You can read MFUR's presentation below:
My name is Sandra Oakley. I'm the vice-president of the Manitoba Federation of Union Retirees.
We are the Manitoba affiliate of the 500,000-member Congress of Union Retirees of Canada. We are retired union members, supportive of the aims and objectives of Canada's trade union movement. We are proud affiliates of the Canadian Labour Congress and its 3.5 million members, and the Manitoba Federation of Labour, and its 130,000 members.
I'm appearing tonight on–to speak in favour of Bill 17, the bill that will re-establish the advisory council on workplace health–safety and health. We opposed the decision of the previous government to eliminate this important body in 2018. We fully sup-port the Minister of Labour's comments in introducing Bill 17, where she said, reinstating the advisory council ensures that worker and employer groups in Manitoba have a direct connection to the department on important workplace safety and health issues.
As retirees, many of our members started working prior to the 1970s, when legislation was first established to improve workplace safety and health measures for all workers in Manitoba. Many of us remember the days when worker safety was often ignored. Through the Manitoba Federation of Labour, workplace health and safety has been a priority for the last 50 years, a priority in our internal union education programs, at our bargaining tables and through our direct calls for legislative protections for all workers.
The foundation of our workplace health and safety work is found in our four core health and safety principles. These are the right to know, the right to participate, the right to refuse unsafe work, the right to protection from discrimination.
Just last month we observed the April 28 day of mourning. Sadly, we also remember 22 Manitoba workers who died on the job or from an occupational illness. We know that here in Manitoba, our Workers Compensation Board processes some 25,000 work-place injury claims each year. These statistics point to the obvious fact that the job of protecting the work-place health and safety interests of all workers will never end. In short, there remains much to do.
Restoring the advisory council on workplace safety and health is an important measure, one that ensures that as workers we can communicate directly with the office of the Minister of Labour and the government departments responsible for worker safety. In closing, this is an important piece of legislation, one we urge all members of the Legislature to support.
Thank you.