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Killed, injured workers honoured at Nanaimo ceremony

Apr 28, 2017 | 3:36 PM

NANAIMO — Most people take coming home safe to their family after a day at work for granted, but the reality is more than 100 people in B.C. didn’t last year.

Workers who have been killed or injured on the job were honoured Friday, April 28 as part of the annual Day of Mourning. A large crowd turned out at Nanaimo’s waterfront plaza for an emotional ceremony.

“It always shatters me to hear the number of those who are injured and killed on the job is not going down,” Sue Creba, who was visibly emotional, told NanaimoNewsNOW. “I have heard some of these personal stories before and every single story is a person who should have come home but didn’t.”

Creba said she felt workers and ordinary people in B.C. aren’t valued because government and lawmakers aren’t reacting quickly enough to protect them. “I hope people today will think about how lucky they are if they’re in a safe workplace, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t fight for the many that aren’t.”

Ellen Oxman, president of the Nanaimo, Duncan and District Labour Council said it’s an important day to keep the fight for workplace safety in the forefront.

Oxman said she is seeing progress, noting federal legislation passed late last year which banned the use of products with asbestos by 2018.

“It’s a huge step forward. Asbestos still is the number one workplace killer in Canada. Generally over 2,000 people a year die from asbestos exposure and it is a crippling, horrible disease and an absolutely horrendous way to die. It is something that can absolutely be prevented,” Oxman said.

She added another key step will be creating a database of buildings, particularly government structures like schools and hospitals, that have asbestos products in them.

“Knowing that any worker going in there to do a renovation or to replace a part can check on a database to find out if they’re working in an area that has asbestos products in it…Things can be done in a way that protects people but unfortunately still today work is done without the proper safety equipment.”

Three people died on April 19 in the north island community of Woss in a logging train accident. Oxman said tragedies like that have a wide-reaching impact.

“We in the labour movement call each other brothers and sisters and when there is an injury to one, it is an injury to all, we all feel that. Those of us that have worked really hard over the years to promote safety and awareness to try and eliminate these things, it’s particularly devastating that it keeps happening.”

According to WorkSafeBC data, there were 144 work-related deaths in B.C. in 2016, which is equal to the five-year average. Three of those deaths were in the Nanaimo region, with another four in the Comox and Cowichan Valley districts combined.

-with files from Spencer Sterritt

 

dominic.abassi@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @domabassi