Worker, Xstrata Copper Smelter, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec

Xstrata is doing more and more PR work in the media showing how good they are, how they respect the environment, etc, even taking out ads in the local media to bring the community on side.

It is a complex health and safety system they have established. First, they have rewards -- Canadian Tire gift certificates. If you don't get hurt on your shifts, you get gift certificates. Workers receive these as individuals but if one worker on the team gets hurt, everybody is penalized. Then we have bonuses based on a company assessment of the workers. They assess what they call individual performance, then performance in operations and health and safety. Each worker is assessed individually. Individual performance is about behaviour. The supervisors decide if you have good behaviour. The assessment on health and safety is based on things such as participation in health and safety meetings. For example, the supervisor comes to the workers and tells them the whole team has to stay after their shift because there is a health and safety meeting. The collective agreement says that you cannot be forced to do overtime. The supervisor will tell the worker that if he does not stay for the meeting, then he does not fulfill the targets the supervisor has set in terms of health and safety performance. This is in violation of the collective agreement. It is tied to the bonus workers receive based on performance, the individual (behaviour), operations (production) and health and safety.

Then there is the issue of the work permits. This is a way for Xstrata to avoid being liable for health and safety violations. The work permits are forms with a lot of data that are signed by two workers in a particular sector. The first worker already works in that sector; the second worker (often a contract worker) is someone sent there to work for that shift. The first worker signs the form, in which he acknowledges that he has fulfilled his responsibility to show the second worker where the tools and safety devices are and so on. The second worker signs, acknowledging that he knows where these safety devices are, what is required safety-wise, etc. If an accident occurs, the responsibility for the incident falls to the first worker who vouched that the second worker knew everything he had to know in order to work safely. This could go as far as the first worker being sued, for example, if the family of a worker who gets hurt or dies files a legal complaint. Xstrata considers itself protected legally because it was a worker who signed that everything was okay and that his coworker knew what to do. The company does not sign this form; it is signed only by the workers.

It is mandatory for the workers to sign the work permit. There are some mornings where there can be as many as 20 work permits to sign in a department. Workers are waiting to go on shift and do not have the time to look at the forms carefully to make sure that everything is cross checked.

At the smelter, Xstrata has its own nurses and its own doctor. The union has always recommended that workers not go to them, that they go to the local clinic or emergency room, but there is such a shortage of doctors in Abitibi that workers still go to see them. Once the company doctor has seen the worker, he can claim to be his family physician and demand access to the worker's medical file -- I am not saying it happens but it could -- and then the company will have access to the worker's medical file.

Xstrata says it is reaching record levels of time at work without injuries but we still see workers getting injured. It is not easy to understand how the company can claim that there are no injuries while there are workers getting hurt and having to take time off. It is a sign that Xstrata is systematically challenging claims of lost time due to injuries.

This is not real health and safety as far as I am concerned. Xstrata takes no responsibility for the health and the safety of the workers. It is shifting the responsibility onto the workers.

Gary Howe, Vice-President, Local 1005 United Steelworkers,
U.S. Steel, Hamilton

U.S. Steel spends a lot of money on safety but their main priority is their own liability. They have put in complex systems that are set up to blame the workers. That is a big problem. The way it blames the workers is that if you have an accident, there is a computer-generated accident investigation form which gives you certain choices about what went wrong. Quite often there is no really correct answer. The system is geared for you to pick something and the main thing is to blame the worker -- that they did something wrong, instead of solving the problems that led to the worker getting injured. In the past if there was an accident, we would go to a room, discuss what happened and how it occurred, and make recommendations so it does not happen again. This has been replaced by a huge bureaucratic system of rules of reporting that the worker has to go through when he gets hurt, in which he is blamed for what has happened. The result is that people do not report accidents the way they used to do. U.S. Steel also uses drug and alcohol testing. It has to have cause -- it is not random testing. If somebody smashes a pick up truck or something they can send him for a test. The whole issue on that is the measurement of impairment.

In Hamilton, U.S. Steel is now using a standard accident investigation system that they use in all their plants whether in Canada or the U.S.. That basically makes it more difficult for us to deal with the issues that happen. The managers have to do so much corporate safety stuff that is dictated directly from Pittsburgh headquarters. Their pay is tied to health and safety performance and how well they do on this matter. They have to do certain things that are mandated by the corporation.

The biggest thing is that we have a fundamental difference of philosophy with U.S. Steel on the issue of safety. Local 1005 and the steelworkers believe that the best safety program is driven from the bottom up, that it is the workers who do the job who know the safest way to do it. The company believes that a good safety program is driven from the top down. They dictate what the safety program should be. You have some manager that never does the job writing a safety procedure for somebody who does. The best safety program is one where I talk to the guys doing the job and they tell me the safest way to do it. We talk openly to the company about that. The managers do not disagree but they tell us that this is what they are being told to do by the headquarters in Pittsburgh.

It is a huge bureaucratic system they have got set up for safety. We believe in the exact opposite. We meet with the workers, discuss it, figure out the best way to deal with the issues. The best way is to keep discussing what the problems are and hopefully we come up with the best solution.

Also, I have seen a lot of people with occupational diseases like cancer; a lot of people suffering in silence. They do not bother trying to get compensation. That is something we have to try to promote, to do something for people with occupational diseases because a lot of those people suffer. The psychological impact on the person is huge. We have to get these occupational diseases recognized and break the silence about them.

Alain Duguay, President, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Montreal

We are now working under a new system for sick leave. In the past, we had sick leave credits but they have been replaced with a short-term disability program. We know that a lot of workplace accidents happen at Canada Post. So they found a new strategy that is really outrageous. If you declare an injury and you are refused workers' compensation, you have the right to challenge this refusal under the law. However, if you do challenge the refusal, Canada Post denies you access to the short-term disability program. This is a way for them to push workers to not report injuries and not challenge decisions that are unfavourable to them. Then, in spite of the fact that injuries are on the rise because of the new work methods being imposed by the Modern Post, Canada Post can claim that the number of injuries is actually decreasing. That is really outrageous because federally, postal workers come right after mine workers at the top of the list in terms of the rate of injuries at work. Canada Post has imposed very hazardous new work processes such as letter carrier routes that last 10-12 hours and go well into the evening. People are delivering letters in the dark. There is no doubt that injuries at work are on the rise. It is just getting crazy.

We have been active on this matter in the recent period. We held a demonstration in the streets of Montreal on March 2. We have been able to get media coverage on our issues including health and safety and we are getting more and more support from the people at large.

We are currently working with our stewards to raise these issues directly on the shop floor. We are putting pressure on Canada Post on the shop floor. The local managers do not have decision-making power. It is Canada Post nationally that is taking all the decisions. When you are looking for a solution to a problem, the further away you are from the situation, the further you are from finding a solution. We are trying to solve problems directly on the shop floor with the people there. We are going to keep fighting, that is for sure. We are fighting the Harper government because this government has made decisions that directly affect the health and safety of workers.

Dany Blackburn, Safety Representative,
Syndicat des Travailleurs de l'Aluminium d'Alma, Rio Tinto Alcan

The major company hurdle we always come across is money. Life at Rio Tinto is cutbacks on top of cutbacks. What we are asking for in terms of addressing our health and safety issues is always too costly as far as the company is concerned. We went through a lockout in 2012 and when we got back many things had changed including in health and safety. The company was asking for a change in mentality, in processes and techniques. Many things have happened which are affecting workers' health.

For example, even if we made many gains in our fight during the lockout, still the company abolished 80 jobs which means about 10 per cent of the jobs at the plant. This means a lot of organizational changes to do the work with 80 less positions. The work load has increased a lot. We work in a very hazardous environment, with toxic materials. We wear heavy protective equipment and lift heavy things. Some workers may lift over 300 heavy panels in a shift. The number of musculoskeletal disorders has increased by 400 per cent since 2011. On top of this, there are labour relations problems that also affect our health and safety. Managers time our every move and how much time we take just to take a breather. In this environment, where workers work 10.5 hours wearing heavy equipment and doing heavy lifting, if they inform the supervisor that they are exhausted and need a little break or even a small rotation of tasks, they are told that they are paid to do this job, they get their scheduled breaks and that's that. This is having an impact on the health and safety of the workers not only physically but psychologically as well. Rio Tinto makes us feel like criminals who need to be watched.

A good thing for us is that we have three full-time safety representatives. We watch everything and we are challenging the system. We take part in all the investigations and all the committees. We work very closely with the workers and meet them on the shop floor as much as possible so they tell us what is happening and we can challenge the system and work to solve the problems. When we find solutions to the problems, workers feel that they are not alone.

These kinds of problems are not only with Rio Tinto. I think that for all the large corporations, their major concern is keeping their major shareholders happy -- the workers come last. In labour relations as in health and safety, it is only together that we can defend our rights. The weight of the system is just too much for an individual worker.

Russ Day, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada
Local 601, Chevron Refinery, Burnaby, British Columbia

April 28 is a big day locally. The labour movement is quite active locally in organizing the ceremonies. April 28 is always a day for us to solemnly recall the collapse of the Second Narrows Bridge in Vancouver in 1958 in which 19 workers died. For us, since that time, we have always thought of this bridge as the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge even though it was not officially renamed until 1994. It was an engineering mistake that caused the collapse of the bridge. This tragedy is still very much in the minds of the people.

April 28 is also a reminder to us that workers have to be vigilant in ensuring that their rights under the Workers' Compensation Act are upheld. In 2012, over 130 workers died in BC, so not much has changed since the 1950s in this regard. Also, working in a refinery, of course the workers are subjected to a great deal of risk in this industry that is quite dangerous. We rely on the employer to keep us safe in the sense that the process itself is very hazardous. We rely on the proper standards and all those types of things to be met.

Today there are think tanks in BC such as the Business Council of British Colombia, of which Chevron is a member, that push the idea that they have done everything they possibly can to make the workplaces safe and it is the workers who are often to be blamed for workplace accidents. They are trying to have the Workers' Compensation Act altered so that it reflects behaviour-based safety and shifts the responsibility of safety at work onto the workers. That is not right.

Especially in the oil and gas industry, we find when something serious has gone wrong and workers are killed most often it is a result of a process safety problem. Quite often those types of incidents are completely out of the control of the workers. It is a process problem, a metallurgical problem, an engineering mistake. It is up to the employer to make sure that workers are not subjected to that type of risk. That does not mean to say that workers should not be vigilant and make sure they work safely. Not only is it their right but their responsibility to do that. I think that this is a cultural shift, there is an attempt to have the Workers' Compensation Act changed so that it reflects the behaviour-based type of safety.

Workers need on a day-to-day basis to stay vigilant on the job and realize that they have the right to refuse unsafe work. They do not have to be right about it, they just have to have the conviction that the work is unsafe and not be afraid to refuse. It is okay to be wrong, it is not okay to just go ahead and perform work that is risky. It is a much more difficult call to be made by the workers if they are not represented by a union. That part needs to be covered off by making sure that the Act is adequate and that the Compensation Board staff is actually actively monitoring work sites. In order for this to happen, it has to be backed by the strength of the unions.

Geneviève Royer, High School Teacher,
Fédération Autonome de l'Enseignement, Montreal

Every day, teachers face the wrecking caused as the unaddressed needs of students and teachers accumulate. A very negative environment sets in when students are continually denied the support they need, to be successful in their school year whether because of the issues they face in class or the insecurity of life outside of school. There are so many unmet needs and the resources allocated are so inadequate that the situation manifests itself as a climate of violence against the well-being of the students. It is not the violence the monopoly media speak of, of outbursts between individuals. Teachers see as violence the refusal to meet the needs of the youth for their physical and mental health, who are told they will be on a waiting list for a year before their needs are addressed. In the meantime, while the student is on the waiting list, every day he or she goes to school with their needs unmet. The teachers have to face this situation where we are not provided the means to satisfy these needs and it is a huge source of stress and anxiety.

According to some experts, the issue for us is to improve our classroom management skills, that we have to learn to be tougher at times and more understanding at others. This has nothing to do with the problems students and teachers face. Teachers feel pressure to quit for a few weeks or for a year or forever because they can no longer cope with such an environment and these working conditions.

How can teachers address the needs of students who come to them with such burning problems? What are they supposed to tell a kid who comes to class saying that he does not have a home any more because the bailiff just evicted his family from their apartment? They feel compelled to find an answer even if they don't have one. This is a daily pressure that just gets more and more intense as the crisis of this economic and political system becomes deeper. You can't deal with that with classroom management!

We know too that the Charest government passed a law against bullying, which is still in the process of being implemented by the Marois government. Already we see that this is going to mean even more work for teachers because the law says that as soon as an act of bullying has been perpetrated, measures must be taken. That may look fine on paper but it means that the teacher will be involved in a process in which he or she has to report what measures were taken and why. And none of it deals with the conditions that led to bullying in the first place. It will hardly give someone satisfaction or pride to have a binder that says he or she intervened 17 times against bullying. To my mind, it is bureaucratization of human relations, instead of providing the conditions outside and inside the education system to deal with the problem. Such laws not only bureaucratize human relations but criminalize problems in human relations too. If we take for example the law that was passed years ago against psychological harassment at the work place, the mechanism in the law to resolve problems is to file a charge of harassment against your coworker. What do such processes have to do with creating a climate of safety, whether in the schools or workplaces? The anti-bullying law certainly does nothing to assist teachers to provide activities and resources to students to meet their needs and give them peace of mind and enable them to contribute to a calm atmosphere in the schools conducive to their education.

In the school system, more than two out of five teachers quit within their first five years. We are doing various things to help the teachers cope. We meet with them when they start and help them to become familiar with the place and the people. We look after one each other especially when we feel that a teacher is getting into trouble psychologically. We talk to the teacher and see how to assist him or her. There is a service that is widely being used in our school called Program to Assist the Teachers, financed by the union and the school board, that allows the teacher to have about 10 free consultations with a psychologist. The number of teachers who use the program is quite high. At the trade union level, we have been asking for measures that will humanize life at school -- less students per class, the allocation of adequate resources when and where they are needed.

Mass Workplace Deaths in Bengladesh

The latest mass killing of Bengali garment workers on April 24, along with many other mass workplace deaths in Bangladesh and other low-wage countries, is a direct consequence of the crimes committed by the monopolies under the aegis of free trade and being number one on world markets. These deaths constitute a crime against humanity and a crime against the dignity of labour by the international financial oligarchy and the global retailing monopolies with the Bangladesh government and local elites at their disposal.

The collapsed building is located in the city of Savar, a suburb of the capital Dhaka. The building housed five separate factory operations producing clothing for global retailing monopolies. The building is owned by Sohel Rana, a leader of the ruling political party, the Awami League. It is reported that Rana and the factory operators were warned of structural defects in the building by inspectors the previous day. Because of these warnings, a bank and offices on the ground floor were closed but with total disregard for the lives of garment workers, the factory operations on the upper floors were continued, with threats of loss of pay issued to the workers by management to force them to go to work.

There have been several other building collapses in Bangladesh in recent years involving both the workplaces and housing of garment workers. These include the collapse of another garment factory in Savar in 2005 in which 23 workers were killed. Savar is one of eight cities in Bangladesh where special economic zones are set up under the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (BEPZA). These zones are operated directly out of the Prime Minister’s Office. Bangladesh labour laws and factory regulation are very lax, but BEPZAs ensure that international and local investors are able to operate with complete immunity from even these.

The mass workplace deaths in Savar follow the horrific fire in a Bangladesh garment factory in the Ashulia industrial area near Dhaka on November 24, 2012. More than 120 workers were killed in the fire and hundreds of others were injured. Many of the deaths were caused by all the factory doors being locked, a common practice used by factory owners to prevent workers from leaving their work stations. Other deaths resulted when workers, unable to use locked fire escapes, fell from the multi-story building while trying to flee from the fire. In the Ashulia fire, as in the recent building collapse in Savar, almost all of the workers killed and injured were women and girls.

Similar incidents involving fires or the collapse of factory buildings occur frequently in Bangladesh and other low wage countries but only the most horrific are reported by the international media. Less than two years ago another factory fire in Ashulia resulted in the deaths of 30 workers and hundreds of injuries. In a single week in February 2006, there were mass deaths of workers in two separate factory fires and the collapse of a new nine-storey factory in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The government covered up the number of fatalities and injuries in these three incidents but labour organizations report that 300 workers were killed in the week's catastrophes including several girls only 12 years old.

Similar incidents also occur regularly across the Indian sub-continent and in other countries. In Pakistan, a total of 389 workers were killed in two textile factory fires in Karachi and Lahore on the same day last September. The same month, 40 textile workers were killed in a fire in Tamil Nadu State in southern India.

The mass deaths of textile workers in Bangladesh are occurring in the factories producing ready-to-wear garments (RTWG) for international retail monopolies like Wal-Mart and Gap Inc. According to media reports, some of the workers killed in the latest building collapse in Savar were producing clothing for the Canadian retailer Joe Fresh. RTWG workers produce a huge amount of wealth, but neo-liberal globalization works in a way that channels most of this wealth to powerful global monopoly groups.

In contrast to fabric manufacturing which is highly mechanized, the RTWG sub-sector is labour intensive and operated by local entrepreneurs under contracts with global retailers. The monopoly manipulation of prices by the global retail monopolies and high interest charged by the international financiers also restrict the profits of local entrepreneurs. Local entrepreneurs, to turn a profit, exploit the vast army of toilers swept into the cities by the neo-liberal destruction of small producers in the countryside. The local elite have beaten workers' wages down below what is needed to sustain life and have created working conditions which constantly put workers' lives at risk.

Even the claims of government on the wealth in the form of taxes is restricted by constant threats of the powerful monopolies that they will move production to another country. Factories set up in BEPZA controlled areas, for example, operate tax free for five years. The arrangements under neo-liberal globalization result in almost all the massive amount of wealth produced by millions of workers in the sector flowing into the vaults of the global monopolies.

In Bangladesh, the government and the local elite have been aggressively pursuing the expansion of the RTWG sector by ensuring that Bangladeshi garment workers are the lowest paid in the world. Bangladesh has become the world's second largest exporter of RTWG products after China which is now also moving production to Bangladesh. Exports of RTWG products from Bangladesh have increased from $5 billion a year in 2000 to $19 billion in 2012 and make up 80 per cent of Bangladesh's export revenue.

There are now 2.2 million workers employed in the 5,000 RTWG factories in Bangladesh, many of which are located in BEPZA-controlled areas. Even those factories outside the export zones are in thoroughly militarized districts. Because the entire Bangladesh balance of trade depends on RTWG exports, the government has declared workers' resistance to brutal exploitation and inhuman working conditions to be "a threat to national economic security." Suppression of workers' rights and workers' resistance is the government's highest priority.

In 2004 a heavily armed para-military police force was established to suppress workers' resistance. The British-trained Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has been involved in frequent battles with workers and has been repeatedly implicated in the assassinations and disappearances of the workers' movement leaders.

Despite the repression by the RAB, the workers' resistance has developed along with the expansion of the RTWG sector. In 2010 hundreds of thousands of textile workers joined a powerful strike movement in response to rising food prices, to mass deaths of workers at factories and also in response to the murder and disappearance of militant workers by the RAB.

The government tried to suppress the strike movement by establishing the 3,000 member Industrial Police Force in 2010 for day-to-day surveillance and control of workers in the industrial areas. Several workers were killed by the Industrial Police and the RAB in these demonstrations but in the end the government was forced to back down. Following the 2010 strike movement, the minimum wage for garment workers was raised from $20 per month to $38 per month.

Workers are continuing to clash with police and factory owners in actions to defend their rights and the dignity of labour. Following the mass deaths in the Ashulia factory fire last November, there were widespread strikes and large demonstrations similar to those currently being carried out over the building collapse in Savar. During the past summer, 500,000 workers took action to defend militant workers who were being attacked by the police. During these actions, workers shut down 350 factories in the Ashulia district alone. Strike action was taken in other factory areas over rising rents and food costs and over several cases of abuse of women workers by factory managers.

Oppose Push to Privatize Workers' Compensation

Yet another anti-worker private members' bill was introduced in this session of the Ontario Legislature by the Hudak Conservatives on February 28. Bill 17, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Amendment Act (Alternate Insurance Plans), 2013, aims to complete the destruction of the workers' compensation system that was begun by the Harris Conservatives under then Labour Minister Elizabeth Witmer.

The Conservative bill is based on Hudak's anti-worker white paper, Paths to Prosperity: Flexible Labour Markets. The same bill was introduced in the last session of the Legislature and died on the order paper when the Legislature was prorogued. The Hudak bill would allow employers to pull out of coverage by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and "to opt to participate in an insurance plan that is offered by a private sector insurer." It would also repeal recent legislation making workers' compensation coverage in the construction industry mandatory for independent operators, sole proprietors, partners in partnerships and executive officers of corporations in the construction industry.

This proposed legislation serves as a warning to workers about the ultimate aim of the rich and their political representatives for the workers' compensation system. The legislation would allow employers to completely escape responsibility for just compensation to workers they have injured on the job. Instead, injured workers would be abandoned to the brutal practices private insurance companies use to maximize their profits.

Bill 17 will likely be defeated by the Liberals in the vote at second reading. This is not out of any agreement in principle by the Liberals with the direction being pushed by the Conservatives. Both the Liberals and Conservatives have been working to transform the workers' compensation system first into an insurance scheme and to eventually privatize it. Voting against Conservative anti-worker bills is partisan political posturing by the Liberals to overcome their crisis of legitimacy.

In the current session of the Legislature, the Liberals have voted against all of the outrageous legislative attacks on workers by the Hudak Conservatives. The Liberal opportunists use the debates on the Conservative bills to denounce the Conservatives for being extremist and to deceitfully promote themselves as having a "balanced and fair" approach to issues of workers' rights. The anti-labour histrionics of the Hudak Conservatives give the Liberals a convenient smokescreen behind which they can stealthily implement the anti-worker agenda of the rich.

In 1996, when Labour Minister Witmer introduced Bill 99, the Workers' Compensation Reform Act, employer contribution rates for workers' compensation were cut by 30 per cent. The claims process was reorganized according to insurance industry principles. The government then cut $10 billion in compensation to injured workers. The Liberals, in opposition at the time, denounced this legislation as "draconian." But when they came to power the Liberals left all the Conservative anti-worker mechanisms in place and further intensified the Conservatives' anti-social transformation of workers' compensation.

The drastic cuts to employer contribution rates established by the Conservatives were continued by the Liberals, setting the WSIB up for destruction and eventual privatization. Under the Liberals, injured workers are more impoverished than under Harris and are being pushed onto social assistance and disability assistance in greater numbers. The appointment of Elizabeth Witmer as the Chair of the WSIB by the Liberal government a year ago showed conclusively that the Liberals and Conservatives have a common agenda on workers' compensation.

While piously wagging their fingers at the Conservatives for introducing extremist anti-worker legislation, on every labour issue raised by the Conservatives, the Liberals are preparing their own anti-worker legislation. More importantly, the Liberals are also implementing anti-worker measures across a broad front, through both legal and extra-legal means.

In October of last year, the Liberals unveiled a plan for reviewing and eliminating permanent pensions for injured workers who have been unable to return to work after six years (the 72-month rule). This attack on injured workers was widely opposed by injured workers and the whole workers' movement. The Wynne government has disappeared information about enabling legislation on the 72-month rule from the Ministry of Labour website but has made no announcement about abandoning this vicious plan.

The Liberals have also quietly behind the scenes set in motion another round of drastic cuts to compensation of injured workers using a bookkeeping fraud of "unfunded liability" (UFL). The government has declared that the WSIB must reorganize its bookkeeping on the basis of the ridiculous notion that WSIB will someday be "wound up." Combined with the neo-liberal notion that employers will become "uncompetitive" if they are charged the full cost of compensating workers for injuries, this UFL bookkeeping fraud is setting up another round of cutting injured workers off compensation and reducing their compensation payments.

Workers have deep conviction that they have a right to just compensation if they are injured or exposed to health hazards by employers and that the families of workers killed on the job be fully provided for. Workers will never accept the political representatives of employers pushing injured workers into poverty and the margins of society.

Predatory Practices of Private Insurance Companies

The Liberals and Conservatives in Ontario have for years been pushing the insurance industry as the model that should be used in the province for compensating workers injured on the job and for compensating families of workers killed at work. Since the 1990s these parties have been pushing to first reorganize the workers' compensation system using insurance industry claim processing methods and to eventually open up the compensation system as a "market" for insurance companies.

The parties leading the neo-liberal offensive justify this with the logic that private insurance principles magically produce "efficiencies" and that these are necessary to keep Ontario industries competitive. Workers demand the government ensure that injured workers receive just compensation from employers. Workers reject the insurance approach to workers' compensation of the Liberals and Conservatives as retrogressive and anti-worker. The facts revealed in a recent court case show that rejecting insurance industry claims methods and insurance company penetration of the workers' compensation system is totally justified.

A March 2013 ruling by a Saskatchewan court against two major private insurers, American Home Assurance Company (American Insurance Group-AIG) and Zurich Life Insurance Company Limited identify the dire straits workers face at the hands of private insurers. The case involved a welder employed by a Saskatchewan mining company with international operations. When working abroad, he was insured against injuries on the job by private insurance companies. The court found that after being injured on a job while abroad, AIG and Zurich treated the injured worker maliciously over a ten-year period in handling the claim.

In the reasons for the ruling, the presiding judge said that the worker and his family "were without funds for many years. They survived on loans from family, in-laws, parents and their daughter. This total lack of income caused severe mental stress, disabling him even further. This court cannot imagine more protracted and reprehensible behavior than that of Zurich in blatantly refusing to pay what had been owed in monthly payments for almost eight years (10 years from the date of the accident). This failure to pay and continual court applications instigated by Zurich with no reasonable justification were nothing short of torturous."

The judge ordered a settlement of $4.95 million after concluding, "The actions of AIG and Zurich establish a pattern of abuse of an individual suffering from financial and emotional vulnerability." This case shows clearly that the claims about the insurance industry model creating "efficiencies" is a fraud. The efficiencies claimed arise from the criminal trampling on the rights of workers injured on the job to just compensation.

Some History and Facts

At the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) convention in 1984, a resolution submitted by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) National Health and Safety Committee recommended the creation of a remembrance day for workers killed or injured on the job. This resolution was adopted. The date April 28 was chosen as on April 28 in 1914 the first comprehensive workers compensation act was passed in the legislature.

The CLC officially declared and recognized the National Day of Mourning on April 28, 1985. In Canada, over 25,000 workers have died due to work-related injury or disease since 1985.

In December 1990, following years of lobbying efforts by Canadian unions and the NDP, the federal government passed Bill C-223, the Workers Mourning Day Act, which made April 28, 1991 the first government recognized National Day of Mourning. The Act is a brief piece of legislation, which reads, in part:

"Throughout Canada, in each and every year, the 28th day of April shall be known under the name of Day of Mourning for Persons Killed or Injured in the Workplace."

In 1989, the American Federation of Labour began to recognize April 28 as Workers' Memorial Day. Workers' Memorial Day was adopted by the Scottish Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 1993, the UK TUC in 1999 and the UK Health and Safety Commission in 2000.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International TUC (ITUC) declared the International Day of Mourning in 1996.

In 2001 the ILO declared April 28 World Day for Safety and Health at Work and in 2002 announced that it should be an official day in the United Nations system.

Today, the Day of Mourning is observed in about 100 countries, including: Argentina, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic, Gibraltar, Luxembourg, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan, United States and the United Kingdom. Trade unions in other countries including Benin, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Malta, Nepal, New Zealand, Romania and Singapore are pursuing government recognition.

Some Facts

According to the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada, nationally every year, approximately 1,000 workers die.

Every day, nearly three workers die. Every year, workers suffer from 250,000 work-related injuries/diseases. Every day, workers suffer from 685 work-related injuries/diseases.

Internationally, the ILO records the death of one worker every 15 seconds. This means 6,300 workers die each day and more than 2.3 million workers die each year. Of these fatalities, reportedly 2.02 million of the deaths result from occupational disease.

In addition, every year, workers suffer from 317 million work-related injuries which is 870,000 work-related injuries a day. Every year, workers suffer from 160 million non-fatal occupational diseases which is 440,000 a day.

Statistics on Workers Killed or Injured on the Job from
Provinces and Territories

There were 26 workplace fatalities in the province in 2012, including six fatalities resulting from accidents and 20 from occupational illnesses.

The New Brunswick Federation of Labour reports that in 2012 more than 12,400 New Brunswick workers were hurt on the job, 11 of them fatally.

The Nova Scotia Federation of Labour reports that there were a total of 32 workplace fatalities in 2012 and nearly 26,500 injuries. This represents an increase of five fatalities from 2011.

Of the 32 fatalities in 2012, ten Nova Scotians died on the job due to an acute traumatic event in the workplace. This represents an increase of four acute fatalities from 2011. One-third of the acute fatalities occurred in fishing.

Twenty-two Nova Scotians died due to chronic or health related conditions. Of these 22 chronic workplace fatalities, nine died from occupational diseases due to workplace exposures in the past, and 13 died due to other health conditions, primarily cardiac in nature, which may or may not have been directly related to their work.

In Quebec, in 2012, the Workers' Compensation board reports that 211 people died as a result of an occupational disease or accidents. Of these 211 deaths, 115 were caused by asbestos, 26 by vehicular incidents, 18 resulted from contact with an object or equipment, 15 were due to falls and 13 from exposure to silica. It also reported that in 2011, there were 91,030 occupational injuries. The National Confederation of Trade Unions points out that these figures do not include cases rejected by the Compensation Board or accidents that were not reported by the workers, which it points out is especially true for those incidents related to mental health problems.

According the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, there were 298 workplace fatalities in Ontario in 2012. More detailed statistics covering only until the end of July 2012 indicate that at least 162 of these deaths were from occupational diseases.

The Manitoba Federation of Labour reports that in 2012, 10 Manitobans died on the job in 2012. Another 29 died from work-related illnesses.

WorkSafe Saskatchewan reports that in 2012, 60 workplace deaths in the province were recorded, up from 36 in 2011. It also states that 2012 had the highest number of workplace fatalities in more than 30 years. The construction industry had the highest number of deaths at 14 fatalities. Five workplace deaths involved youth, which is an increase from the two reported deaths in 2011.

Occupational disease, such as asbestos-related cancer caused by prior exposure, caused 19 deaths in 2012. Heart attacks were the cause of 15 deaths.

WorkSafe Alberta reports that in 2011, the latest available data, there were 123 work place fatalities. Nine of these were youth under the age of 24. Fifty-two deaths were attributed to occupational disease. The most dangerous sector was construction with 55 deaths that year.

The BC Federation of Labour reports that as reported to the Workers' Compensation Board as of March 15, 2013 in 2012 181 workers died, of whom 4 were young workers. More than 100 died due to occupational diseases.

In her message to mark the Day of Mourning, Mary Lou Cherwaty, President of the Northern Territories Federation of Labour, reports that, "In 2005, according to the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, the highest on-the-job death rate is in the Territories, at four times greater than the national average. In 2012, there were three reported work fatalities in the NWT and Nunavut."

She adds that, "New Occupational Health and Safety Regulations for the NWT and Nunavut were drafted over a year ago, and are still awaiting approval by the Ministers Responsible for the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission."

In her message on the occasion of the Day of Mourning, Vikki Quocksister, President of the Yukon Federation of Labour, writes:

"In the Yukon, we've had as many as four deaths in one year, and only three fatality-free years since the Day of Mourning was first commemorated here in 1993.

"In 2012, there were 1,216 total workplace injuries/illness occurrences, of which 1,025 were accepted by the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board. There were 480 cases of time lost due to illness and injury. Young workers again made up a disproportionate percentage of injuries, with 179 claims accepted of the 1,025 total.

"Statistics hardly tell the whole story. The facts are that since 1993, 36 workers in the Yukon left for work to never return home to their families."

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Interviews

Ron Thomas, President, United Steelworkers Local 5795, Iron Ore Company Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador