CSAO's New President

Bryon Black points to accomplishments past and future

"Procedures are far more safe now."

 

In 1971, CSAO's new president Bryon Black became a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Local 2222, Goderich. He's been working full-time in construction ever since. Among other positions, he is currently business manager of Local 2222, secretary-treasurer of the carpenters' Ontario Provincial Council, and chairman of the jointly trusteed Benefit and Pension Trust Funds. Running through his career has been a concern for health and safety. Black has always believed, "The more training you can get in your back pocket the more employable you are." He got a push in the right direction by working on the Bruce nuclear power station at Douglas Point, where Ontario Hydro put a premium on accident prevention.

Black was one of 550 carpenters on the site, working everywhere from intake tunnels to heavy water towers. Even with the high standards at Douglas Point, he has seen substantial improvement since.

"Procedures are far more safe now. With the scaffolding on the water towers especially there were some incidents where we were lucky nothing worse happened. Between the time I was on my tools and now, there's been a complete turnaround in safety. That's basically due to better practices, equipment, and regulations."

On the Carpenters Labour-Management Committee he had a hand in creating the Construction Health and Safety Manual which won the Gil Samson Award for the committee in 1994 and has since become the industry bible-- "one of the highlights of my involvement with CSAO."

He also takes pride in the scaffolds program developed with CSAO and delivered by the carpenters.

"At first we were criticized about where you draw the line between safety and skills. But we see safety as a component that strictly ties together with everything else. The program has been in high demand around the province ever since."

Black thinks it's a good idea for CSAO to build a program for delivery by those with the expertise and resources to present it. A strong believer in the team approach, he praises the High-Rise Forming and Carpenters Committees not only for jointly developing fall protection guidelines endorsed by the Ministry of Labour but also for cooperating so effectively.

"You've got trades around that table that people never thought would sit down with each other. We're all there for one reason--the health and safety of our workers."

He sees another accomplishment in the addition of WSIB representatives to CSAO's board of directors. "We're not bipartite now but tripartite. This lets the WSIB members see first-hand where we're coming from."

As CSAO president, Bryon Black looks forward to further accomplishments.

"Number one has to be improving the funding formula for CSAO. I don't think we can sharpen our pencil any sharper than it is. Ontario has the best construction safety record in North America. But we need funding to maintain that record. Our money can't drop as premiums drop. The formula has to be changed. We need a specific premium for prevention. It's part of the cost of doing business safely."

He also feels strongly about the underground economy. "I think that workers deserve to be trained in the safest way to do their jobs. It should be a level playing field when it comes to paying for safety training. That isn't there now. We have to fix the imbalance so that all employers pay their fair share."

Black would also like more feedback from the industry. "CSAO should put out a report card on how we're doing and the ways we can improve. Everything that comes back isn't going to be positive, but we can use the input to make improvements. It's something I'd like to suggest to the CSAO Executive Council to see what they think about it."

As CSAO president, Bryon Black will have a chance to do exactly that.