This Month in
Labour History

Why do workers have to die on the job?

Early on the morning of Saturday, May 9, 1992, beneath the small town of Plymouth, N.S a methane gas leaking into the Westray mine shaft from the Foord coal seam when in mixed with coal dust the result was an explosion. The night sky lite up with a blue flash and homes more than a kilometer away shook with the force of blast. Within seconds 26 miners working underground on that shift were killed.

Westray had only been operating for eight months with Federal and Provincial government support. But even before the mine opened there were concerns raised about its safety. In July 1991, Nova Scotia Liberal MLA Bernie Boudreau sent a letter to the Labour Minister warning that the new coal mine “is potentially one of the most dangerous in the world.” Yet it opened and that day in May 1992 became Canada’s worst mining disaster since the 1958 “bump” in the Springhill Nova Scotia coal mine that claimed the lives of 75 miners. Coal mining has always been dangerous work with some statistics indicating that out of every 100,000 workers involved in coal mining 25 will die every year.

Following the disaster a provincial inquiry led by Mr. Justice Peter Richard found “The Westray story is a complex mosaic of actions, omissions, mistakes, incompetence, apathy, cynicism, stupidity and neglect.” (The Westray Story: A Predictable Path to Disaster.)

The Canadian Labour Congress and its affiliates undertook a campaign in the mid-1990s to amend the Criminal Code of Canada to hold managers and directors of corporations that failed to take steps to protect the lives of their employees criminally liable. After years of hard work in 2003, the federal government enacted Bill C-45 (known as the “Westray Bill”) that provided a new framework of corporate liability in Canada allowing the courts to fine corporations and put them on probation to ensure that the offences were not repeated.

Every year on April 28th memorials are held by unions across the country to honour the memory of workers killed or injured because of the work they do. Since the 2003 act was passed there have been few charges and less convictions. Every local union has health and safety committees to monitor and improve safety in their workplace. Unions continue to lobby for stronger enforcement of laws and for new laws where needed. Workers go to work to support themselves and their family and should not endanger their health or lives by doing so.

In 1998 the Westray Mine shaft was sealed, entombing 11 miners’ bodies that could not be recovered. It is now a memorial to those 26 workers killed on the job. “Their light shall always shine” is inscribed along with their names. But the labour movement continues to ask why did our governments allow potentially one of the most dangerous mines in the world to operate? Why do workers’ lives mean less than profits? We continue to take part in our workplace health and safety committees and lobby to keep workers safe.