April 28, 2014
Forestry widows speak out
The Council of Trade Unions says the forestry industry is the new form of colonialism, with a low-paid predominantly Maori workforce working in unsafe conditions to log forests for foreign owners.
The families of timber workers killed on the job have held a memorial service in Wellington and marched on parliament to demand change.
CTU president Helen Kelly says they have also been giving testimony to the independent commission looking at safety in the industry.
She says regulations brought in over a year ago by Forestry Minister Simon Bridges have failed to stop the unacceptably high level of deaths and serious injuries in the industry, and the Minister is still refusing to tackle the core issues.
"The regulations don’t cover fatigue, they don’t cover bad weather, they don’t cover things like driving time, hours of work, and these families are sitting in this review telling these people about their guys working 11 and a half hour days in the dark, in the snow, in the winter, not getting wet weather gear. We just heard one widow from Opotiki talking about her bloke not getting any wet weather gear and stuffing plastic bags down his boots to keep his feet dry. These guys are earning $16 an hour after 27 years in the bush and many of them are Maori," Ms Kelly says.
She says almost one in five forestry workers has been off on Accident Compensation for more than a year because of workplace accidents
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH HELEN KELLY CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MTc1NDA=
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