YET ANOTHER SENSELESS ON THE JOB DEATH OF A YOUNG MAN

The Waterloo Region Record has carried stories on both July 4 & 5/14 regarding a fatality at Polycon Industries in Guelph, Ontario. The title of the first was "Cambridge man dies in Guelph factory accident" and the second "Ministry issues orders after workplace death". The "Ministry" of course refers to the Ontario Ministry of Labour. This ministry is at least as competent and well funded as Ontario's Ministry of the Environment; which after twenty-five years of dealing with them I can advise you they are way beyond hopeless. I've had some dealings with the Ministry of labour and for example am still waiting for $9,000 awarded to me years ago from a local Elmira company (Pilgrim's Provident). As usual we have lots of laws but essentially more loopholes when it comes to enforcement.

The 22 year old man was working for Oskam Welding and Machine and was attaching a steel plate to a beam when he fell. The plate then fell on him. Clearly the history of on the job deaths in this province; especially of young, inexperienced males has had little real impact on business and industry. So called voluntary compliance is a joke with the M.O.E. so why would it be any better with the Ministry of Labour. The problem is obvious. Our major winning political parties, Liberals and Conservatives are nothing but mouthpieces for right wing business and industry. Every law, every regulation has to be vetted by the wealthy and powerful because it might cause them five seconds of difficulty or lost productivity. Compared to the renewable resource of young human life they have clearly made their decision. Profits first, health and safety second. There are always replacement workers and please keep the fines and charges to a minimum or we won't keep up our political donations.