With at least 40 fatalities reported so far this year, relatives of forestry workers who have died on the job in British Columbia are calling for action to make the province's logging camps a safer place to work.
David Gramlich believes his brother might be alive today if workplace regulations in B.C. were tightened to prevent loggers from working alone in the bush.
"I think that loggers should always be working in pairs," he said. "When they work alone, maybe they do things that they shouldn't be doing.''
Two weeks ago, Ted Gramlich became the 38th forestry worker to have died in B.C. this year when he was hit by a falling tree while working on his own at a remote heli-logging site near Parksville on Vancouver Island.
By the time rescue crews were able to reach him, he had suffered so much internal bleeding that he couldn't be saved.
"Somebody should put some teeth into the regulations," said Barry Forbes, whose brother Percy died two years ago when he lost control of his truck while driving down a steep logging road near Port Alberni. "My feeling is that the [logging] roads are too steep and the loads too big."
Describing the number of deaths as "unacceptable," WorkSafeB.C. chairman Douglas Enns sent a letter to forest industry chief executives last week reminding them of their responsibility for making workplace health and safety a priority.
"This year alone, there have been 40 fatalities and 193 serious injuries which impact untold numbers of family and community workers," Mr. Enns said. On Friday, another logger, who was struck by a piece of falling debris, died, bringing the number of deaths to 41.
In response to the rising death rate in the forests, the United Steelworkers of America union is holding an industry summit in Vancouver today, that will be attended by senior forestry officials from industry and the provincial government.
"On almost a weekly basis, a forest worker is being killed," said Steve Hunt, a director with the United Steelworkers, which is pushing for more timely investigations into workplace deaths and increased monitoring from WorkSafeBC.
WorkSafeBC, an agency that administers the Workers Compensation Act on behalf of the B.C. government, said the number of fatalities reported in 2005 includes seven sawmill workers who died from occupational disease, likely related to asbestos exposure.
It also said the death rate has been boosted by a recent plane crash near Campbell River that killed four loggers in February.
But, government and industry officials agree that 2005 has been a bad year for the forest sector, particularly for workers engaged in truck driving and log hauling.
Of the 41 the deaths so far, at least 12 were engaged in log hauling and tree falling. The increase from three last year has been attributed to several key factors. They include a lack of supervision by small, independent sub-contractors who are taking on an increasing share of the tree-falling work as major companies move to reduce their costs.
"The economy doesn't help because workers are taking shortcuts in order to make a dollar,'' said Dan Dahr, a manager of forestry compliance with WorkSafeB.C.
One forest official said the high fatality rate is due, in part, to the fact that loggers, who have been in the industry for a while, just accept the risks associated with the job.
"Changing the mindset of people who have been in the business for a long time has been a challenge," said Andy Smith, a labour- relations adviser with International Forest Products Ltd., one of B.C.'s largest lumber producers.
Mr. Smith said the B.C. Forest Safety Council will try to address the situation, requiring companies and contractors to have their workplace practices audited to ensure they meet required standards.
The United Steelworkers union is expected to use today's summit to press the case for mandatory coroners inquests into each fatality. It will also call for the creation of implementation committees which would be authorized to order immediate workplace changes in response to fatality investigations and inquests.
"It is a real tragedy what is going on out there," Mr. Hunt said.The Globe and Mail
