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Local 2009 hosted the annual Safety Training and Day of Mourning ceremonies, April 28 and 29. More than thirty steelworker health and safety advocates joined hundreds of workers, employers, government officals and worksafe representatives at the Fraser Valley Day of mourning ceremonies in Abbotsford. "It's a day to think about what happened and why, to think about how workplace fatalities occur, how they hurt people, their families, their co-workers and their communities. And to consider ways to ensure they don't happen again." Remember; its not enough for us to be sad because of all these injuried workers and lost lives. We need to get angry. And from that anger must come our determination to make real change in our workplaces. Think about hazards and eliminate them. Face up to abuses and end them. Stand up to negligence and make it stop. Safety is our right but it is also our responsibility. The Steelworker safety advocates also participated in a day and 1/2 training in Accident Investigation. They recieved valuable information from BC Federation Safety Representatives and WCB Representatives as part of the instruction. Our Local remains committed to ensuring our members have the necessary skills to make work safe and protect workers rights. We mourn for the dead. But we fight for the living.
April 9th was an amazing night at the Local Union Hall as everyone enjoyed an entertaining evening and showed it by their generousity. The Laff Riot Girls headed up by Ardell Brophy, Vice President of USW2009 provide the evenings laughs as she and five comedians took the stage. Leann Kemple served double duty as MC and Auctioneer where she encouraged those bidding on cakes, chocolate covered strawberrys and other baked goods to dig deep. And they did, as more than $7500 was raised to support "Team USW" - Brian and Earl in their efforts to conquer cancer as participants in the years' Ride to Conquer Cancer.
President Manjit Sidhu commented on how proud he was of the local as everything went so smoothly and everyone had such a great evening. A big thanks goes out to everyone who help, donated, entertained or was there to support "The Ride to Conquer Cancer"
The Local Union’s 2011 annual delegated meeting was held on Saturday March 26. In addition to regular business, delegates and guest watched a video message from International President Leo Gerard regarding the issues facing the labour movement in the United States and how we could be facing the same attacks on working people here in BC if we’re not out front supporting our labour friendly political party, the NDP.
We heard from Los Mineros Union President Napoleon Gomez who spoke about his Unions continuing struggles in Mexico. Other guest speakers included Steve Hunt Director of District 3, Bob Matters Wood Council Chair, NDP MLA’s Raj Chohan and NDP leadership candidate Adrian Dix.
The delegates debated and passed nine resolutions that included issues such as Health Care Funding, Safety and Log Exports.
A fifty/fifty draw for the Ride to Conquer Cancer raised over $400.00. Brian Harder who is participating in the ride had the winning ticket and donated his winnings to the cause.
After lunch the agenda included a presentation on the Steelworker Humanity Fund. The afternoon also included elections for the Education, Women’s and Safety committee’s. Manjit Sidhu, Local Union President thanks all those that have come forward and will be involved with the Local Union committees and also a thank you to everyone who attended for making the meeting a success.
On Friday March 25, 2011 International President spent the day at the Union Hall. Brother Gerard, Ken Neumann Canadian National Director, Napoleon Gomez and Steve Hunt met with the Officer’s who were also at the hall that day preparing for the Annual Delegated Meeting.
Brother Gerard talked about the some of the important work that the Union is doing internationally, including the efforts to end disputes in Mexico. He also talked about the very volatile political scene in the United States and warned that with elections looming both Federally and Provincially, we need to make our members aware of the risk of attacks on working people when extreme right wing governments are elected. He emphasized that to be successful we must mobilize our membership and get the vote out. Unfortunately Brother Gerard could not stay for our annual meeting but he did agree to say a few words that we taped and played at the meeting.
Workers at the Dura-Ramp Inc. steel manufacturing plant on King Road in Abbotsford have unanimously voted to join the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2009. The 10 new USW members produce high quality metal ramps for customers including the US Military and several Fortune 500 companies.
“We congratulate these new members on becoming Steelworkers and welcome them into our local union,” says Local 2009 president Manjit Sidhu. “We look forward to working with them to achieve better wages and working conditions at Dura-Ramp.”
On Friday afternoon local union business agent Peter Peats and organizer Pablo Guerra will meet with crew members. In addition, all the new members are invited to the Local union’s annual delegated meeting this Saturday March 26, which commences at 10 am at the local union hall located on the second floor at 9292 200th Street in Langley.
Sidhu says that the local will soon contact the company to schedule meetings and a schedule for collective bargaining. The local will also soon hold formal meetings with crew members to develop collective bargaining demands to present to the employer.
During the organizing campaign, workers expressed their desire for improvements to wage, benefit and working conditions, along with respect and dignity from their employer. Occupational health and safety issues, including sanitary conditions, are also workersʼ concerns, says Guerra, who worked on the organizing campaign.
USW Local 2009 represents over 4,000 workers in the Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland, in a wide array of workplaces, including, sawmilling, logging, steel service centres, steel manufacturing, wood products remanufacturing, nurseries and greenhouses, plastics, transportation and trucking, call centres, gaming facilities, offices and warehouses, auto parts, health care facilities, and universities.
By Gordon Hamilton copied from the Vancouver Sun
The private prosecution against Weyerhaeuser Inc. over the 2004 death of New Westminster sawmill worker Lyle Hewer (member of United Steelworker 1-3567 now USW2009) moved one step further in the courts Wednesday when provincial court judge Terese Alexander ruled that a summons be issued to Weyerhaeuser. Judge Alexander made the decision to issue process against Weyerhaeuser in a closed hearing, after hearing the evidence supplied by the United Steelworkers union. Weyerhaeuser has yet to present it's side of the story. The summons to appear gives the forest company that opportunity.
Hewer was 55 on Nov. 17, 2004, when he died a horrible death; a death that the United Steelworkers believes was totally preventable. He volunteered to enter the bottom of a hopper - called a hog - filled with wood debris to clear a jam. The debris came loose and smothered him. Although against WorkSafe BC regulations, the practice of entering the hopper from below was a common practice at the mill.
A subsequent investigation found the company showed willful and reckless violation of safety regulations and Weyerhaeuser was fined $297,000 by WorkSafe BC, the largest fine ever levied by the agency. Despite a recommendation from New Westminster police that charges be laid, Crown counsel chose not to proceed with charges, arguing that although it would be in the public interest to prosecute, there wasn't a substantial likelihood that it would be successful.
The Steelworkers then launched their private prosecution last March under the Westray Amendment to the Criminal Code, passed in March 2004, in response to the 1992 deaths of 26 coal mine workers at Nova Scotia's infamous Westray mine. The Steelworkers pushed for the amendment but have yet to see a successful prosecution. They are hoping the Hewer fatality will be the first, even if they have to do all the legwork themselves. "The judge in the case has determined that Weyerhaeuser should be served a summons to appear in court. It's huge news for us," said Steelworkers regional director Steve Hunt in an interview after the court hearing. "We have a criminal code; a worker died; the New Westminster police levied charges; WorkSafe BC levied the highest fine in history, and we just looked at this death. . . . and said this is just not right. Why do we have the law on the books? Why do we have a criminal code at all if people go to work to die and there is no deterrent to the law? That's what it was put in for." Hunt said.
The next step is for the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch within the Attorney-General's ministry to decide whether to take over the case or to enter a stay of proceedings on the Steelworkers' charge. The branch has a policy not to allow a private prosecution to proceed, and a decision could be made within a month.
Vancouver lawyer Glen Orris, representing the Steelworkers in court, said in an interview that under the normal course of events, the Attorney-General would step in at this point to either take over the case or let it die.
"We have, I hope, demonstrated to the attorney-general a different way of looking at the potential evidence or a different way of looking at the relevant law," Orris said. "I hope, obviously, that the Attorney will take over the prosecution and run with it."
The mill where Hewer died was shut down in 2007.
by Kim Polloch
Until recently, the federal Conservative government said it supported the Canadian Labour Congress’ call for improvements to the Canada Pension Plan. Then Conservative MPs did a sudden about face.
The CLC plan would allow doubling CPP benefits for everyone, as well as increasing Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement for all retirees. Currently workers and employers pay 4.95% of their pay into the CPP (up to a current “Yearly Maximum Pensionable Earnings” limit of $47,200 per year). Because the CPP is so large and efficient a fund, doubling workers’ benefits would require just modest increases in employers’ and employees’ contributions; in fact, it could be paid for by increasing by a mere 0.43% what workers currently save through CPP contributions earnings each year for 7 years.
For a worker earning $47,200 or more per year, the initial cost of gradually doubling future CPP benefits works out to about 9c/hour, or $3.57 a week. That’s less than the cost of a newspaper subscription. For someone earning $30,000 per year, the initial cost would be about 6c/hour, or $2.27 a week. That’s less than the cost of a medium double-double with a donut at Tim Horton’s!
These small increases in contributions would raise the average earnings replaced by CPP pension benefits, to a maximum (in 2010 dollars) of $1,868 per month, bringing retirement income security for millions who will otherwise struggle to make ends meet.
Initially, federal finance minister Jim Flaherty and other Conservatives said they agreed. But then they heard from bankers and insurance companies and switched direction; now they support the banks’ proposal for a privately-run “pooled pension plan” that would require contributions from employees but not employers.
The CLC is asking union members, our families and others in our communities to contact our Members of Parliament. To contact your MP follow this link:
http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament
SAPA Canada, formerly Indalex Extrusions in Port Coquitlam, announced it would be closing its facility March 7, 2011. "The news of the closure is very troubling," said Steve Dewell Staff Rep, "in this ecomomy, the demand for good jobs is high and to have 60 of our memebrs facing the uncertainty of future employment has us worried. And on top of that, we have been in negotiations with this employer for weeks on a closure agreement that would eleviate for a short period of time some of those concerns, but the company doesn't see things our way".
Severance pay and vacation pay are items that remain outstanding, the Union has filed for Expedited Arbitration under Section 104 of the Labour Code to have a third party resolve these issues. Its never a good thing or easy to close a plant but we must follow the law and try to secure the best transition possible to future employment.