On April 28, as we remember workers who have been killed or injured on the job, we must also remember to keep up the fight for the living.

We at UFCW Canada have fought to ensure that all workers – not just our members – have the right to a healthy and safe working environment.
We have developed education programs, and lobbied for legislation to protect workers who are not covered by current health-and-safety laws. We have championed for those who did not have a voice in this country to receive compensation when they were injured while in Canada. In particular, seasonal migrant agriculture workers who come to work in Canada are in some jurisdictions not accorded the same rights as Canadian workers. They have come to rely on UFCW Canada to represent them.
 

Shamefully In Alberta, all agriculture workers, migrant and domestic, continue to be excluded from the protection of the province’s health-and-safety legislation, so we continue to pressure the Alberta government (as we did successfully in Ontario) to extend the legislation to cover workers doing some of the hardest and most dangerous work there is.

We also continue to fight for the rights of young workers and their safety while on the job. Of all workers, it is workers under the age of 25 who as a group have the highest percentage of workplace injuries and deaths. Their inexperience is one factor, but the fact that most of them work in non-union workplaces is another.

So our battle is not over. It has just begun. We even have employers benefiting off the backs of injured workers because of a system that provides an incentive for employers to falsify workplace injury reports. For instance, it was recently revealed that in Ontario many employers were receiving rebates from the compensation board, under its Experience Rating Incentive Program, as a reward for reporting a low number of workplace injuries. But the reporting by many companies was inaccurate. Some Injuries went unreported, and from 1998 to 2007 refunds by the compensation board to Ontario employers exceeded surcharges by $880 million.

If it is happening in one province, can it be happening in other provinces across this country? It can, if provincial workplace insurance boards structure premiums based on reports from companies that aren’t independently followed-up and verified.

Governments and companies say that workplace health-and-safety is important, but the reality is they will only act when they are forced to. So we must remain vigilant that health-and-safety legislation is comprehensive, applied to all, monitored and enforced; and that injured workers — not their employers — are the beneficiaries of workplace compensation systems.

Yes, we will remember those who have been killed or injured on the job this April 28, and yes we will continue to fight for the living — every day of the year.

In solidarity,

Wayne Hanley, National President

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For a listing of Day of Mourning events contact your local labour council,
or your UFCW Canada local union, or check some of the Day of Mourning events listed in the next column.