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: St. John, New Brunswick Day of Mourning monument; Pictou,
Nova Scotia monument to those killed in Westray mine disaster.

L to R: New Waterford, Nova Scotia monument to Bill Davis, 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; Ottawa monument to workers who died constructing the Rideau Canal.

Monument in Buckingham, Quebec to forestry workers shot in fight to unionize Maclaren mills.

L to R: Sudbury Miners Memorial; Sudbury memorial mural 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: Elliot Lake miners memorial; Welland Canal Workers' Memorial.

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

L to R: Monument to Chinese railway workers in Toronto; Memorial quilt for
young workers killed on the job; Hamilton April 28 Day of Mourning monument.

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

L to R: gravestones of coalminers in Estevan, Saskatchewan and in Cumberland,
BC of mineworkers' organizer Ginger Goodwin, all killed defending workers'
right to organize; Vancouver memorial to nineteen ironworkers 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; monument in Ladysmith, BC to Joseph
Mairs, who died during fight to organize Vancouver Island coal mines.

Memorial in Kanesatake to the workers who died in the 1907 collapse of
the Quebec Bridge.

Our Security Lies in the Fight for the Rights of All!

April 28 marks the 32nd annual Day of Mourning for Workers Killed or Injured on the Job. Workers across Canada as well as around the world are holding ceremonies, meetings and moments of silence to mourn the dead and fight for the living.

On April 28, workers boldly declare that all workers must be protected according to the highest standards possible in all conditions and circumstances. They reject the ideological and institutional schemes being put forward to deny their demand for safe and healthy working conditions for all as a matter of right.

These ideological and institutional schemes are well known to workers in all sectors. The monopolies and their spokespersons claim that workers' health and safety is a "cost of production" that must be reduced or eliminated because it is an obstacle to making the monopolies competitive on global markets. They claim that when the profits of the monopolies are not at the level demanded by their private owners or the monopolies go into bankruptcy protection there is no place for workers' health and safety. This institutional and ideological offensive suggests that the claims of injured workers for compensation threaten the sustainability of the compensation regime and must be suppressed, and that injuries and deaths on the job are the result of "behaviour problems" on the part of the workers themselves.

In the face of this, the workers are fighting day in and day out to break down this wall and ensure that their needs and rights prevail and all workers are defended. Workers denounce the failure to provide redress for losses they and their families suffer as a result of deaths and injuries on the job or which are job-related.

The aim of this fight is to turn things around and bring about a change in the lives of workers, their families, communities and the country based on solving problems posed by production and how human beings relate to one another to give people control over their lives. This is how workers' health and safety can be defended and guaranteed. The feeling of powerlessness that is imposed on the workers by the arrogant refusal of the monopolies, governments and agencies to be held to account must be ended once and for all.

The fact that the anti-social offensive being imposed at all levels is targeting for destruction the health and safety arrangements of the post-war social contract shows the need for the workers to build their defence organizations and join together to defend their rights and chart a new direction.

By joining together in a powerful political movement that reflects their independent aims and pro-social outlook, the workers can give a resounding No to the anti-social offensive and advance a pro-social alternative. They can restrict the ability of the monopolies to put workers' lives at risk with impunity. They can achieve the highest standards of health and safety that society can provide.

That is the fight to which the workers dedicate themselves on April 28. That is how they commemorate those who have died on the job and how they fight for the living.

Our Security Lies in Our Fight for the Rights of All!
Mourn for the Dead! Fight for the Living!

Brutal Statistics

Canada

The most recent statistics from the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada (AWCBC) say that in 2014, 919 workplace deaths were recorded in Canada -- more than 2.5 deaths every single day. Among the 919 dead were 13 young workers aged fifteen to nineteen years, and another 25 workers aged twenty to twenty-four years.

On top of these fatalities there were 239,643 claims accepted for lost time due to a work-related injury or disease, including 7,998 from young workers aged fifteen to nineteen. These statistics only include what is reported and accepted by the compensation boards, meaning the true situation is even more dire.

These numbers also fail to capture how many people are directly affected by workplace tragedies. The death of a worker impacts the loved ones, families, friends and co-workers they leave behind, changing all of their lives forever.

A press release from the United Steelworkers adds that the number of Canadian workers who die annually through occupational injuries or diseases "doesn't reflect the fact that for every worker who dies, on average 30 workers suffer permanent physical or mental impairments, often lose their employment and many times are pushed to the margins of society."

"Fewer than half of all Canadians with disabilities are employed, compared to 80 per cent of the general population, and those on a social security program receive between 22-30 per cent of the average net income for all employed Canadians" the United Steelworkers say.

Internationally

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), every year 2.3 million deaths take place worldwide due to occupational injuries (300,000 deaths) and work-related diseases (2,000,000 deaths). This means 6,300 workers die each day of work-related injuries and diseases. According to the ILO, the biggest killers are work-related cancer (32 per cent); work-related circulatory and cardiovascular diseases and stroke (23 per cent); communicable diseases (17 per cent); and occupational accidents (18 per cent).

Neo-liberal free trade agreements are major factors in the continued deterioration of living and working conditions in all countries including health and safety at work. These agreements concentrate decision-making power on a supranational basis in the hands of the global monopolies who consider health and safety regulations as impediments to their drive for profit and domination. Deaths and injuries take a particularly heavy toll on workers in the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean due to their super-exploitation by the monopolies.

The International Trade Union Confederation recently reported that global monopolies such as Samsung, Apple, Wal-mart and others directly employ barely 6 per cent of the workers who create the value of their global empires. The other 94 per cent work for smaller companies who subcontract to these monopolies, and face even worse conditions, without any support when it comes to health and safety.

This phenomenon is also apparent in countries like Canada where the working class has been divided into arbitrary categories such as "independent contractor," "temporary foreign worker" and "undocumented worker" in order to impose increasingly bad conditions on the working class as a whole. This increasingly casts a veil of silence over the truth when workers in these "categories" injured or fall ill on the job.

Recent Tragic Deaths in the Workplace

Toronto Airport Worker Ian Henry Pervez

A worker at Toronto Pearson Airport, 24-year old Ian Henry Pervez, was tragically killed on April 22 when the baggage cart he was driving rolled over and he was flung from the vehicle. An Air Canada employee, Pervez had been working at the airport for nine months.

The Toronto Airport Workers' Council reported that the past 12 months "have been hard on our airport community with some very high profile injuries and now horrific deaths." Another worker died in March of a medical condition while working on the ramp, the Council reported. An 18-year-old ramp worker was critically injured in September, 2015 in a collision between a baggage vehicle and another vehicle.

In statements to media at the time Airport Workers' Council spokesperson Sean Smith explained problems with the health and safety policy at the airport:

"The [Greater Toronto Airport Authority] develops policies and procedures, communicates them to management, all these dozens of employers, and then counts on them to communicate it to us, the workers," Smith said. "So they only meet on these issues with management and then depend on management through their respective health and safety committees to do the procedures. Well, here's where problems come in.

"Let's say a company doesn't have a proper health and safety culture, doesn't have proper communications -- and I'll be honest, that's a big problem at Pearson Airport, because a lot of these companies are fly-by-night contract ground handlers that just have minimum-wage workers," he said. "With a revolving door, there are new people coming in all the time. So if the chain breaks down, then there are people working at the airport under different sets of procedures."

The Airport Workers' Council is holding special Day of Mourning ceremonies on April 28 to mourn Ian's death and invites airport workers and their allies to take part. At 10:50 am airport workers will assemble at two points: Ramp side at Terminal 1, Gate 101 in the Ozone followed by a march; and Terminal side at the Inukshuk, Terminal 1 Departures level which will feature speakers and a prayer from a Chaplain from the Airport Interfaith Chapel. At 11:00 pm another ceremony will be held at T1 Gate 101 for evening ramp side workers with a march and moment of silence.

Ottawa Construction Worker Olivier Bruneau

On the morning of March 23, 25-year-old construction worker Olivier Bruneau was critically injured by falling ice while working in a 31-metre-deep condominium construction pit on Preston Street in Ottawa and later died en route to hospital. Bruneau was an apprentice carpenter and member of Carpenters Union Local 93 from Gatineau, Quebec.

He was employed by Bellai Brothers Construction Ltd. which is contracted by real estate developer Claridge Homes for work on the condominium which is advertised as being the tallest building in Ottawa when complete.

It subsequently came to light that Bruneau and other workers had complained to management repeatedly that the huge chunks of ice which had amassed on the sides of the pit were a serious danger with the rising temperatures and melting. One worker told media that he had raised the issue less than 24 hours before the tragedy.

On February 5 a worker had been hit by falling ice at the same site but was not critically injured. Media report that the Ontario Ministry of Labour investigated the February incident but no measures were taken to prevent a similar incident or worse. Inspectors from the City of Ottawa had visited the site six times but issued no fines or orders under the Ontario Building Code Act. Photographs from Ottawa Fire Services of the rescue operation show enormous masses of ice lining the inner walls of the pit.

Sean McKenny, president of the Ottawa & District Labour Council said the organization is calling for criminal charges to be laid. "All those workers that were working in the pit were subjected to working in an unsafe environment," McKenny told media.

The factors that led to this tragic death are no mystery as in Ottawa it is an annual event that melting causes large ice buildup to be dislodged. It is as regular as the seasons and plain to see for all the workers. It was not a question of whether but when. The private monopoly interests and governments that work for their benefit are not blind but the life of a worker and health and safety concerns are considered "costs" to be calculated and disregarded as a block to making money.

After the death of Bruneau the Ministry of Labour announced an investigation into the accident and issued orders to real estate developer Claridge Homes to ensure the walls of the excavation are clear of loose rock and submit a plan for review as to how the ice buildup will be removed, as well as documentation on the site plan and safety talks related to falling ice. Bellai Brothers Construction Ltd. was ordered to provide documentation on Bruneau's employment and follow various basic safety standards such as ensuring ladders are on firm footing and that equipment is used in accordance with manufacturers' operating manuals.

TML Daily notes that the Ministry has used the death of a worker as the starting point for demanding basic compliance with legal standards. However it did not even issue an order requiring that all ice be cleared from the pit walls before work resume or for the site to be shut down immediately until all safety requirements pass inspection, and that all workers be compensated for lost time and be protected from reprisal. Furthermore, charges should be laid against the developers and construction companies involved and the Bruneau family must be fully compensated.

Death and Injury in Crane Accident in Montreal

On April 10 one worker was killed and another seriously injured while washing windows five storeys up on the Paul-Gerin-Lajoie pavilion of the Universite du Quebec a Montreal at Rene-Levesque Blvd. The injured worker remained in a critical state for a number of days but luckily his condition has improved to stable.

The two workers fell more than 50 feet when the crane holding the cage in which they were working overturned because the truck on which it was mounted suddenly tilted. Other workers washing windows on the site were in a state of shock and had to be taken to the hospital as well. The man who died was the father of the worker who was injured.

An investigation has since revealed that the crane operator did not secure the truck properly on solid ground and as a result the truck leaned over under the weight of the crane. Also known now is that the crane operator had no formal training in the standard operation of a crane. In Quebec, the training of crane operators working on non-construction sites is not mandatory. Non-construction crane operation is officially considered less hazardous and it is left to private interests to decide the qualifications of the operators. There are currently moves to make crane operation non-mandatory on construction sites as well.

Workers Speak Out to Defend their Rights

On the occasion of the April 28 Day of Mourning TML Daily is publishing statements from workers in steel, construction, the railways, forestry, the public service and representatives of injured workers' and migrant workers' organizations discussing the problems in their sectors and how they are working to defend health and safety. They show the all-sided attacks taking place against the rights of workers and the challenges workers are taking up to turn things around.

Mike Da Prat, President, United Steelworkers Local 2251,
Essar Steel Algoma

This company has gone from hazard identification-based safety to behaviour-based safety. In other words, they are quick to discipline. We have strong language and very good terms of reference for the joint health and safety committee but the actions of the company and the actions of the government have destroyed our internal health and safety system, to the point that I had to send the health and safety representatives back to work because there were reprisals against them.

Then when we went under bankruptcy protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), I did not have the ability to file grievances because they are all stayed under the bankruptcy protection procedures. The company is taking advantage of the CCAA but the CCAA did not change their attitude. We were in full-fledged war with them before the CCAA. What they want to do is create a whole new health and safety committee even though ours is described in detail. Instead of the health and safety reps getting their directions and reporting to the union chairman they want them to report to managers.

Meanwhile, we have asbestos issues, we have the conveyor lines that bring the coke way up to the top of the blast furnace that are in a bad shape, our record keeping is in shambles and yet they go around saying that we are doing great. They are under-reporting. They discovered that the Ontario government does not have the guts to enforce the law.

These multinationals are coming in, they push against the laws, and if the law pushes back then they know they have reached the limit. They are just trying whatever they want to do. They have got lawyers on just in case, and then they find out they don't need the lawyers because the responsible people in the Ministry don't do anything. I blame the Wynne government for that. The multinationals are challenging the laws the way the local companies would never do. The law is not pushing back.

Simon Lévesque, Director of Health and Safety, FTQ-Construction

The main problem we have is that, more and more, the employers abdicate their responsibilities regarding the health and safety of the workers and are putting the onus on the workers themselves. Article 51 of the Quebec Act respecting occupational health and safety clearly says that the responsibility rests with the employers. They have been trying to remove this article for a long time and every day they blame the workers for the deaths and injuries that happen at work. We keep saying No!, the companies have to do what it takes to protect workers. They are the ones who have the means to protect us.

The daily pressure on the construction sites is to put the onus on workers. We have had to intervene in cases such as on buildings several storeys high where there were no guardrails to prevent workers or material from falling. According to the companies, the only issue safety-wise is that workers must wear a safety harness that is tied to an anchor point. That is basically it. To wear a safety harness does not protect workers from falling. For the companies, this is also a matter of using repression: "If you are not tied, you are out!"

Job security does not exist in the construction sector. If a worker refuses to do the job because it is unsafe he is told that other workers are available who will be willing to do the job. The worker can raise issues, or representatives of the health and safety compensation board can come on site and demand that changes be made, but suddenly when Friday comes, the worker is not needed anymore and is told not to come back the next week. This amounts to firing. Employers want workers who are in top shape and very productive and the load that is put on them is greater every day, including looking after their own health and safety. Disciplining is on the rise -- not gradual disciplining, but immediate firing to make an example for others. When construction slows down, as is the case in Quebec right now, there is more pressure on workers and the injuries are more severe.

One of our main demands is to have unionized safety representatives on the sites. On some of the biggest construction sites, we have been able to negotiate to get safety representatives who are doing only that -- going on the construction sites, denouncing hazards, talking to workers, creating awareness, not using threats against workers. We have won this even if the sections of the health and safety Act that concern construction and prescribe that there be safety representatives have never been promulgated, and the Act was passed in 1979!

Doug Finnson, President, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference

Our main problem is worker fatigue. We keep on being asked to validate our concerns. "Show us the data," we are told. The data has been there for 40 years. Among other things, the data is in the 1990s when we had the CANALERT study and recommendations in Calgary. The data is in the Railway Safety Act Review and the published documents from Transport Canada. I don't understand why workers have to keep on demonstrating that there is fatigue in the railways when report after report confirms there is fatigue in the railways. For our opponents and the government, it is as if every year again and again the workers cannot prove that there is fatigue, then somehow our concerns are invalid.

Worker fatigue is different in different locations. At CP worker fatigue is worse. It is worse than it was ever before because of the changes that CP management has made in how they treat workers, how they harass the workers and how they violate the collective agreement and force workers into dangerous situations. At CN, it is different, because our conductors have been able to negotiate fatigue management plan where they schedule time pools along the recommendations of CANALERT from the 1990s.

At CN we have a negotiated agreement that is being implemented across the country. At CP, we had time pools in Calgary. CP cancelled them all, destroyed them all. We were able to go to arbitration and regain back the fatigue management plan time pool for the engineers but we were not successful for the conductors. So half of our Calgary workers have it and the other half don't have it. Time pools refer to a fixed window of time, either morning, afternoon or night, when workers can be called for duty. If they are not called within that window then they are not to be called until the next day. It is a lot like shift work. Within this, we are able to build in fatigue counter-measures at away-from-home terminals.

We want to have a comprehensive scientific background to our system and that is what CANALERT provided in the 1990s. We have been fighting for that for the last 10 years. We have been on strike twice in 2012 and 2015 and each time in large part it was for fatigue issues. CP says that they want to change the ways we are paid and then we will get more sleep. If we pay you less money and make you work more often, they say, you will be safer. We got the CEO of CP on record, we have a recording where he says he wants Canadian railroaders to work 60 hours a week with no overtime. That is what he wants.

CP is lobbying the government to change the law so that it favours CP. We are fighting for the workers, we want the government to say No!, the regulation should be consistent with fatigue science and with CANALERT and the studies we already have. We've got the studies. CP says that they are trying to give us rest, that we are not booking maximum rest. The truth is that when our guys book maximum rest, CP charges them before the Labour Board for work stoppage. This is the issue we are facing.

Bob Kingston, Co-Chair, Public Service
Mental Health Joint Task Force

Psychological health and safety is probably at the top of our concerns at the moment as far as the health and safety of the workers is concerned. We have got the tools, we have to get people trained. The biggest obstacle would be training. I am co-chairing the Joint Task Force between the Treasury Board of Canada and the Public Service Alliance of Canada on mental health in the workplace. The largest number of absences from the workplace is related to some kind of issue around psychological health and safety, whether it is stress, burnout or mental illness. These problems are not being dealt with properly. We have got employers across the country denying that it is even part of the health and safety scope of things. They are trying to say that mental health is not a workplace issue when it is and there are so many things that go on in the workplace and burn people out.

The failure to properly accommodate people when they need it burns people out. The failure to properly get people back in the workplace if they have been off burns people out. There are so many workplace practices that have a negative impact on the psychological health and safety of the workplace that they need to be fixed. It is about how you treat people. You can put together the best programs in the world, but if you are still treating people like crap, you are still going to burn them out. The training is going to be very important because what we are trying to do is to humanize the workplaces and get them thinking more about how they treat each other than how many files they can close. We are trying to get management and people in general to be willing to talk about it more openly and to put it on the table as a health and safety issue with the health and safety committee.

We help people understand that you can analyse it and come up with preventive measures to deal with it just like you do it with any other hazards. We want to take a close look at what the causes are and what irritants are in the workplace and come up with recommendations to fix those. In term of the working conditions, to do more with less as a constant desire to do nothing else than increase productivity and everything else be damned, yes it is causing mental problems.

It is all about more and more with less and less, and people are definitely feeling the squeeze. It is all about how many phone calls you get through, you are put in stalls, you are monitored, it is not about what good you to do to these people you are helping, it is all about how many of them you can process. It all has a huge effect on people's mental health.

Monique Déry, Health and Safety Committee President,
Public Service Alliance of Canada (Quebec)

A major problem in Quebec is the fact that the Act respecting occupational health and safety does not apply to all the workers the same way. For example, we have more than 20,000 members in the university sector and they are not covered by the full content of the Act because they do not belong to what is called a "priority sector." We are asking that the law be changed so that student-workers who are already facing non-standard work schedules besides studying be covered by the full content of the law. In Quebec, more than 80 per cent of the workers are not fully covered by the law [The Act has four major safety components that not all workers can access, depending on the sector they work in: the joint health and safety committee; the safety representative; the prevention program; and the health program – TML Ed. Note].

PSAC-Quebec also represents more than 20,000 federal public service workers. One of the major problems is all the cutbacks that were done in federal public servants' positions including the cutbacks in the inspector staffing levels. We are short of people, short of inspectors in transportation, in the food sector, everywhere. When workers retire, they are not getting replaced, and a worker has to do the job of this worker besides his or her own.

We are demanding that the federal government repeal the changes that were done in the system, reinvest in the federal public sector and bring the services to at least the level they were at years ago so that the well being of the people is looked after. Our people are exhausted and have to take long leaves of absence because they are sick. All this also has a negative impact on the public.

Peter Page, Coordinator, Justice for Injured Workers Newspaper

There are a number of things that need to be addressed. The fact that the Ontario government is claiming that to ensure the sustainability of the compensation system, they need to address the unfunded liability. If the sustainability of the system is in such a crisis that they need to gather all this money to deal with, why then are they giving assessment rates cuts to employers, to the tune of $2 billion a year. Assessment rates are what the employers have to pay, this is their insurance premium if you want. Why giving money back to the employers while they give nothing to the injured workers? Who is the system for? Not to mention the money the employers get through experience rating, when they get rebates that are based not on their actual safety record but on their total claims costs.

The Wynne government, the WSIB are doing it again on the backs of the injured workers. It is the injured workers that are paying for the unfunded liability. Who is injured here: the worker of the employer? They are cutting assessment rates by over 40 per cent. They took that money off the backs of the injured workers through cutting their benefits, things like preexisting conditions, just denying the workers' claims in any means and ways they could. This is the thing that affects everything else.

Also there is the doctors' issue. The Board is saying that they are going to make the decision on whether this worker is well enough, not the treating physician, not the family doctor. Doctors feel that their opinions are not being valued by the Board and the Board is contracting out to other doctors to get them the reports they want. These Board doctors are making decisions on a paper review, they are not actually seeing the worker. Most of the time, their recommendations are against what the treating physician has ordered.

Chris Ramsaroop, Spokesperson, Justicia For Migrant Workers

Migrant workers work under extremely exploitative conditions. Their vulnerability is a result of restrictive federal immigration laws that tie migrant workers to their employer and weak provincial labour regimes that deny migrant workers basic rights while working in Canada. Within the workplace migrant workers are subjected to pesticide and chemical exposure, long hours of repetitive tasks undertaken at an extremely fast pace. Farm workers have consistently complained about piece rate, and the impact that it has on their health and well being. Piece rate is a system that pays a worker by the crop. Payment under the piece rate is often arbitrary of what employers determine the rate to be which creates uncertainty of what workers will actually make. Often migrant workers once injured or sick are returned to their home country without receiving proper compensation under our WSIB system or adequate health care.

Migrant farm workers are at a heightened risk of injury and death as a result of their indentured employment in Canada. It's time that both levels of government are forced to take a stand to protect their rights and end the exploitation. As workers we must show solidarity with injured migrant workers to end the apartheid conditions they endure while in Canada and provide migrants permanent residency status to end the employers' control over their labour.

Ben Corpuz, Filipino Workers' Network

Five to six thousand workers are forced to leave the Philippines every day to find work to provide for their families. Almost 20 per cent of these workers come to Canada and half of that number come to Ontario to work in the hotel and food industry, as live-in-care givers in private homes, senior's residences and other types of what we call precarious work. Canada is the single largest destination of migrant or temporary workers from the Philippines. These workers are subject to long working hours, few benefits, no over-time pay and are not protected by the Labour Standards Act or have legal recourse when their rights are violated. If they complain about anything they are sent back to the Philippines.

This means that there is a high incidence of health and safety problems that Filipino migrant and temporary workers face every day. They are often abused by their employers because they are so vulnerable. There have even been cases of workers being killed on the job such as live-in-caregiver Marites Angan who died in 2014 after falling down and suffering a head injury in her employer's garage. No one knows the circumstances of her death. Who is going to look after the 14-year-old son she left behind?

We are demanding that all migrant workers and live-in care-givers receive permanent status when they arrive in Canada. If their work is needed by Canada, then they should be treated like human beings and have their rights as workers upheld including their right to decent wages and working conditions with proper health and safety protections. These are basic human rights.

Sucha Deepak, Stand Up for the North, Prince George, BC

As governments and their agencies abdicate their social responsibility, enforce monopoly right over public right and let the monopolies off scot free, the necessity to sort out the problem of how to hold them to account becomes increasingly urgent.

This will be on the minds of workers and their families in the forestry communities in Northern British Columbia on April 28. For more than three years forestry workers, communities and indigenous peoples in BC have been demanding an independent inquiry into the fires and explosions that destroyed the Babine and Lakeland sawmills in 2012 killing four workers and injuring 44. The workers, communities and families have been left with lasting scars and great indignation towards those who refuse to see justice done.

WorkSafeBC declared the accident preventable, but as of today no one has been charged with criminal negligence for the killing and no legally-binding recommendation has been made to make such workplaces safer.

In these communities and elsewhere in Canada, collectives of workers are fighting to hold the companies, governments and agencies tasked with upholding health and safety standards accountable for their negligence so that these tragedies and crimes do not happen again.