DSS170: History of the United Steelworkers in Canada with Steve Hunt

In today’s episode of the Dust Safety Science podcast, Steve Hunt, Director of United Steelworkers District 3, goes over the history of the organization in Canada. After reading the United Steelworkers’ statement on the 10th anniversary of the Babine Sawmill explosion, Dr. Chris Cloney connected with Steve and learned about their efforts over the last several decades to support workers in facilities handling combustible dust.

In this episode, we answer the following questions:

What is the United Steelworkers?
What role did they play?
When did USW get involved with combustible dust?

Next week, Steve will return and talk about what’s been going on over the past number of years in response to Babine, Lakeland Mills, and other combustible dust incidents out West.

What is United Steelworkers? What Role Do They Play in Canada?

United Steelworkers is one of the largest industrial unions in the union sphere in Canada. Although its genesis is in the mining and steelmaking industry, it now represents workers everywhere: from heavy industry, mining, and forestry to coffee shops and health care facilities.

“We learned an awful lot about health and safety – the hard way,” Steve says. “We suffered terrible deaths, serious injuries and occupational illnesses that really schooled us in how to fight for the health and safety of workers and survivors. We became adept at negotiating and in bargaining for proper benefits for workers and their families and communities.”

Steve is Director of the United Steelworkers in Western Canada. He is also the Worker Co-chair of IndustriALL which is the global union federation that represents about 55 million people around the world. He started off as a miner and a driller, where he learned about the hazards of dust exposure and became passionate about advocating for mine safety.

When Did USW Get Involved With Combustible Dust?

Steve explained that in the United States, the USW did some work on combustible dust fairly early.

“I think our first intervention was dust in mines, dust in steel. During sandblasting or blasting vessels in steel mills, we knew the dangers of silica dust exposure on the respiratory system. We also were aware of the dangers of explosive dust, but there seemed to be a lack of understanding by the regulators.”

When Westray blew up, the USW was in an organizing drive in Stellarton. The day the mine exploded, it had met the criteria needed to apply to the Nova Scotia Ministry of Labour or Department of Labour for certification. The USW made a commitment to the victims and survivors that it would never leave them alone and that there would never be another Westray.

“We learned a tremendous amount about dust and explosive dust,” Steve says. “[The report] contained a quote from a former French researcher: “ the most important thing to come out of a mine is the miner.” That was missed at Westray, obviously.”

‘Hell’s History’: a Review

Hell’s History by Tom Sandborn is an extensive overview of workplace deaths and injuries in Canada.

“We wanted to show a picture of what happens when regulators and government fail to act,” Steve explains. “Westray was an example of just simple negligence [and] neglect. The owners of Westray, Curragh Resources, promised the safest mine in the world with the best technology. It was absolutely abysmal, and one of the inspectors [from the Department of Mines] testified at the Westray inquiry [that] he had written orders a week before the mine exploded to clean up the coal dust. When he was asked if he had done any follow-up, he said, “No, because I was afraid the mine was going to explode.””

Regulator negligence was painfully obvious in the Westray explosion. Workers were interviewed and talked about taping their pant cuffs because coal dust would creep up their pant legs, or people passing out from the amounts of methane in there. It was left unchecked.

“There is a cookbook recipe for blowing up a coal mine. The owners of Westray followed it to the letter- all the ingredients were there,” Steve says. “That’s the purpose of ‘Hell’s History’. [The message is] ‘Let’s stop negligence. Let’s enforce the law. Let’s stop the killing.’”

The Westray Bill (Bill C-45)

The USW initiated the first ever private prosecution under the Westray Bill for what Steve calls “corporate murder.”

“We did a private prosecution knowing full well that we wouldn’t get to the finish line, that the government of British Columbia would seize the case – which was their right. But we got it in front of a judge, and the judge ruled there was enough evidence to proceed to a criminal trial. At that point, the government… stopped the case and dismissed it. We just wanted to do that to move the yardsticks down the field. Twenty-six miners died for something- let’s enforce the law. In this case, we did establish that it was enough to proceed and they didn’t go on that.”

Conclusion

When asked about ongoing challenges, Steve explained that the biggest challenge is to convince politicians to enforce the law. With occupational deaths, criminal investigations rarely occur. It’s an uphill battle, but the USW won’t give up.

“I saw something recently where a mining company was fined 62 million dollars for polluting a river, and rightfully so. [But if you] kill a worker, so what? That’s just the cost of doing business. We’re trying to stop the killing. We’re still working at it. I have seen a change. I mean, we are moving the needle painfully slow, but it’s moving.”

If you would like to discuss further, leave your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also reach Steve Hunt directly:

Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunt-steve-19a10235/
Website: https://www.usw.ca/

If you have questions about the contents of this or any other podcast episode, you can go to our ‘Questions from the Community’ page and submit a text message or video recording. We will then bring someone on to answer these questions in a future episode.