[LabComm] WESTRAY SURVIVOR TO GET $101,000 COMPENSATION

[Van Horne, Pat]

15 DECEMBER 2003

UNITED STEELWORKERS WIN COMPENSATION 
FOR WESTRAY SURVIVOR 
	TORONTO - United Steelworkers National Director Lawrence McBrearty
announced Monday that the union has won a compensation claim for a former
Westray miner who was so disadvantaged that he was forced to pawn the medal
he received for his part in the attempt to rescue the 26 miners killed in
the 1992 Westray mine explosion.
"The worker, a lifelong miner, had been cut off compensation for
post-traumatic stress and had been unable to work," said McBrearty.  "He was
plagued with thoughts about what he saw underground in the rescue attempt."
McBrearty said the union took up his case before the Nova Scotia
Compensation Board, which now will pay the worker a total of $101,000 and,
beginning in January, he will receive a monthly benefit of $675.
The United Steelworkers has been involved with Westray since before the
explosion in May, 1992.  Workers concerned about safety in the mine were
signing Steelworker union cards in the months before the disaster.  The
union went on to fight for changes to the Criminal Code to make corporate
directors and executives criminally accountable for workplace health and
safety.  Those changes were finally passed into law in November.
"The effects of that 1992 explosion continue to be felt by survivors and the
men who were involved in the mine rescue," McBrearty said.  "Westray is as
much a part of the life of our union as it is for them."  
The United Steelworkers represents about 180,000 men and women working in
every sector of Canada's economy.
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CONTACT:                  Lawrence McBrearty    416/487-1571; 416/575-2486

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