Program aims to help workers speak up on safety

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A new tool kit designed to help Aboriginal workers become more involved in ensuring the health and safety of their workplaces will soon be available.

Called the Spirit Tool Kit, the collection of resources is being developed by the Manitoba Federation of Labour Occupational Health Centre as part of the centre's Aboriginal Workers Education and Outreach Project and is designed to help eliminate some of the obstacles that have kept Aboriginal workers from speaking up when they have concerns about their health and safety on the job.

The outreach project got its start about a year-and-a-half ago when the centre began looking into whether the workplace health and safety information available in Manitoba was useful to Aboriginal workers. An advisory group comprised of Aboriginal workers and an Elder was established to look into the issue, but it soon became evident to everyone involved that a change in the project focus was needed.

"We realized that it was probably not the important question to ask and that the more important question was 'Why is it that Aboriginal workers seem to be even more reluctant than workers at large to get involved in workplace health and safety issues?'" said Diana Ludwick, an occupational health nurse at the centre who has been involved in the outreach project since its inception.

One of the key factors contributing to this reluctance, Ludwick and the advisory group members determined, was the effects of residential school, especially among those who experienced the schools firsthand.

"If they complained in those schools-not in all of them, but in some of them-they certainly got punished more. And it was sort of an early learning thing that was very, very difficult to break," Ludwick said.

The question that then arose was what could be done to help Aboriginal workers heal and to get them more involved in workplace health and safety. The answer the advisory group came up with is the Spirit Tool Kit.

The information in the kit is based in tradition, equating the seven Aboriginal teachings of respect, humility, love, truth, honesty, courage and wisdom with the three rights of workers-to know about workplace hazards, to participate in health and safety committees and to refuse work that is unsafe.

Each session held using the tool kit takes place within a sharing circle and begins with a smudge, Ludwick explained. Participants are then invited to share a story about a time when they felt misunderstood in the workplace. Then a video clip is shown featuring actress Tina Keeper portraying an Aboriginal woman who experiences being misunderstood at work.

Storytelling also figures prominently in the project, explained Val Vint, the centre's Aboriginal project co-ordinator. All Aboriginal workers are invited to contact the centre and share their stories about experiences they've had in the workplace.

"It's part of the process of healing, that once you speak your story then you see it differently and you can address the situation from a different perspective, once you've put it out there," Vint said.

"So some of those stories will be used in our workshops, with permission only, and some of them will be used that one time and they'll help that person get started on a path of healing and to be able to represent themselves in a work site and have the courage to stand up and say, 'This is unsafe work,' or 'I want to know more about this. Before I operate this machine, I'd like more training and information.' To give people the ability to do that and keep themselves safe."

The tool kit is being designed to engage all participants, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, in a dialogue about many of the factors that have contributed to the difficulties Aboriginal workers have in getting involved in workplace health and safety, including residential schools and colonization. By providing information about these factors, the kit is not only expanding the knowledge and understandin of non-Aboriginal participants, but can also help Aboriginal participants get a clearer understanding of what they're experiencing.

"What we are finding is workers of Aboriginal descent really vary in their knowledge of the history as well, and they may be reluctant to get involved with workplace health and safety issues but they might not always understand why. So it helps in even their awareness," Ludwick said.

While the project has had a local focus so far, once its finalized Vint hopes the Spirit Tool Kit will help improve things for Aboriginal workers across the country and beyond.

For more information about the Aboriginal Workers Education Outreach Project visit the MFL Occupational Health Centre's Web site at www.mflohc.mb.ca or call the centre at (204) 949-0811.