If companies like Sinopec are going to invest in the oil sands, they need to respect our laws, says McGowan
AFL applauds court decision to hold Chinese firm to account for workers' deaths
EDMONTON – The Alberta Federation of Labour applauds the Alberta Court of Appeal's decision to uphold a ruling that Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Co. can be prosecuted for the deaths of two oil sands workers.
"Today's ruling makes it clear that if international companies want to do business here, they have to not only respect our laws, but also be accountable when they violate them," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 145,000 workers.
"Although we applaud today's decision, we're troubled that court proceedings have taken this long," says McGowan, noting that the two workers were killed over four years ago in April 2007. "With one of the three court justices holding a dissenting position, there's a possibility that the company may seek to delay their day in court even longer."
"It is incredibly frustrating and distressing that this company tried to dodge justice by dragging the process out as long as they have. We hope these workers' families will see justice as soon as possible."
"The other company involved in these workers' deaths, Canadian Natural Resources, is due to go on trial in the fall of 2012, more than five years after the accident. These delays are totally unacceptable and make a mockery of laws designed to protect workers."
-30-
MEDIA CONTACT:
Gil McGowan, AFL president, 780-218-9888 (cell)
Alberta Court of Appeal says Chinese company can face charges in deaths of workers
EDMONTON - In a decision released Wednesday, the Alberta Court of Appeal has decided that a Chinese corporation can face charges in Alberta court for the 2005 death of two temporary foreign workers in northern Alberta.
The decision upholds a previous ruling that Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company Ltd. can be prosecuted. The two men worked for the company.
The company had argued that since it has no official presence in Alberta or Canada, and no Canadian employees, it could not be included in the jurisdiction of an Alberta courtroom.
On April 24, 2007, the internal supports of a large tank collapsed, killing Hongliang Liu from China's Shandong province and Genbao Ge, from the Henan province. The men were in Canada on temporary foreign-worker permits and worked at the Horizon Oil Sands project near Fort McKay.
In April 2009, the Alberta government laid 53 Occupational Health and Safety Act charges in connection with the incident. While most were laid against Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., 10 were laid against Sinopec Shanghai.
CNRL will be in court in the fall of 2012.
In the Alberta Court of Appeal decision, two judges upheld the ruling, while a third offered a dissenting opinion.
The Alberta Federation of Labour applauded the decision.
"If companies like Sinopec are going to invest in the oilsands, they need to respect our laws," said AFL president Gil McGowan.
Edmonton Journal, Wed Nov 23 2011
Court says Chinese firm can face trial on safety charges in oilsands deaths
EDMONTON _ A unit of a giant Chinese petrochemical corporation can face trial on safety charges in the deaths of two oilsands workers.
The Alberta Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Co. can be prosecuted under the Health and Safety Act.
The court also ruled Wednesday that the Crown can apply to hold a trial on the charges under the Criminal Code if Sinopec Shanghai does not show up in court.
The two temporary workers from China were killed on April 24, 2007, when a storage tank collapsed at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.´s (TSX:CNQ) Horizon project near Fort McMurray.
Sinopec Shanghai, which brought the workers to Alberta, argued it has no official presence in Canada and was never properly served with legal documents.
One of the three Appeal Court justices wrote a dissenting opinion, so the company may seek leave to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Canadian Natural Resources and SSEC Canada, which is 90 per cent owned by Sinopec, are to go to trial on 53 charges next October _ more than five years after the workers died.
Josh Stewart, an Alberta Justice Department official, said the Appeal Court ruling means the Crown will apply to prosecute the three companies together.
"The Crown will be returning to provincial court and we will be asking for Sinopec Shanghai Engineering to be tried jointly with CNRL and SSEC Canada Ltd. on the information that is presently scheduled for trial in October 2012," he said.
Sinopec Shanghai officials were not available for comment. Officials with Canadian Natural Resources, which wanted Sinopec included in the case, declined to comment on the ruling.
Court documents show Sinopec repeatedly missed court appearances on the charges in 2009. An official with SSEC Canada was eventually served a summons to appear. Sinopec hired a lawyer and began arguing it should not be included in the case.
A provincial court judge ruled last year in Sinopec´s favour, but the Crown successfully challenged that ruling in Court of Queen´s Bench.
The Alberta Federation of Labour and the Christian Labour Relations Association have been critical of the long delay in prosecuting the case.
Federation president Gil McGowan said Alberta is preparing for another influx of temporary foreign workers, including some from China. He said the government would learn lessons from the case that could prevent similar deaths in the future.
Companies owned by the Chinese government are major players in Canada´s energy industry with $11 billion in investments in the last two years.
Units of Sinopec have spent more than $7 billion in Alberta since 2009. The deals include the recent purchase of Daylight Energy Ltd., and major stakes in oilsands projects such as Syncrude and Total E&P Canada´s Northern Lights.
Last summer, state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. announced a $2.1-billion deal to buy OPTI Canada Inc., an Alberta oilsands company. In 2009, PetroChina announced it was spending $1.9 billion to buy into the Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.
Oilweek, Wed Nov 23 2011
Shocking results of construction blitz shows Alberta needs more than rhetoric on workplace safety: Workers in residential sector need to be able to join unions to keep themselves safe, s...
Adding evening and weekend safety inspections is a step in the right direction to improve safety at residential construction sites, but what Alberta workers really need is the ability to join unions to organize in order to protect themselves, says the province's largest labour group.
"The evidence is clear from Alberta and across the country that the presence of unions at construction sites reduces the number of injuries and fatalities," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 145,000 workers.
"In Alberta, the highest rates of injuries and fatalities are at residential construction sites, where membership in unions is almost non-existent, because changes to the Labour Code in 1988 made it almost impossible for those workers to organize. The lack of safety in this sector is a direct result of those changes to the Labour Code. The province is reaping what it has sown - and the dead and injured workers and their families are paying the price," says McGowan.
"The recent inspection blitz paints a shocking picture of what it's like to work in that sector in Alberta, with nearly 400 orders issued after 600 inspections of 387 employers. We must remember that employers were warned about this inspection blitz in advance and given a chance to clean up their act. Can you imagine how many workplace health and safety violations would have been found if these had been surprise inspections?"
In Alberta, the injury and fatality rates are lower in commercial construction than in residential construction, corresponding to rates of unionization in those sectors. In parts of Canada where more residential construction workers belong to unions, such as Quebec, the rate of fatalities are lower than in the same sector in Alberta.
The Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada reports that Alberta had 46 deaths in the construction industry in 2007, the latest year of statistics available, whereas 27 construction workers died in Quebec the same year. Some 36 per cent of workers in Quebec are protected by union membership, whereas only 23 per cent of Alberta workers enjoy the same representation. For more information, see the AFL's backgrounder on unions and workplace safety.
"It's a simple formula: The higher the rate of unionization, the lower the rate of accidents. Unions, quite simply, are part of the solution," says McGowan.
"It is clear that employers are unwilling to take safety seriously and that inspections alone aren't enough to convince them. Workers need the protection of a union so they can refuse to do unsafe work, so they can demand safety equipment and insist on safety processes being followed without fear of being punished or fired by their employer," he says.
The AFL has released a 10-point plan to improve safety with recommendations including more inspectors with more powers, more prosecutions of problem employers, protection for workers who blow the whistle on unsafe practices, and mandatory joint health-and-safety committees for workers and employers. To view the AFL's 10-point plan to improve workplace safety, click here.
-30-
MEDIA CONTACT: Gil McGowan, AFL president 780-218-9888
McGowan is available to the media for in-person interviews in Calgary today
Union says Alberta lagging on safety
Alberta labour groups are calling on the province to do more to prevent a growing number of workplace fatalities.
The call for action comes a day after an Edmonton worker was killed by a steel beam that collapsed at an Edmonton jobsite.
The employee's death marks Alberta's 14th workplace fatality this year [correction: the total number of workplace fatalities for 2011 to date is 140, not 14] which is four more than in all of 2010.
Construction worker Ali Fattah says nobody seems to be taking the situation seriously so it is becoming more dangerous.
He says a lot of the accidents are preventable.
Barrie Harrison, with the Occupational Health and Safety board, is among those at the provincial level working to prevent what he admits are too many injuries and fatalities in an inherently dangerous construction sector.
''Look at the equipment they're working with and the jobs they perform. That's why Occupational Health and Safety has laws in place. That's why we expect them to be followed. Many times when they're not, they end up with serious injuries or fatalities,'' he says.
Harrison cites worker and employer safety education as a crucial part of the provincial safety strategy. He also points to the hiring of new OHS inspectors and targeted jobsite inspections that are intended to make jobsites safer.
While the Alberta Federation of Labour agrees education is part of the solution, it feels what the province is doing isn't enough.
The labour group's Gil McGowan says in Alberta the new inspectors only replace the inspectors who were laid-off during the Klein years, and employers receive advanced warnings about the targeted inspections, which defeats their purpose.
He believes those factors contribute to the province lagging behind all others when it comes to safety.
McGowan also blames the high workplace fatality numbers on the province ignoring warnings, and not taking advantage of a lull in development to adequately prepare for safety issued related to our province's returning growth.
''All the more experienced people are going to work on the more lucrative oilsands-related projects,'' he says. ''So the employers in those sectors are throwing basically every warm body they can on the work site. Sometimes they're not well-trained, sometimes they're going inexperienced, and you couple that inexperience with a go, go, go mentality that a lot of these employers have to get the job done, and it's a recipe for accidents and fatalities.''
McGowan feels further tragedies could be averted if the government puts what he believes is just talk into action _ specifically more unannounced inspections, and a more aggressive approach to prosecuting employers who put their workers at risk.
OHS Canada, Thurs Oct 20 2011
Labour groups blame province for high number of workplace deaths
Alberta labour groups are calling on the province to do more to prevent a growing number of workplace fatalities.
The call for action comes a day after an Edmonton worker was killed by a steel beam that collapsed at a west-end jobsite.
The employee's death marks Alberta's 14th workplace fatality this year, which is four more than in all of 2010 - a disturbing statistic for those working in the construction sector.
"Nobody's actually taking it serious so it is becoming more dangerous," says construction worker, Ali Fattah. "Construction people should stop and think about what they're going to do...and we could prevent some of this stuff."
Barrie Harrison, with the Occupational Health and Safety board, is among those at the provincial level working to prevent what he admits are too many injuries and fatalities in an inherently dangerous construction sector.
"Look at the equipment they're working with and the jobs they perform. That's why Occupational Health and Safety has laws in place. That's why we expect them to be followed. Many times when they're not, they end up with serious injuries or fatalities," he says.
Harrison cites worker and employer safety education as a crucial part of the provincial safety strategy. He also points to the hiring of new OHS inspectors and targeted jobsite inspections that are intended to make jobsites safer.
While the Alberta Federation of Labour agrees education is part of the solution, it feels what the province is doing isn't enough.
The labour group's Gil McGowan says Alberta the new inspectors only replace the inspectors who were laid-off during the Klein years, and employers receive advanced warnings about the targeted inspections, which defeats their purpose. He believes these factors contribute to our province lagging behind all others when it comes to safety.
McGowan also blames the high workplace fatality numbers on the province ignoring warnings, and not taking advantage of a lull in development to adequately prepare for safety issued related to our province's returning growth.
"All the more experienced people are going to work on the more lucrative oilsands-related projects," he says. "So the employers in those sectors are throwing basically every warm body they can on the work site. Sometimes they're not well-trained, sometimes they're going inexperienced, and you couple that inexperience with a go, go, go mentality that a lot of these employers have to get the job done, and it's a recipe for accidents and fatalities."
McGowan feels further tragedies could be averted if the government puts what he believes is just talk into action - specifically more unannounced inspections, and a more aggressive approach to prosecuting employers who put their workers at risk.
"If we don't get our act together now on inspection, enforcement and prosecution, then we're going to see more incidents like the one that we saw yesterday."
Global TV Edmonton, Wed Oct 19 2011
October 2011: Labour Code Review; Keystone XL pipeline; no protection for TFWs; safety on construction sites
Unions fight back against biased review of Labour Code
- The Alberta government has embarked on a biased and secretive review of the province's Labour Code that threatens to introduce Tea Party inspired, Wisconsin-style changes to the rules governing workplaces. Affiliates of the AFL have united in their opposition to the union-busting and possibly illegal changes – and have warned the government to expect unprecedented labour unrest if it pushes ahead. For AFL September 28th press release; AFL August 26th press release; September 5th op-ed
Unions in bid to stop Canadian jobs being shipped down Keystone XL pipeline
- While Alberta and Canada's political leaders acted like sales executives pitching TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S., it was left to unions to fight for Canadian jobs. The AFL and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) went to Ottawa to explain to MPs that the pipeline would mean hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S., but only a handful of permanent jobs in Canada. Meanwhile, new research showed that the Alberta government is set to fall even farther behind its target of refining 72 per cent of bitumen in the province, with a predicted drop to only 50 per cent by 2017. For more information, see AFL September 22nd press release and July 19th press release ...
Flood of TFWs heading to Alberta, but government still failing to protect them
- Alberta is bracing for a new influx of Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs), but little is being done to make their workplaces safe. A court case against companies charged in the death of two Chinese TFWs in 2007 has been delayed for another year, meaning important lessons on how to keep workers safe will also be delayed. Meanwhile, AFL research revealed that there could soon be 100,000 TFWs in Alberta, but the government has failed to take any concrete action to fix the flawed program that has seen so many workers abused. For more information, see AFL September 16th press release and July 28th press release.
Alberta government fails to enforce safety rules at construction sites
- A CBC investigation showed that provincial safety rules were routinely being ignored on residential construction sites, putting the lives of workers at risk, but the government failed to response to calls from the labour movement for a more rigorous system of random inspections. Instead, the government ordered a one-time blitz of construction worksites – but undermined its effectiveness by warning employers when inspectors would be visiting. For more information, go to September 23rd CBC story and AFL September 12th press release.
Urgent Action
- Labour Code: Tell Redford to scrap the review! A review of the Labour Code launched by the Employment Minister is full of union-busting proposals. We need all affiliates to let the government know what they think of these ideas, but time is running out so submissions must be made NOW! For more information on the review and the AFL's reaction, see the top LabourBytes news story. For more info ... (AFL letter to affiliates (October 5th) and the Joint Statement from the Executive Council, September 28th
Events
- October 10: Thanksgiving
- October 10: World Mental Health Day
- October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
- October 18: Persons Day, commemorating the anniversary of the 1929 ruling that declared women to be persons in Canada
- October 21/22: Facilitators Re-facilitators Conference
- October 24-28: CUPW National Convention
- October 25-27: UNA AGM
- October 27-28: HSAA Labour Relations Conference
- October 31-November 4: CUPE National Convention
- November 4-6: 45th Annual Alberta NDP Convention
- November 11: Remembrance Day
- November 16: International Day of Tolerance
- November 18-20: Parkland Institute 15th Annual Fall Conference
- November 25: International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women
- December 4: AFL Women's Committee December 6th Commemorative Brunch and Morning of Solidarity
Did you know ...
- The Alberta government has set a target of upgrading 72 per cent of our bitumen in the province.
- Currently, only 61 per cent is being upgraded in Alberta and the government predicts that figure will fall to 50 per cent by 2017.
- Various studies show that the Keystone XL pipeline will create between 99,000 and 550,000 jobs in the U.S., but only about a dozen permanent jobs in Canada.
- Alberta has 45,578 barrels of proven oil reserves per person living in the province, more than Saudi Arabia (10,125), Iran (1,766), Iraq (3,782) and Kuwait (40,067).
- The value of Alberta's oil sands is estimated to be $1.41 trillion.
Trial into deadly oil sands incident delayed
A recent decision to delay the trial for at least two of the companies charged in the deaths of two temporary foreign workers (TFWs) means it will be at least five years since the incident before their families can get any closure.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNRL), Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company Ltd, a state-owned company out of Beijing, and SSEC Canada Ltd were scheduled to appear in court October 3, but the case has been pushed back a full year.
Sinopec Shanghai Engineering is appealing a ruling by Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench that concluded the company was within provincial jurisdiction and would be tried alongside CNRL and SSEC Canada. Sinopec Shanghai Engineering argued that it had not been properly served and, as such, the court had no jurisdiction. The company was granted a stay of the judgement and an appeal is scheduled to be heard on October 6.
In a separate matter, an application by CNRL to postpone the case was also granted. As such, the trial for both CNRL and SSEC Canada has been pushed back to October of 2012. (The upcoming hearing will help determine if Sinopec Shanghai Engineering also goes to court at that time.)
Charges were laid following a deadly incident in April of 2007 at the CNRL Horizon Oil Sands site in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Two Chinese TFWs were welding the roof of an oil storage tank under construction when the roof collapsed. An electrician and a scaffolder, aged 33 and 27, respectively, were killed and five other workers were injured.
The oil tanks are large enough that a house could easily fit inside, says Barrie Harrison, a spokesman for Alberta Immigration and Employment in Edmonton. "When the one tank collapsed, some of the I-beams would have been 40 or 50 feet in length and they were just twisted like pretzels," Harrison reports.
The three companies face a total of 53 charges under Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). CNRL has been charged with 29 counts, SSEC Canada with 14 and Sinopec Shanghai Engineering with 10. Among other issues, the charges cite the alleged failure to protect the health and safety of workers, and numerous failures relating to engineering and equipment. The maximum penalty for a first offence is $500,000 for each charge.
Temporary foreign workers said to be at risk
"If we don't have legal frameworks in place to hold these employers accountable, should we even be allowing them to work in places like the oil sands?" asks Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour in Edmonton.
"Thousands of temporary foreign workers will be used for another generation of oil sands-related construction projects. Given that reality, we want to make sure that this case proceeds so lessons can be learned from that tragedy so it's not repeated in the next boom," McGowan says. "The longer it takes for the government to proceed with the case, the less likely it will be, in our opinion, that they'll be able to successfully prosecute the companies involved."
The number of TFWs in Alberta almost tripled between 2006 and 2010, reports Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Last year, the province had almost 58,000 such workers, with more than 1,500 of them coming from the People's Republic of China.
Although TFWs are afforded the same rights and protections as any other worker under Alberta's OHSA, McGowan argues that many of them are completely unaware of what acts, rules and standard practices govern work in the province.
OHS Canada, Wed Sept 28 2011
Alberta Federation of Labour slams trial delay for firms charged with safety violations
Immediate action is needed to make worksites safe as Alberta braces for a boom in foreign employees, says Alberta's largest labour group.
A criminal case against companies involved in the death of two oilsands employees has been delayed and the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 145,000 workers, says that's bad news for Alberta workers.
The two workers died in April 2007 at the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) Horizon project, and another four who were injured, were Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) unfamiliar with Albertan workplace procedures and safety standards.
"The Alberta government failed to take the necessary measures to ensure our standards were being maintained — and the workers paid the price with their lives," said AFL President Gil McGowan.
"Alberta is on the cusp of another boom in bringing in foreign workers — we could have more than 100,000 TFWs here soon. We need to learn the lessons from this tragedy now in order to ensure the same fatal mistakes aren't made again. This trial delay makes learning those lessons more difficult."
The number of applications to bring TFWs into Alberta approved by the federal government soared by 37 per cent between 2009 and 2010, rising by 11,655 to a total of 42,885. Add that to the 57,774 TFWs already working in the province in 2010 and Alberta could soon pass the six-figure mark.
A total of 53 charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act have been laid against CNRL, Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company Ltd. and SSED Canada Ltd. The companies were to go to trial Oct. 3, 2011, but the case has been put over until Oct. 1, 2012.
"We cannot ignore or fail to enforce our rules just because these are foreign workers," said McGowan.
"The government must be more serious about its responsibility to inspect worksites and enforce its rules, or more workers will die or be hurt."
"We have to make sure that these foreign construction firms, whether they come from China or other countries, are not importing Third World labour and health and safety practices along with the temporary foreign workers that they use."
Daily Commercial News and Construction Record, Thurs Sept 22 2011
Alberta ramps up inspections of residential worksites
Residential construction sites in Alberta are being targeted by occupational health and safety officers for surprise inspections during a month-long inspection blitz.
"We launched a focused campaign on residential construction in September," said Barrie Harrison, spokesperson for Alberta Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S).
"When we choose the sectors to be targeted for our safety campaigns, we look at specific factors, such as the current state of the industry. The residential construction sector has been on our radar for a number of years."
As construction activity on residential sites ramps up for the summer, OH&S officers are increasing inspections of single and multi-family projects in Alberta.
"Several officers from each of the three regions in Alberta are dedicated to this campaign, while other officers will participate as able," said Harrison.
"We know a majority of the orders we write are in relation to a lack of fall protection, which is the number one culprit in residential construction.
"Officers will arrive unannounced at a site to look for everything and anything that contravenes the safety code."
Almost 1,700 inspections of Alberta's residential construction sector were undertaken in 2010, which resulted in 1,000 orders being issued.
A lack of proper fall protection topped the list of infractions, followed by issues with hazard assessments, safeguards, and clear entrances, walkways and stairways.
"The campaign is expected to last at least one month," said Harrison. "Once the results of the inspections are compiled, we will share them with the public."
This information will include the number of sites visited, the total number of inspections, and the number and types of orders issued.
"Throughout the province, we're beginning to see an increase in new home construction," said Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk.
"We need to ensure safety on these job sites is a priority. I've said all year long that increased attention on residential construction projects was on my to-do list. My message to Alberta's home builders and their contractors is that we are on our way."
According to the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), the blitz of residential construction sites by inspectors is a welcome step in making worksites safer.
However, the AFL said the campaign is not the solution to the provinces safety problems.
"Employers have been warned inspectors are on their way and have been told how long the blitz will last," said Gil McGowan, president of the AFL.
"They will make an effort to clean up their acts and follow Occupational Health and Safety rules for a few weeks but, once the blitz is over, they will be free to return to their dangerous ways, knowing that they are unlikely to see more inspectors until another blitz is announced."
McGowan said regular and random inspections, that come without warning, are needed to encourage permanent change in worksite practices. The Alberta government is implementing a series of changes to its workplace enforcement system after numerous problems were exposed by the auditor general.
In a five month period in 2007-2008, the auditor general identified 63 companies that repeatedly failed to comply with health and safety laws for one year or more.
This group of employers had a Disabling Injury Rate that is three to four times greater than the provincial average
Inspectors don't have the power to issue fines for infractions, but Lukaszuk is signaling he wants to start ticketing people, who break laws designed to protect workers.
"To make our workplaces safer – to save lives and prevent injuries – blitzes must also be backed up with more concrete action, including hiring more inspectors and giving them increased powers to issue on-site tickets for violations," said McGowan.
Currently, officers secure jobsites and issue orders or stop work orders when infractions are found.
Journal of Commerce, Mon Sept 19 2011
Byline: Richard Gilbert