Earth Day 2001

We envision hazard-freeworkplaces that eliminateworker injury, illness anddeath, and in the doingpromote the health ofworkers, their families,fellow citizens and theearth which sustains us all.This is our hope for theworld. It will be attainedwhen we recognize theperil we face, the power wehold and the life longnecessity of workingtogether for our vision.

From experienceto education

WWorkers� experiences will once again informthis year�s Canadian Auto Workers Union/WorkersHealth and Safety Centre Earth Day school presentations.As such Making a world of difference and Clean jobsfor a green future will again be respectively the focus ofour unique messages for Ontario senior elementary andhigh school students.

To begin ours is a story of suffering. (Although suitablythe senior elementary presentation will be considerablyless harsh in tone.) Today�s global market economy isexacting a heavy toll. In North America working familiesare paying the highest price. Dr. Peter Infante of the U.S.Department of Labour�s Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration observes, �Blue-collar workers are suffer-ing the greatest cancer risk and are being treated like testsubjects for the effects of industrial chemicals.� He callsblue-collar workers the canaries of our society. Just asdying canaries warned miners of the first sign of toxic gasbelow, workers help warn us of carcinogens and othertoxins in our community�s environment. But blue-collarworkers are joined by the likes of office workers,cosmetologists and pharmaceutical workers to name afew, who are also suffering the effects of hazardousexposures.

Beyond the plant gate as Infante suggests andour collective experiences tell us things are out of balanceas well. Weather patterns are increasingly erratic andextreme. Ecosystems are threatened. Entire plant andwildlife species are disappearing at an alarming rate.Further, the weight of evidence demonstrates we are themost poisoned of generations. The toxic burden in ourbodies hasreachedunaccept-ablelevels.SandraSteingraberin herbookLivingDown-streamtells us forinstance,in a 1976sampling of breast milk in American women one of everyfour samples contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)at concentrations above the legal limit and which if soldfor commercial use would be pulled from the shelves.Those who live in proximity to industry, hazardous waste

sites and radiation producers � military and civilian �are also contracting cancer at rates far exceeding thegeneral population.

In workplaces we have won basic worker rights andenshrined them into occupational health and safety law.The struggle for environmental laws has also met withsome success. But despite these gains and many others,thousands of Canadian workers and citizens die eachyear. In Ontario alone, an estimated 8,000 workers aresuccumbing to occupational disease annually. Meantime,cancer researchers estimate occupational exposuresaccount for 20 to 40 per cent of all cancers, while theWorld Health Organization attributes 70 to 90 per cent ofcancers to environmental causes. In 1930 one in 10 diedfrom cancer. Today it�s closer to one in three.

But cancer is not a disease of old age. It is the leadingcause of death for men aged 45 to 65 and women aged 35to 69. Childhood cancer has also increased by 30 per centsince the 1950s. More disturbing yet Health Canadapredicts the incidence of new cancer cases will increase 70per cent by 2010.

So cancer isn�t just a worker issue, it is amajor public health scandal.

We need not give into despair though. Ours is also a storyof hope. Trade union health and safety activists, includingthose in the CAW and Workers Centre, are forging newalliances with environmentalists, indigenous peoples,educators, enlightened entrepreneurs, governments, faithcommunities and many others in our communities as awhole. We are determined to reclaim our children�sbirthright. We envision hazard-free workplaces thateliminate worker injury, illness and death, and in thedoing promote the health of workers, their families, fellowcitizens and the earth which sustains us all. This is ourhope for the world. It will be attained when we recognizethe peril we face, the power we hold and the lifelongnecessity of working together for our vision. To this end,many are creating what are popularly known as �greenjobs� � jobs that result in healthier working and livingenvironments.

Responding to our survey of last year, studentsand teachers at both levels told us they would like to hearmore about these efforts. So both programs for this yearwill do just that. Innovative �end-of-life� product takeback programs, other waste reduction and usage strate-gies, closed-loop manufacturing, alternative energies,transportation solutions, ecological home and city design,

Canadian Auto Workers Union/Workers Health and Safety Centre

The CAW/Workers Centre Earth Day program reached some 25,000Ontario students at the senior elementary and high school levels lastyear. Over 90 per cent of responding teachers at both levels statedthey would recommend our presentation to students and parents.Eighty to 90 per cent indicated a desire to learn more about greenjobs and alternative choices. Similarly, more than three quarters ofresponding students said they were anxious to learn more about theseissues.

Each survey also provided students and teachers with theopportunity to comment on the program. The following provides across-section of student comments.

u �I think every school should get this presentation.�

u �Please do this presentation in front of Windsor parents. Itmight give my mom a different opinion about usingpesticides.�

u �If we don�t stop, we will not survive.�

u �Protecting the environment is a very big issue!�

u �This presentation showed me all the ways we ruin theenvironment on just a simple day, and I�m now going to domy best to keep our world clean.�

u �I think this presentation will help people make the world abetter place.�

u �You should show this presentation to all grades so that allof us can help our environment get better.�

u �I promise to do my part to help the environment.�

u �I now have a better understanding of how everyday thingscost the environment.�

u �We could use solar powered cars to stop pollution.�

u �I�ve been taking the earth for granted because it�s myhome.�

While many educators were also glad to comment, the followingfrom Bill Hayes, principal at Windsor�s Walkerville Secondary, perhapsbest summarizes their response.

u �Traditionally, Earth Day for us and at many other schoolshas been limited to cleaning up garbage on school propertyand in the surrounding neighbourhood. That�s a usefulexercise, but our students are pretty sophisticated aboutthese issues. The CAW/Workers Centre program challengesstudents and educators alike to ask some tough questionsabout sustaining our environment.�

StStStStStudents and educatorSudents and educatorSudents and educatorSudents and educatorSudents and educatorShahahahahavvvvve their sae their sae their sae their sae their sayyyyy

organic farming and gardening, and products fromnatural and renewable sources are just some of theexamples we will discuss.

At thehighschoollevel wewill alsotalkaboutsome ofthechal-lengeswe faceas wemake the

transition to a green or sustainable economy. But atboth levels we hope to encourage students to pursuetheir future ambitions with ecological occupations inmind. The possibilities are only limited by ourimaginations.

Meantime though, there is much students, in fact allindividuals, can be doing right now. As Anne Frankis said to have observed: �How wonderful it is thatnobody need wait a single moment before starting toimprove the world.� Earth-friendly choices regard-ing lawn care, transportation, cleaning products andother consumer products are all there for the mak-ing. These too we will discuss with students.

To help facilitate discussion CAW pre-senters will distribute informational booklets, novelteaching aids and two pieces of visual art. Forsamples of last year�s materials visitwww.whsc.on.ca. (See the Young Workers sectionand then the Earth Day 2000 link.)

This Earth Day help us to bring a message thatimpresses upon students the need to pursue a visionwell worth attaining. Together, we can make a worldof difference. Together, we can make our communi-ties safer and healthier places in which to live, learnand work.

2001EARTHDAY

The Canadian Auto Workers Union representsmore than 240,000 workers in Canada. They build cars,planes, trains and computers and they work in the fishingindustry, hospitals, hotels and restaurants. They are involvedin environmental issues because to quote one of their present-ers speaking to students: �We know that the environmentaffects all of us, it can affect our health! Most pollution startsin the workplace � we are trying to change that and we wantto do as much as possible, as quickly as possible to helpprotect ourselves, and our environment. We know that peoplehave to work together to make things better. That is why wehave partnered with the Workers Health and Safety Centre totalk to you about what the problems we face in our environ-ment today. But we know that the most important partner wehave to work with is you. You are the people that will bemaking the future decisions and the most important changesnecessary to protect and improve our future environment, onethat we must all share.�

To learn more about the Canadian Auto Workers Union visitwww.caw.ca

or call us at (416) 497-4110or toll free at 1-800-268-5763.

 

Program co-sponsors

The Workers Health and Safety Centre isunique among the 13 organizations funded by On-tario�s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. As thesystem�s �training centre� we offer training and infor-mation services to workplace representatives in allsectors of the economy and all regions of the province.To date we have developed more than 100 ready-to-usetraining programs and several workplace-specificprograms. Each meets important legislative require-ments and/or expressed training needs of workplacerepresentatives. All are delivered using the Centre�sparticipant-centred and �workers training workers�approach. One program in particular is aimed atcreating awareness among young people before theybegin work.

To learn more about the Workers Centre visitwww.whsc.on.ca

or call us at (416) 441-1939or toll-free at 1-888-869-7950.

In the coming weeks representatives of the Canadian Auto Workers Union will be contacting Board and/or schoolrepresentatives to book Earth Day presentations. Meantime though, if you would like to discuss the program pleasecontact the Earth Day coordinator nearest you.

An Earth Day coordinator near you

opeiu:34301/01

DurhamCecil MackeseyTel: 905-987-9804Email: cmackesey@sympatico.ca

Hamilton/OakvilleAl MitchellTel: 905-545-5661Fax: 905-844-0027

Ingersoll/WoodstockKim YardyTel: 519-485-6400 x 3320Email: kimy@execulink.com

LondonJim MahonTel: 519-681-3680Email: jimahon@home.com

NiagaraTina Garcia or Len JamesTel: 905-984-3462Email: tmarie@mergetel.comOr lenjames@computan.on.ca

Peel/HaltonPaul LewisTel: 905-451-8310Email: paulewis2@home.com

Toronto WestJennifer WeatherbyTel: 905-451-8310Email: caw1285@istar.ca (Att: Jennifer)

Toronto EastWallace CowanTel: 905-352-2988Email: walco@nexicom.net

Windsor/EssexKen BondyTel: 519-561-4458Email: kbondy5@home.com

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