On the 34th anniversary of the Westray Disaster, Canadian workers still waiting for protection, accountability

Leaders of the United Steelworkers union (USW) released the following statement today, on the 34^th anniversary of the Westray Disaster of May 9, 1992:

Thirty-four years ago today, at 5:18 a.m., 26 coal miners were killed in a horrific underground explosion at the Westray Mine in Pictou County, N.S. Only 15 bodies were recovered, the other 11 forever abandoned in the depths of the destroyed mine.

Like all workplace fatalities, the Westray Disaster of May 9, 1992, was preventable. However, no one was ever held accountable for the tragedy. The miners’ devastated families, co-workers, friends and loved ones have never received justice or closure.

Tragically, much remains the same today. Negligent employers still are not held accountable in the vast majority of cases of workplace deaths and injuries, as authorities fail to enforce the law.

For more than a decade following the Westray Disaster, the United Steelworkers union and our allies lobbied relentlessly for new legislation to hold negligent employers accountable. Finally, in 2004, the Westray amendments to Criminal Code of Canada were enacted, establishing criminal liability to organizations – including corporations – for negligence of their fundamental duty to ensure the health and safety of workers.

In the 22 years since the Westray Law came into effect, an average of 1,000 Canadian workers have died annually from workplace injuries and illnesses. Of those 20,000-plus deaths – as well as 200,000 serious workplace injuries over the same timespan – only 29 criminal charges have been laid under the Westray Law and fewer than half of those charges have led to successful prosecutions.

The abject failure to enforce the Westray Law has become intolerable and demands immediate, decisive action from governments, police and regulatory authorities, to protect Canadian workers and hold employers to account.

On this 34^th anniversary of the Westray Disaster, the United Steelworkers, in partnership with the Canadian Labour Congress and our allies across the country, is calling for a whole-of-government approach, co-ordinated by federal, provincial and territorial governments, to ensure:

• Mandatory training for police, Crown prosecutors and health and safety regulators to understand the application of the Westray amendments; and
• The introduction of mandatory procedures and a national protocol based in sociotechnical science in every jurisdiction for police, Crown prosecutors and health and safety regulators to identify how senior executive decisions, organizational systems, and workplace conditions create foreseeable and preventable harms.

It is abundantly clear that to date, the necessary time, effort and financial support have not been committed by our governments to ensure the proper criminal investigation of workplace fatalities and injuries, nor the effective prosecution of violations of the law through the lens of the Westray amendments.

The USW will never rest on this issue. Through our national campaign, Stop the Killing, Enforce the Law, we will continue to work with our allies across the country to ensure that corporations and executives are held criminally accountable for the health and safety of workers.

Canadian workers, their families and their communities deserve no less.

Learn more at: usw.ca/stopthekilling.

In solidarity,

Marty Warren
USW National Director

Scott Lunny
USW District 3 Director (Western Canada and the Territories)

Nicolas Lapierre
USW District 5 Director (Quebec)

Kevon Stewart
USW District 6 Director (Ontario and Atlantic Provinces)

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