News Note: Delegation lobbies feds for "No more Westrays"

Private members bill would implement recommendations from inquiry into 1992 Nova Scotia mining disaster

  OTTAWA - Howard Sim isn't trying to put corporate executives in jail.
  "We just want to hold them to their responsibilities, so on-the-job deaths don't get out of hand," says the general vice-president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, who's on Parliament Hill these days as part of a unique lobby effort to increase corporate liability for avoidable workplace deaths and injuries.
 

I drive by Westray every day on my way to work. There are 11 bodies still down there, including my best friend Glen. Don't tell me to take another route to work, the other route goes by the monument. It won't go away. - Howard Sim, V.P., Nova Scotia Federation of Labour

  Sim is in Ottawa for two weeks, along with 10 other United Steelworkers from across the country, doing a systematic lobby of all MPs on behalf of a private members bill introduced by NDP leader Alexa McDonough. The bill contains recommendations from the public inquiry into the Westray Mine disaster of 1992, which Steelworkers national director Lawrence McBrearty has called "a symbol of everything that is wrong with workplace health and safety".
  "Canadians, whether they are connected to the mining industry or not, should not view Westray as an isolated or unconnected event. It is part and parcel of our blind faith in corporations to make the right decisions on behalf of workers... regulation and enforcement are absolutely imperative to protecting workers lives."
  The United Steelworkers were organizing the workers at the Mine at the time of the explosion and have campaigned consistently ever since to change the laws under the slogan "No More Westrays". Sim, a 42-year old welder at Trenton Works, notes that his fellow lobbyists, from across the country, are still deeply moved by the 8-year old disaster that killed 26 miners.
  "I've been telling them, and I'll be telling MPs, that I drive by Westray every day on my way to work. There are 11 bodies still down there, including my best friend Glen. Don't tell me to take another route to work, the other route goes by the monument. It won't go away. With tougher laws, at least we can rest easier."
  Part of the healing process for Sim has involved talking to young people about on-the-job risks for young workers. "Since I found out that 60 young workers, aged 15-24, are killed annually on the job and 60,000 of them are injured, I've hit every grade 11 and 12 class in Pictou Country."

Get More/Do More
For further information or to talk to Howard Sim from Ottawa, call Tracy Morey 613-730-0140 or visit www.uswa.ca.

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