Mpp, Union Want Change For Workers: 1,980 People Have Died Of Work-related Cancer

Published by MAC on 2004-09-15
Source: Local News - Ontario

MPP, union want change for workers

By Heather Spadafore, Local News (Ontario)

September 15, 2004

Since 2001, 1,980 people have died of work-related cancer.

MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP-Timmins-James Bay), who once worked at the McIntyre Mine as an underground electrician, has witnessed the problem first hand.

“My observations when I worked there in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s were that a whole bunch of men were breathing ventolin puffers,” Bisson said.

“It struck me back then as something odd.”

Bisson, along with victims, survivors and union representatives made presentations to the Occupational Disease Panel today at the Days Inn.

The hearing was also a chance to discuss putting occupational disease into the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA) and developing policies for compensating occupational disease claims.

Judy Smith, president of Local 32 of the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union said the changes are necessary.

“In the past, we’ve had members working with equipment covered with asbestos,” Smith said. “These workers had no personal protection equipment, except for hard hats and safety boots. Several years later, some suffered from breathing diseases, such as emphysema.”

Smith and Bisson both expressed concern on where the new panel was heading.

Currently, it takes an average of 20 years before a compensation claim is settled, if at all. A worker also needs to provide scientific evidence to support their claim.

“The draft report does not offer changes,” Smith said. “The burden of proof sits squarely on the workers. In many instances, the workers themselves are unable to supply information from decades earlier.”

She said when a worker files the compensation claim, they must face the board’s tough criteria.

“We find that worker’s statements carry little weight with the board,” Smith said. “It is no wonder there are 1,800 claims per year that go unrecognized.”

After meeting with the local union leader, Smith and Bisson began looking closely at the relationship between the workplace and the diseases that had been contracted over the years.

“It was a very long process, and it took about five years,” Bisson said.

He said it was then he knew the public would play a big role in helping those afflicted by occupational diseases.

“Unless the public knows about what’s happening within the workplace when it comes to industrial disease, nothing will happen. This story is one that needs to be talked out in public.”

Part of the problem, he said, is that occupational disease is very different from hurting yourself at work on a piece of equipment.

“Industrial disease takes time in order to develop itself, and far too often, by the time it is diagnosed as a natural disease, that person may not be in the workplace anymore.”