Despite unanimous opposition from workers, their unions and organizations that defend injured workers, the Quebec government is pushing ahead, ramping up its preparations to pass Bill 59, An Act to modernize the occupational health and safety regime, in the fall session of the National Assembly.

The Commission of the National Assembly that is studying Bill 59 clause by clause has now gone through all the changes that the Bill makes to Quebec's Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases. It amends provision in the law that deal with treatment, rehabilitation and compensation for workers who are injured on the job or suffer from job-related illnesses. The Commission is now reviewing Bill 59's amendments to the Act respecting occupational health and safety, the legislation that deals with prevention.

Organizations that defend injured workers state clearly that the changes that were made by the Commission in the course of the study do not change the fact that Bill 59 is a major attack on workers' rights whose official aim remains to "save" $4 billion for employers over the next 10 years on the backs of injured and sick workers.

Labour Minister Boulet's statement to the Commission that its work expresses a spirit of harmony shows how the current political process is disconnected from the strivings of the working people to affirm their rights and the rights of all and from their actual living and working conditions. Bill 59 further entrenches the outlook of the government and the rich that workers are disposable, forcing injured and sick workers to fend for themselves and eliminating the voice of workers and the role of workers' organizations in determining what constitutes health and safety at work.

Workers' Forum fully supports workers' demand that Bill 59 be withdrawn and that workers must have the decisive say in ensuring that their working conditions are healthy and safe.

Bill 59 treats the health and safety of Quebec workers as a commodity to be sold at the lowest price to employers. For example, I can tell you about the situation in my plant. I am released from my job to do health and safety work full-time. I sit on the plant's joint health and safety committee which has three union members and three employer representatives. We already have to work hard to make gains in health and safety at the plant. Now, with Bill 59, the time that a representative like myself will be released to do this work will be drastically reduced, unless it is written into the collective agreement. This bill would give employers carte blanche to make these decisions without any recourse. There would no longer be any joint decision on any aspect, on the plant's prevention program, on the choice of the doctor in charge, on the health program. You can say what you want, but with Bill 59 it is the employer who has the decision-making power in almost all matters. With this bill there will no longer be any equilibrium or negotiation on health and safety matters.

Moreover, if the multi-establishment provision in the law is adopted, it would be possible for Rio Tinto Fer et Titane, which has three establishments, including one very far from us in Havre Saint-Pierre, to have only one prevention representative for all three establishments. How could a representative serve the members effectively? How could he respond adequately to their needs, understand the conditions in their plant? The representative must be close to his members.

Once again, it is presented as a cost for the employers. According to them, protecting the health and safety of workers is too expensive. This will be less expensive for the employers. But as far as we are concerned you cannot put a price on a worker's life. The government is asking the workers to make concessions -- the bill is all about concessions. They are doing this even though the CNESST has never had more funds. The government is demanding concessions under these conditions, so just imagine what their demands would be if the CNESST coffers were not so full.

In my plant, where there are only about 200 workers, I currently have a binder full of files on workers who were injured and are either on temporary assignment or off work. Work-related injuries happen all the time. Sometimes a worker could be off for three years, sometimes three weeks. Not a week goes by that I don't fill out some paperwork for the CNESST, either for a follow-up or for a new claim. As far as injuries are concerned, there are a lot of back injuries, hand injuries, shoulder injuries. These are the problems that come up frequently. As for occupational diseases, we have a lot of cases of occupational deafness, and that is one of the targets of the bill. In our plants, we have very high noise levels. The current law is a minimum and we are trying to make gains through the representations we make on behalf of workers. Bill 59 would increase the threshold for the recognition of occupational deafness and deprive workers of compensation.

I could give many other examples.

It is clear that we cannot let this bill pass. There is always a need for balance in the workplace. Employers are getting richer and richer. Even when we have a collective agreement, they use more and more means to challenge everything we do, so as to get even richer. What we have is our union solidarity. We have managed to work together to help our people who are on strike or locked out. With Bill 59, all the union locals and all the workers in Quebec including workers who are not unionized, must rally together and tell the government that you cannot put a price on the health and safety of workers. All Quebec workers will suffer if this bill is passed. We must mobilize, we must stand up against this. In health and safety, I don't understand what would justify any retrogression. We should be moving forward. No one should lose their life at work. Enough people have already given up their lives. We need to move forward and make sure that everyone comes back from work safe and healthy.

(Translated from the original french by Workers' Forum)