May 12 to 14, 2008

TORONTO – A formal signing of an alliance between the United Steelworkers (USW) and Environmental Defence will form part of the union’s National Health, Safety and Environment Conference from May 12 to 14 at the Doubletree International Plaza hotel in Toronto.

The alliance will be announced on Monday, May 12 at around 2 p.m., following a speech by USW International President Leo W. Gerard. It will be signed by USW National Director Ken Neumann, the union’s three district directors from across Canada and the Executive Director of Environmental Defence, Dr. Rick Smith. Smith will speak earlier, around 11 a.m. the same day.

 

The conference will include panel discussions on a number of important areas, starting with a special pre-conference session on Sunday evening, May 11, called ‘Toxins Within Us’. Among the panelists for that session is former Ontario environment minister Ruth Grier, who will do a presentation on breast cancer.

 

In addition to the environmental alliance, Monday will feature an environmental issues panel and a panel on the international perspective, which will include exiled Mexican labour leader Napoleon Gomez. As well, a panel on workplace fatalities will feature the campaign to stop the high rate of fatalities in the forests of BC as well as the personal story of a young man who lost his father to a preventable workplace accident.

 

Tuesday, May 13, will be dedicated to individual workshops. Wednesday, May 14, will have panels on injured workers and occupational disease.

 

Guests participating on panels will also include Dr. Ibcia Santabañez, a Chilean neurosurgeon whose recent book reveals the impact of altitude and sleep patterns on the lives of high-altitude miners.

 

“This conference will clearly link our health and safety with the environment,” said Ken Neumann. “Faced with issues of global warming and the abuse of the land, air and water, our health and safety is increasingly compromised by changes in the environment. Workers must raise the alarm and put pressure on employers and governments to solve the crisis.”