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Change occurs when ‘something bad happens’

Shannon Mitchell, representing MPP Wayne Gates, with her son Owen, John Pula, retired GM elected health and safety representative, Wendy Murray Nicholson, Tom Murray, Brenda Sevcik and her daughter Breanna, and Edward Steers, the current GM health an
Shannon Mitchell, representing MPP Wayne Gates, with her son Owen, John Pula, retired GM elected health and safety representative, Wendy Murray Nicholson, Tom Murray, Brenda Sevcik and her daughter Breanna, and Edward Steers, the current GM health and safety representative, attended the National Day of Mourning service in Virgil last Thursday. (Photos by Penny Coles)

Every year, on April 28, a small crowd gathers at the monument in front of the Centennial Arena in Virgil to recognize the annual National Day of Mourning, which remembers those who were injured, suffered illness or died because of workplace incidents.

These solemn services take place across Niagara, Canada, and around the world, in 100 different countries.

In Niagara-on-the-Lake, we remember husband and father Joel Murray, who was crushed to death in 1998 at the GM plant where he worked. 

Wendy Murray Nicholson lays a wreath at the Virgil monument, with Lou Ann Binning, president of the Niagara Regional Labour Council, looking on.

Last Thursday, those gathered outside the arena included his wife Wendy Murray Nicholson and her family. In attendance were her son Tom, who was 12 when he lost his dad, and daughter Pam, then 14.

This year, they were joined by Brenda Sevcik and her daughter Breanne — daughter Kaitlyn was not able to attend. They lost a husband and father just six months ago. Dan Sevcik had worked for GM for 47 years, but was killed tragically in a workplace accident, one that MPP Wayne Gates says was not unlike the tragic circumstances of Joel’s death. Sevcik was an experienced skilled tradesman, considered one of the best, when he lost his life, Gates says.

On Nov. 4 1998, Joel, then 39, went to work at the auto parts plant, as he had for 15 years, and didn’t return home.

He had been directed to repair equipment in an area where he hadn’t worked for a while, and without his knowledge, protective switches had been disabled. GM was convicted on a workplace safety charge, and fined $325,000.

“No one should go to work and not know if they are coming home after. No worker owes their life to their job,” says Gates, who was president of the CAW Local 199 at the time. When he got the call that morning from GM, he rushed to the plant, and walked beside the gurney as Murray was taken to an ambulance.

That day, Wendy Murray’s high school sweetheart did not come home, he didn’t get to coach his son’s hockey game that night, or hear about his daughter’s day. 

Pam Murray Froese recalls it was Take Your Kids to Work Day, an initiative for Grade 9 students to learn about the workplace. She was in her first year at Niagara District Secondary School, and because her dad went to work early, she went with a friend to her parent’s job at a pharmacy, although she recalls she had friends who were going to GM.

“I remember that day clearly. I think of it often,” she says. “I think of it every day.”

Pam and her husband Ben Froese have four children who never knew either of their grandfathers. Ben’s father Jamie, a well-known and respected farmer, was killed in a vehicle accident in 2002. 

Their children are five, seven, eight and 10, and the couple talk to them about their grandfathers often, showing them photos as well, so they will know them. Pam says they also talk about how their grandfathers died. “We think it’s good to be honest with them, and important that they understand.”

As hard as it is for Ben and Pam to have lost their fathers so tragically, she says, “it really makes you appreciate life. It’s a lesson to live life every day, to make every day count, and to try to make a difference.”

Brenda Sevcik told Wendy she recalls her husband Dan talking about having some students at the Ontario Street plant that day in 1998 — he had taken a friend’s son to work with him — and although she didn’t know the Murray family, the day of Joel’s death will always be one she remembers. When the devastating news began spreading through the plant, Dan took the student home.

That her husband, with decades of experience in the plant could be killed in a workplace tragedy, makes Brenda very concerned for young employees. They need to learn to ask for help if they’re unsure, and to be sure they get training for what they’re asked to do, she says.

“Kids are anxious to get a job and want to do it well. Any job they get, they should have the proper safety training.”

John Pula, now retired from GM, was the elected health and safety representative in the plant from 1994 until he retired in 2009. He was at the Virgil service last week, and also voiced his concern for young workers. While new employees rely on their supervisors for safety training, many supervisors don’t have enough training themselves, he says, yet “they’re responsible for the safety of everyone below them.”

Unifor’s Local 199 Edward Steers, the current GM health and safety representative, also attended last week’s service.

He says while much has changed in relation to workplace safety in the decades since Joel’s death, “there is always work that needs to be done. And unfortunately, events like this are sometimes the catalyst for change. It can be very difficult to enact change until something bad happens.”

Coun. Gary Burroughs makes a point of attending the memorial every year. The importance of the annual gathering in Virgil is to remember that there are still workplace tragedies, and still work to be done. 

Gary Burroughs says workplace tragedies continue, and there is still work to be done to prevent them.

He remains concerned for young people who may be going to work for the first time, at places where there is such a hurry to get work done that the proper safety training is not a priority.

“I  have grandchildren at an age that they’re ready to go to work, and this is a worry. We need to be sure we’re doing all we need to do to keep them safe.”

He told the crowd that if anyone knows of an unsafe situation, “if we’re not doing something right that has anything to do with safety, tell us, and we’ll do something about it.”

Brenda had spent some time Thursday morning, before the Virgil Day of Mourning service, at the GM plant, talking to people, and trying to raise awareness for workplace safety. Safety, she says, “is something we have to focus on, especially with all the new workers in the plant. But some good things are happening there, happening every day.”

Gates could not attend this year’s service. He hated to miss it, he says, but it was the day the Conservative government was releasing its budget and was expected to adjourn until after the upcoming provincial election.

Representing him in Virgil was his assistant Shannon Mitchell, who attended with her son Owen.

She took a moment to remember Joel and his family, and said, for Gates and the Murray family, “the pain of this loss is still fresh.”

Gates continues to fight for workers across the province, and in the legislature later that day, he introduced the Justice for Victims of Occupational Disease Act, a bill he wrote for victims of workplace diseases, including cancer, who are still fighting the WSIB for benefits. They and their families deserve fair compensation, and that isn’t always the case, he told
The Local.

He continues to be outraged that when companies are fined following workplace accidents, as GM was, the families are not the beneficiaries.

“Wendy and her family didn’t see a dime of that money. That doesn’t make sense to me. They never even received an apology.”




About the Author: Penny Coles

Penny Coles is editor of Niagara-on-the-Lake Local
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