Alan Pickersgill - The View From Here

(April 28) - In 2007, 111 workers died from sudden, traumatic injuries in Ontario workplaces. Another 375 passed away after suffering a work-related disease. Those are the people whose claims were approved by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). More than a quarter of a million had injury claims approved by the WSIB, with more than 80,000 of them requiring time off work to recover.

That’s a worker killed every three days. Almost 700 injured every day, 221 seriously enough qualify for lost time pay. Thousands more suffer silently from repetitive strain injuries but are unable to prove they were caused at work.

It happens every year. According to the 2007 WSIB Annual Report, 5,086 workers were killed by their work since 1998.

It is, to put it gently, a shameful disgrace.

Today is the national day of mourning for workers killed or injured on the job. Once again, the Guelph & District Labour Council has organized an annual memorial service for 5 p. m. in Goldie Mill Park. They’ve been doing this for more than 20 years now, and they could be doing it for another 20. There is no sign the carnage is stopping. If anything, it could get worse.

When we get through this economic crisis, people will get back to work. If things keep going the way they are, though, the workplaces will be lacking a key component of occupational health and safety programs: a strong union. I worked in the field for long enough to understand one truth. Unionized workplaces have much more effective joint health and safety committees than nonunion places. There is greater compliance with the law and regulations, and more efficient channels of communication.

The stronger the union, the safer the workers.

This recession is being used for a purpose unlike any that went before it. Unions are under attack. It is happening primarily in the automotive industry, and a frightening number of people are standing on the sidelines cheering it on. Under the guise of bailing out GM and Chrysler, both the U. S. and Canadian governments are demanding that workers take a massive reduction in their standard of living.

The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), along with the other unions in the public and private sectors, set standards that generally raised the bar for everyone. If wages and benefits go down in the manufacturing sector, they will go down everywhere.

The CAW is taking a beating, and you should not be happy about it. Every concession that is wrung out of them will trickle down. Toyota set its wages at a level where they thought the union could be kept out. Everything the Chrysler workers give back will be taken away from Toyota and Linamar workers.

We are in a frantic race to the bottom, and no one will win.

When we reflect on the purpose of the day of mourning, we should reflect on the fate of the people who will return to their jobs with wounded unions. When a company like Chrysler seeks to increase its competitive position, it isn’t just about wages. It’s also about reducing the work rules it must abide by. Health and safety programs will be eroded.

A couple of years from now, we will still be gathering at Goldie Mill Park on the afternoon of April 28. Our unions will still be trying to recover the ground they’ve lost. The financial institutions that caused the mess will continue to prosper. The workers who did not cause it will continue to suffer. Five hundred will die every year.

Those among us who think auto workers are overpaid will find themselves worse off than they’ve ever been.

# posted by Alan Pickersgill @ 5:00 PM 0 Comments

(April 21) - There is no sense crying over spilled milk. You just have to mop it up, stop it from damaging the floor too badly and make sure the next jug doesn’t spill as well.

The Hanlon Creek Business Park is spilled milk. The jug was dropped 30 years ago. That we didn’t notice the mess until recently says more about the past than the present or the future.

Back then, the environment wasn’t the passionate concern it is today. A lot of people cared, but not as much as now. The milk spilled when no one was looking. We can’t be Erica and go back in time to steady the jug. The damage has been done. We can limit the impact. We can’t prevent it.

It is not all bad anyway. The jobs that will be attracted to the area tomorrow will make a healthier contribution to our city than the jobs that are leaving today. We can save the salamanders while we put supper on the table. We just need to pay attention to several things at the same time.

Smart growth looks at three measures of community health – environmental, social and economic.

All are equally important. Where would Guelph be today if people had surrounded that maple tree and prevented John Galt from swinging his axe in 1827? Or, after the downtown core was full, would development of the Exhibition Park neighbourhood have been considered sprawl? Would protection of wetlands and water tables have stopped the development of Dufferin Street?

The problem is not growth. Uncontrolled growth is. The scale and the rate at which it happens is scaring the bejeebers out of us, and so it should. The development industry has taken control of the process. It has effectively eliminated the checks and balances on greed. The people need to take the process back and democratically manage the impact of growth. If we don’t, we will lose both the salamanders and our ability to put supper on the table.

While our attention is focused on the business park, we run the risk of not noticing another jug teetering on the edge of the shelf. If this one falls, the mess will be mighty. A cloverleafed Hanlon Expressway is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

In a way, Mike Salisbury was correct. Changes to it are inevitable. Lise Burcher also got it right when she said doing nothing is not an option.

Yes, the Hanlon is already there and yes, it was never properly finished. It will not be improved by compounding the mistakes made when it was built.

As surely as death follows life, a cloverleaf at Clair Road will make it inevitable that another will be built at Woodlawn Road. If you don’t believe me, wait 20 years and have another look. Or go over to Kitchener now and drive down the Conestoga Parkway. That’s what we’re looking at with the Hanlon. If we're not careful, the two will be joined one day.

Yes, the Hanlon needs to be improved. We can’t let it sit forever as a frustrating strip of pavement. But what is our community definition of improvement? I don’t believe it can be found in the Ministry of Transportation plans. A decision will be made at the city council meeting next week. It might set in motion a new chain of inevitable future decisions that will be out of our control. Or it might put the jug back on the shelf until we rethink the design of the kitchen.

When it was discussed at the community development committee last month, Karl Wettstein wondered if we want a paradigm shift.

I’ll say yes.

# posted by Alan Pickersgill @ 6:00 PM 0 Comments

(April 14) - I need to apologize to all my friends and neighbours. It was my fault.

A little over a week ago, Sunday was a lovely day. Nice and warm. The sort of day people get out for a walk, wearing sweaters or light jackets. Some even wearing shorts. You could take your socks off and put your sandals on.

There was a great couple of weeks before it. Balmy spring weather. The day before had been miserable, mind you. An awful wind was howling all night. A wake-up wind. It was still going in the morning when we went to market.

It was the wind that is absolutely horrible when blowing, but quickly forgotten when it stops. Like a toothache, the worse it is the better you feel when it’s over.

The wind did stop. No fear and loathing at three in the morning. No more branches dropping on the lawn. No windows rattling. I felt something like the Liberal caucus after the leader was dumped. Apprehensive, but hopeful. Then day broke and the sun shone. Like a federal Conservative, I stepped out the back door far enough to feel which way the wind was blowing. It wasn’t. Great, I thought, that wasn’t so bad.

I cooked up a good breakfast of fried potatoes, fried sausages, fried eggs and Heinz baked beans. With toast and strawberry jam. And Planet Bean coffee. There’s nothing like it to get the day moving. This isn’t like a proper Scottish breakfast. They fry the eggs in last week’s bacon grease and toss in a sizable chunk of blood pudding. There’s sound logic to this. The Scots start their day secure in the confidence that it doesn’t matter what happens next. No one can treat them worse than they just treated themselves.

They say everyone has to believe in something, and I believe in breakfast. A full plate on a Sunday morning is tough to beat. It gives you the strength to carry on. The resolve to get things done. So I did.

By early afternoon, Lynne and I were ready for a good walk. It wasn’t the vigorous, heart pumping walk of the aerobic enthusiast. It was a purposeful stroll up one street and down another. Through a park. Down a hill, leaving us with the need to go up another to get back to where we were.

This is where we felt like the New Democrats. We members are well used to it by now. It’s how our caucus members must have felt after the coalition fell apart. That was when they played the role of the anxious groom who couldn’t get to the altar quickly enough. They waited around until it became obvious the blushing bride had backed out. Pushed down a hill, they are still climbing back to where they were.

Lynne and I made it up our hill just fine. We stopped to talk with friends who were out doing yard work. One could point with pride to the several flowers already in bloom, and called them all by name. I am always impressed by someone who can tell the difference between a crocus and a snowdrop. I usually group them as yellow ones and purple ones.

All that yard work inspired me. When we got home, I thought I should tidy up the outside a bit. I gathered the shovels and put them in the shed. I carried the bucket of ice melt into the basement. I had my supper. I watched some television. I checked my e-mail. I read my library book. I went to sleep.

We all know what we woke up to the next morning.

Sorry.

# posted by Alan Pickersgill @ 5:59 PM 0 Comments

(April 07) - Over the next few weeks, you will have lots of opportunity to buy daffodils. Some will be real, some artificial. Some will be in the form of lapel pins. April is daffodil month and people will be knocking on your door asking you to buy some. This is not because of the arrival of spring and the showers that bring May flowers. It’s because of cancer.

The Canadian Cancer Society sends its volunteers out every April to raise money for research into this horrible disease. A lot of this money is still directed to the ambitious goal of discovering a cure. It would be nice if this were to happen, but very unlikely. A cure for cancer is the holy grail of scientific and medical research. One might be out there, so it’s certainly worth a look.

The main emphasis has to be on prevention. Cancer doesn’t just happen without a cause. It happens after something enters the body that doesn’t belong there. Quite frequently this is tobacco smoke. The odd thing about this is that tobacco smoke is the most easily avoidable carcinogen out there. Most of the other ones sneak up while you’re not looking. They are in the air and in the water. If you’re not careful, they could be in your food.

Beginning on April 22, more than 250 chemical pesticide products will be banned in Ontario. This is the positive result of a long campaign by environmentalists. It will prevent exposure to a lot of toxins and carcinogens. The lawn care industry lobbied against this quite strongly, but lush green lawns are going out of fashion. Our communities will be better places without these chemicals. Parents won’t have to be as fearful when their children play outside. There are still risks to be aware of, but they will be significantly reduced this summer. Even dogs will be happier when they don’t have to get their noses up close to freshly sprayed weed killer.

Even without these products, there are still a lot of cancer causing substances all around us. Canadian unions have spent years campaigning for the elimination of carcinogens from workplaces. The Canadian Labour Congress estimates that about 80 per cent of all cancers have environmental causes. They have a particular stake in the issue because of the wide prevalence of occupational cancer. The substances causing it drift out of workplaces to become environmental causes.

One of the worst is asbestos. It has been thoroughly banned everywhere in the country, yet Canada continues to export it to developing countries. Asbestos mining is a big industry in Quebec, and 96 per cent of it is sent overseas. The federal government is a large financial supporter of something called the Chrysotile Institute. What is that, you ask? It used to be called the Asbestos Institute, and it spreads the fiction that asbestos can be used safely in places like Thailand and Indonesia.

An editorial in the October 2008 edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal said: “For several years, Canada has led a ferocious diplomatic opposition” to banning asbestos. “Not a single western democracy supports Canada’s position,” they say, “so Canada has made allies of a few less picky countries including Iran, Russia and Zimbabwe.”

When the cancer society volunteers come knocking on your door this month, buy a daffodil to show your support. For every one you buy, match it with a message to Frank Valeriote. Tell him you want our government to support an international ban on the mining and use of asbestos. We can’t pretend we want to eliminate cancer if we continue to ship it overseas.

# posted by Alan Pickersgill @ 5:05 PM 0 Comments