Every single worker faces a degree of risk or danger in performing their job. Unifor leadership and staff and guest speakers from a variety of areas of expertise shared experiences in responding to and preventing these risks with nearly 150 Unifor members at the weekend’s Health, Safety and Environment Conference, titled Back to Basics and Beyond.
“The work we all do isn’t easy. There are powerful forces against us — you know this. But it is difference-making work. It is rewarding work,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne, as she joined the conference by video.
“We have to prioritize health and safety in collective bargaining because we know protections can be weakened by the stroke of a pen with a change in management or elected leaders. There is no organized structure anywhere in the world more powerful than in collective bargaining.”
Payne thanked every person in the room for taking interest and taking action to improve protections for workers and shared how the day-to-day work of being a health and safety rep can be thankless, but that even seemingly small changes can and do make the difference of someone going home safely to their family at the end of their shift.
The conference opened with remarks from Joanne Hay, Director of Health, Safety and Environment at Unifor, and a moment of silence to remember the Unifor members who died in workplace incidents since the last conference in September of 2022.
We remember:
Adam Love, Local 4268
Michael Daye, Local 506
Terry Roberts, FFAW-Unifor
Jaime Knight, MWF-Local 1
Armando Ibe, Local 4209
Nicholas Skinner, FFAW-Unifor
Trevor Childs, FFAW-Unifor
James Anderson, Local 4050
In a review of many decades of work toward greater protections for workers, the union’s former directors of Health, Safety and Environment over the past 32 years spoke with Hay.
Cathy Walker was director of the department beginning in 1992 and reminded members to keep a long view on the progress we make because change can take time.
“I remember thinking many, many years ago when we were fighting to ban asbestos, ‘Give up, you’re never going to win this’ – but we kept going,” said Walker. “And asbestos wasn’t banned until 2018. In some cases, like this, it can take decades. But don’t give up because it takes determined groups of workers fighting together and being persistent to make these changes.”
Sari Sairanen is now the Executive Assistant to the National Secretary-Treasurer at Unifor and was the director of the Health, Safety and Environment Department from 2002 until 2022.
Asked if she ever wavered in her commitment to worker health and safety, she responded “Never, not for a minute.”
“What we do matters,” she continued. “Prevention is key and that is what all of us in this room do.”
Vinay Sharma recently retired as the department director and he encouraged members to think ahead to the challenges we haven’t faced yet.
“What are the upcoming challenges we will face? We need to think about how it will affect us as workers and then plan ahead for those risks and bring these issues to the bargaining committee,” said Sharma.
National Representative Rob Moquin then shared his experiences with post-traumatic stress following an especially tragic call he responded to as a paramedic in Northern Ontario.
He shared how this workplace event impacted him initially and insidiously, and how he didn’t realize how deeply he was struggling until one day he had a sobering moment that made him reach out for help. Moquin encouraged members to watch for signs in themselves and others and to use the resources available.
Keynote speaker Rob Stewart, who was recently named a Canadian Ambassador to the One Percent Safer Foundation, shared insights on the Westray Law and its application to workplace incidents. Stewart outlined how health and safety reps will often look for legal precedent in other workplace-related cases, but that non-workplace cases also provide precedent that must be considered for criminal liability under the Westray Law.
Saturday afternoon offered members specialized professional development on a number of topics: measuring workplace indoor air quality, ergonomics and manual materials handling, preventing workplace harassment and violence in federally-regulated workplaces, documenting health and safety, and critical incidents and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The final morning of the conference saw previous Bud Jimmerfield Award recipients share their experiences fighting for their fellow workers.
Dave Stewart from Local 598 (2020 recipient), Roger Hagerty from Local 592 (2017 recipient), Ed Steers from Local 199 (2021 recipient), and Robert Girard (2024 recipient) answered questions from National Representative in the Health, Safety and Environment Department Emil Mesic who also received the award in 2016.
Their advice to members interested in getting involved as health and safety reps in their workplace was to educate themselves and find a mentor, to not be afraid to take on this work, to remain humble about what you can achieve and recognize your limits, and to take your losses and your wins.
Finally, National Representative in Health, Safety and Environment Ryan Rodrigues offered members tips for including health and safety in the bargaining process.
For more information and resources to support your health and safety committee, visit unifor.org/healthandsafety or send questions to @email.
See photos from the weekend on Unifor’s Facebook page.
Learn more about the Bud Jimmerfield Award and current and former recipients here.
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