Media Advisory - Steelworkers News Conference to Address Workplace Killing

WHITEHORSE, Nov. 13, 2013 /CNW/ - Representatives of the United Steelworkers union (USW) are in Whitehorse this week, hoping to meet with provincial and territorial justice ministers to discuss improving enforcement of 2003-04 amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada that address workplace death and injury.

A news conference, led by USW Western Canada Director Stephen Hunt, will take place on Thursday, Nov. 14, at the Westmark Whitehorse Hotel and Conference Centre.

WHAT:		Campaign to enforce Westray amendments to Criminal Code of Canada
WHERE:		Westmark Whitehorse Hotel and Conference Centre, Conference Room 1
WHO:		United Steelworkers Western Canada Director Stephen Hunt
WHEN:		10 a.m., Thursday, November 14

The news conference will describe the USW's campaign and address the dismal enforcement record of what has long been known as the "Westray" law, named after a 1992 mine explosion in Nova Scotia that killed 26 miners. A decade later, a unanimous vote in the House of Commons changed the law to hold corporate directors and executives criminally accountable for workplace death and injury.

"We are determined to assist provincial and territorial justice ministers and attorneys-general to take up the cause and enforce a law we fought hard to win," says Hunt. "The stories of incompetence, neglect and cynicism that lead to preventable death continue unabated and unchallenged. That has to change. And we have a plan."

SOURCE: United Steelworkers (USW)

Brad West, USW Communications, 604-683-1117, 604-754-1174, [email protected]