Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Last year 188 workers died due to job-related injury or disease, the highest level in 25 years, and a 40 percent increase from the previous year. This included 43 forestry workers, 39 workers in the construction sector and 11 young workers.Sadly, despite our warnings, this is a clear indictment of the BC Liberals’ agenda of cuts and deregulation. Workplace inspections by WCB have fallen by 44 percent since 2001, and the resulting value of penalties has dropped by 57 percent.

This week the B.C. Federation of Labour has been lobbying MLAs about the immediate need to restore protections of workers’ health and safety, and the need to restore dignity to compensation and benefits for injured workers and their families.

This Friday, April 28th, is the annual Day of Mourning where we will join together to “fight for the living and mourn for the dead.”

We are encouraging all of you to participate in various events throughout your community. Here is a list of Day of Mourning events in BC (pdf).

Your presence will send an important message to politicians and employers that we won’t stop fighting until workers’ health and safety is fully protected.

via BC Federation of Labour

By Bill Tieleman

The voice of the dead was a living voice to me. - Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1847

The voices of 188 dead workers speak loudly from beyond the grave.

That grim number marks the total of workplace fatalities and accepted work-related death claims in B.C. in 2005.

It is a totally unacceptable number, a shameful number, a number that should be intolerable to us all.

Behind that number lies 188 different tragedies, 188 families where someone went to work and never came home again, 188 unsafe workplaces.

And 11 of those 188 were young people, aged 17 to 24 years old.

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