AUPE President challenges government to prioritize safety of working people
EDMONTON – In a solemn ceremony to mourn people killed or injured on the job, AUPE President Guy Smith called upon the Provincial Government to make workplace safety a priority.
“April 28 is never a happy occasion,” Smith told the gathered crowd of about 75 at the memorial ceremony. “In 2009, 110 working people died on the job here in our province. In a typical year, more than 60,000 Albertans sustain disabling injuries in the workplace in our province. That is simply not acceptable. It’s a disgrace!”
Smith outlined steps that the government — and only the government — could take to improve workplace safety. They include:
- Publication of a list of companies that repeatedly violate OH&S regulations.
- More vigorous prosecution of OH&S violations by Crown prosecutors.
- The provision of adequate staffing and resources by Employment and Immigration to allow for worksite inspections and not just responses to complaints and workplace accidents.
- Establishment of an independent panel to review decisions by the ministry to revoke safety orders by its own OH&S inspectors, and the power to deny such decisions.
- Automatic revocation of Employment and Immigration certificates of recognition issued for employers where the rate of workplace injuries is excessive or where significant OH&S violations continue.
“If our government believes its own rhetoric at all, it should be easy to persuade it to take these steps,” said Smith. “Doing these things won’t eliminate workplace deaths – but it will begin to reduce them.”
Union members throughout the world use the Day of Mourning, every April 28, to remember workers killed and injured on the job, the impact on their friends, colleagues and family members, and to recommit themselves to fighting every day for workplace safety. Ceremony participants mourned the 61 AUPE members who have been killed on the job since 1977 and the 110 people killed on the job in Alberta in 2009.
For more information contact:
Guy Smith, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-265-2294 (cellular telephone)
Dennis Malayko, Health and Safety Specialist, 780-930-3362
Randy Corbett, Health and Safety Specialist, 780-930-3348
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, 780-930-3311, 780-717-2943 (cellular)
Photo: Local 003 member Ron Wright, a member of the Correctional and Regulatory Services Honour Guard, bows his head for a moment of silence on International Day of Mourning, April 28.