Forestry union seeks safer workplace - By WENDY STUECK, The Globe and Mail
The union wants to see automatic coroner's inquests for each industry fatality. The Steelworkers are also calling for quicker investigations of accidents by the B.C. Workers Compensation Board, saying that investigations now take up to a year.
The union also called for full enforcement in the province of Bill C-45, which provides for criminal penalties against employers found responsible for a fatal workplace accident.
Carnage in the forestry sector has been a recurring theme in the province. A 2002 report by the Industrial Wood and Allied Workers of Canada, which has since merged with Steelworkers, made 29 recommendations for improving health and safety in the coastal logging sector.