Pereira: “If I wasn't mentally stable I could’ve killed myself or killed my coworkers, follow WCB regulations, please just investigate this"

Chair of the LRB, Jennifer Glougie: “a union doesn’t breach its duty by rebuffing the grievor’s attempts to dictate the process”

Help me on my mission to have the union loving NDP government amend the Workers Compensation Act to put a legal duty on unions to concern themselves with their members' health and safety. 

30% of workers in BC are members of a union. Under the Workers Compensation Act only employers have a legal duty to ensure the health and safety of all its workers. If a safety concern is raised to a union they are under no obligation to address it. There is a mistaken belief that if it constitutes a breach of a collective agreement than a union must do something. A collective agreement is not the law and unions have arbitrary control over it, if they choose not to expend their resources to force an employer to comply with it, than they simply don't have to. 

Bullying in the workplace is a serious health and safety issue. Anyone who has experienced or witnessed bullying in the workplace knows that it impacts everyone who experiences or witnesses it. It can impact psychological health, leading to increased time away from work, long-term anxiety or other psychological diagnoses and even self-harm or suicide. - Kira J. Berntson, BEng, MPsych, Manager Prevention Field Services WorkSafeBC

You can read more of my story here in the Kitimat Northern Sentinel

In my case my former union, Unite Here Local 40, made an actual agreement with my former employer, Dexterra Group Inc, that neither party had to address my complaints on bullying. The union knew Dexterra was violating the Act but they made an agreement that they wouldn't do anything about it. They allowed the violation to continue and the hazard to go unchecked, leaving my coworkers and I in an unsafe situation. 

I filed a complaint at the Labour Board thinking this was a breach of the union's duty under Section 12 but to my surprise the Chair of the LRB, Jennifer Glougie, attacked me. I was apparently the bad one for demanding an investigation and according to 3 other board members bullying is not a labour relations matter, therefore the union did not have to concern itself. In summary under the Labour Code unions don't have to care about health and safety, not in the slightest.

In my opinion if a union wants to represent workers in their employment than they damn well better be concerned for their members' health and safety. Help me make this the law, help me make unionized workplaces safer, please sign the petition. 

UPDATE: Unite Here Local 40 has responded to Dexterra's safety violation. "In our view this was a technical and very narrow breach of the Act". I'm speechless. That's like saying it's only fall equipment, it's only one piece of PPE, no biggy if it's missing. 

UPDATED, Jan 27. I was recently asked for more information on the changes I would like to see. Here is a little more information I gave. 

Under Part 2 Division 4 of the WCA states the general duties of employers, workers and others. I would like to see unions added to the list. 

An employers duty is to ‘ensure’ the health and safety of all its workers. What I want to see is a provision similar to the board’s mandate (s.17) stating that unions must ‘concern’ themselves with its members’ (workers') health and safety generally.

Again similar to an employer’s duty they should have to take all ‘reasonable steps’ to have safety issues/hazards addressed, with a related policy stating what those reasonable steps are. 

I would never expect a union to have an obligation to expend its resources (money) having to say supply PPE or fix equipment etc but what a union should be expected to do when they become aware of a health and safety hazard is to bring it to the employers attention. When a union knows that an employer is violating regulations or not addressing a worker’s concern than they must be legally obligated to report the employer to WorkSafe. This would prevent any collusion between employers and unions because the union would be equally liable for the violation if they were aware of it but didn’t do anything about it.

Going back to 'reasonable steps', that is something that would need to be discussed with WorkSafe, and maybe other stakeholders like BC Federation of Labour to get their input.

I just want unionized workplaces safer so that what happened to me can never happen to anyone else. A union must have a legal obligation to concern themselves with health and safety. Make it illegal for a union to sit back and watch an employer violate regulations and do nothing.