Forest union threatens 'death' strikes

Forest union threatens 'death' strikes - by Gordon Hamilton, CanWest News Service
VANCOUVER -- Forest workers say they are considering shutting down the entire forest industry for a day of mourning every time a logger dies on the job in a bid to focus attention on the industry's unacceptably high number of fatalities.

Twenty-seven workers have died in the B.C. forest industry this year, according to Darrell Wong, president of Local 2171 of the Steelworkers Union, which passed last week a resolution calling for such a shutdown.

'If the whole industry were to shut down every time somebody was killed, then safety would suddenly become a very high profile issue,' said Wong, who represents loggers working on the B.C. coast.