Forum to Commemorate the Elliot Lake Miners’ Strike

Re: 40 Years Later! Forum to Commemorate the Elliot Lake Miners’ Strike

We invite you to join us for a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the historic strike by the Elliot Lake Steelworkers. In 1974 the miners went on strike for improved health and safety conditions. The strike’s impact went beyond the mine site and resulted in the Ontario provincial government forming a Royal Commission, referred to as the Ham Commission, to study the issues of health and safety in the mines. The commission made a number of recommendations, one of which was the inclusion of joint health and safety committees in legislation. This recommendation led to Bill 70, which established the Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1978.

This was a great achievement for our union and workers in the province. This was also the beginning of a new era in worker health and safety with the rest of the country following suit and modernizing worker protection. Today, protection of our basic health and safety rights can be attributed in no small part to the committed activists of Elliot Lake.

At the conference, participants will have an opportunity to learn about a significant piece of the history of Elliot Lake from historical accounts by some of the miners who participated in the strike. The activities of our union and members leading up to and following the Ham Commission will be discussed. A trip on the second day will have participants travelling to Elliot Lake to view significant sites including the former mine site where the strike took place, the mining museum which has captured the history of the Elliot Lake mines and the memorial where the victims of work related deaths caused by working at the Elliot Lake mines are honoured.

Participants will also be involved in sessions in which we will look at ways in which we can further the work of health and safety activists. We will focus not only on how far we have come but what is needed to move forward. While discussing the struggles for safer and healthier workplaces that we waged in the 1960’s and 1970’s, we will focus on strategies to continually improve our workplaces. In particular we will look at the issue of enforcement and the problems that the Westray Bill is presenting to us.

This will be a conference of remembering and honouring those who led our struggles in the past as well as a call to action for a new generation of health and safety activists.

In solidarity,

Ken Neumann, USW National Director
Marty Warren, USW District 6 Director

Forum to Commemorate the Elliot Lake Miners’ Strike (includes agenda highlights and registration form) (pdf)

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