May 12 to 14, 2008

TORONTO – A formal signing of an alliance between the United Steelworkers (USW) and Environmental Defence will form part of the union’s National Health, Safety and Environment Conference from May 12 to 14 at the Doubletree International Plaza hotel in Toronto.

The alliance will be announced on Monday, May 12 at around 2 p.m., following a speech by USW International President Leo W. Gerard. It will be signed by USW National Director Ken Neumann, the union’s three district directors from across Canada and the Executive Director of Environmental Defence, Dr. Rick Smith. Smith will speak earlier, around 11 a.m. the same day.

 

The conference will include panel discussions on a number of important areas, starting with a special pre-conference session on Sunday evening, May 11, called ‘Toxins Within Us’. Among the panelists for that session is former Ontario environment minister Ruth Grier, who will do a presentation on breast cancer.

 

In addition to the environmental alliance, Monday will feature an environmental issues panel and a panel on the international perspective, which will include exiled Mexican labour leader Napoleon Gomez. As well, a panel on workplace fatalities will feature the campaign to stop the high rate of fatalities in the forests of BC as well as the personal story of a young man who lost his father to a preventable workplace accident.

 

Tuesday, May 13, will be dedicated to individual workshops. Wednesday, May 14, will have panels on injured workers and occupational disease.

 

Guests participating on panels will also include Dr. Ibcia Santabañez, a Chilean neurosurgeon whose recent book reveals the impact of altitude and sleep patterns on the lives of high-altitude miners.

 

“This conference will clearly link our health and safety with the environment,” said Ken Neumann. “Faced with issues of global warming and the abuse of the land, air and water, our health and safety is increasingly compromised by changes in the environment. Workers must raise the alarm and put pressure on employers and governments to solve the crisis.”

 

 

 

6-May-08 HSE 2008 DRAFT AGENDA     SUNDAY MAY 11     4:00-7:00pm REGISTRATION 6:00pm NEW DELEGATES ORIENTATION 7:00pm CALL TO ORDER 7:30pm TOXINS WITHIN US?   ·         Toxic Nation (Cassandra Polyzou, Environmental Defence) ·         USW Get the Lead Out Campaign (Mary Lou Scott, USW Local 1-500) ·         Preventing Cancer (Ruth Grier, Toronto, Ontario) ·         USW Toxins Testing Results (Debbie Kumar, USW Local 3950) 9:00pm ADJOURNMENT 9:00pm HOSPITALITY SUITE     MONDAY MAY 12     8:00-9:00am REGISTRATION 9:15am OPENING OF CONFERENCE 9:45am ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES   ·      Climate Change (Francois Tanguay, Equiterre) ·      The Bali Climate Change Conference (Carolyn Egan, USW Local 8300) ·      Flin Flon Soil Study (Tom Lindsey, USW Local 7106) ·      Illegal Logging (Scott Lunny, USW District 3) 11:10am NATIONAL DIRECTOR'S ADDRESS, KEN NEUMANN 11:30am DR RICK SMITH, Environmental Defence     12:00-1:30pm LUNCH BREAK     1:30pm INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS, LEO GERARD 2:30pm AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE   ·      The Effect of Altitude on Health (Dr Ibcia Santibanez, Chile ·      High Altitude Mining Jorge Flores, Quebrada Blanca Minining Union, Chile ? (Napolean Gomez, National Union of Mine and Metal Workers, Los Mineros) 3:45pm FATALITIES AT WORK   ·      BC Forest Fatalities Campaign (Steve Hunt, USW District 3 Director) ·      British Petroleum Experience (Kim Nibarger, United Steelworkers) ·      The Jeff Turner Case (Barry House, USW Local 1005) ·      Struggle for Justice (Harjinder Badial, Toronto, Ontario)    4:55pm TUESDAY WORKSHOP PREVIEW 5:00pm ADJOURNMENT 7:00pm HOSPITALITY SUITE     TUESDAY MAY 13     9:00-5:00pm WORKSHOPS   ·         Accident Investigation ·         Workplace Violence ·         Making change through Ergonomics ·         Effective Union HS&E Committees ·         Occupational Disease Investigation ·         Winning H&S Campaigns ·         Workers' Compensation Issues ·         New Jobs in Sustainable Economy   5:00pm ADJOURNMENT 5:30-7:00pm RECEPTION – A Drink for Tony Mazzocchi “The Man who Hated Work and Loved Labor” 7:00pm HOSPITALITY SUITE     WEDNESDAY MAY 14     9:00pm CALL TO ORDER 9:15am INJURED WORKERS   ·      The Value of Injured Worker Groups (Richard Hudon, Board member, Injured Worker's Consultant Legal Clinic) ·      A District 3 WCB Committees (Harvey Levin, USW Local 5442) ·      A District 6 Injured Worker Program (Gerry Leblanc, STAC Injured Workers Program) ·      A District 5 Injured Worker Program (tbd) ·      Occupational Disease Clinics (Steve Johnson, USW Local 2251)       10:30am PLENARY SURVEY 11:00am HEALTH CARE PRIVATIZATION and the WORKERS' COMPENSATION SYSTEM in CANADA (Teresa Healy, CLC) 11:30am             OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE   ·      Victim of Occupational Disease (Frank Hammond, USW Local 5795) ·      The Legal Struggle (George Kean, USW Local 5795) ·      The Manganese File (Pierre Thibodeau, USW Local 5778) ·      Trail Asbestos Victims (Gord Menelaws, USW Local 480) ·      A Widow's Perspective (Carol Butterfield, Stonewall, Manitoba) 12:45pm NATIONAL DIRECTOR'S CLOSING REMARKS 1:00pm ADJOURNMENT