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Construction accidents shake labour leaders in Vancouver

Two construction accidents within blocks of each other in downtown Vancouver left one worker dead and another in hospital with life threatening injuries today.

As delegates to the BC Federation of Labour's annual convention gathered downstairs in the Vancouver Convention Centre at Canada Place today, a specialized rope technician working on the $21 million roof replacement project of the Centre's signature sails fell an estimated thirty to fifty feet to the deck below. Although preliminary reports had indicated the technician was killed in the fall, an update issued later in the morning by WorkSafe BC spokespeople said he had survived and was in hospital with life threatening injuries.

Half an hour after the Canada Place incident, another construction worker was crushed in an accident at the Harbour Green high-rise project in the 1100 block of West Cordova, just blocks away from the first incident at Canada Place, WorkSafe BC spokeswoman Donna Freeman told the Tyee in a phone interview. Freeman said that the worker had been struck by wall form while working on the 30th floor of the high rise project. She said the fatality involved the worker being crushed by the form, and that in this incident, unlike the one at Canada Place, no fall was involved.

Reached on the floor of the labour convention, BC and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Director Wayne Peppard declined to comment on the incidents until he had more information. He did say, however, that he extended his and his organization's condolences to the families of the two workers.

"WorkSafe BC officers are conducting an investigation right now," Freeman told the Tyee. "We know there were multiple employers at the Canada Place site and we are looking into the status of employers, contractors and possible subcontractors on the Harbour Green site. This is a very unusual occurrence. I can't recall ever having two incidents reported in such close proximity during my time with WorkSafe BC."

The Tyee was interviewing newly elected BC Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair when he got the news about the two accidents. A visibly upset Sinclair told the Tyee that one of his priorities in his next term of office would be to improve BC's response to industrial injuries and deaths.

"Our most critical job is to keep workers safe," he said. "While we don't yet have the details of today's incidents, one thing is clear. Accidents are avoidable, and BC employers need to know there is a price to pay when they endanger workers. Negligent employers need to know they will go to jail when workers are hurt or killed."

Sinclair said that an address to the Fed convention yesterday from Tracey Phan, the 14 year old daughter of one of the mushroom farm workers left crippled in a 2008 gas leak incident left delegates in tears. "No one can imagine her pain," he said. "We need to keep this from happening again."

Tom Sandborn reports on labour for The Tyee.

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