Stop the Killing.
That's the purposely provocative tagline of the ongoing
United Steel Workers (USW) campaign against workplace death and injury, a campaign Toronto city council recently endorsed.
In a vote of 36-1, Toronto city council almost unanimously voted to endorse the USW fight. (Mayor Rob Ford voted against the endorsement, the only municipal politician in Canada to vote against a motion endorsing the campaign.)
The campaign's tagline is straight forward and so too are its goals: "Greater enforcement Criminal Code amendments that hold corporations, their directors and executives criminally accountable for workplace death."
In 2003, the the federal government approved an amendment to Canada's criminal code that significantly increased corporate liability with regards to worker and public safety. Essentially, it made it possible to hold criminally accountable those corporations or senior officers who failed to ensure adequate protections and public safety measures. Commonly refereed to as the '
Westray Law', the amendments came in response to intense lobbying and public outcry after the death of 26 workers in the explosion of the Westray coal mine on May 9, 1992.
The law was heralded by the USW and other workplace safety allies as a major victory. It's not the law that's the problem, they say, it's the enforcement.
Since the Westray Bill's passage, not one corporate executive has faced a single day in jail, despite the fact that 9,000 Canadians have been killed on the job since the Westray Law was passed.
And while municipalities have little to do with the enforcement of the these laws, the USW has made it its goal to gather local support one city, town, or region at a time.
Toronto City Council joins Hamilton, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, in Ontario, Pictou County and Trenton in Nova Scotia and Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island municipalities in B.C. in endorsing the USW Stop the Killing campaign.
"This is a tremendous show of support for ending needless workplace deaths and injuries," says Ken Neumann, United Steelworkers (USW) National Director. "Canada's largest city's near-unanimous vote to Stop the Killing sends a strong message to police and prosecutors dealing with workplace fatalities."
The plan, according to USW, is to eventually forward the municipal support of the campaign to the tFederation of Canadian Municipalities, which will be asked to support the national campaign.
"We have the tools to save lives. Let's use them," stated Mike Layton, City Councillor for Ward 19 and sponsor of the motion. "Better enforcement will reduce the tragedy of worker deaths. That's why council supports Stop the Killing."
Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: USW