The FFAW is launching a new campaign focused on health and safety issues affecting members.

President Keith Sullivan says thousands of their members work in industrial workplaces that experience occupational disease and gaps in safety training. They are also in buildings with poor infrastructure and risk repetitive strain injuries.

The union campaign will also draw attention to what it calls Workplace NL’s inability to make meaningful progress for plant workers.

Vice-President of the FFAW’s Industrial Sector, Doretta Strickland, says for years the union advocated for a stand-alone Safety Sector council to address the needs of plant workers, but it’s been three years since a subcommittee was established and little, if anything, has been done to improve safety in the workplace.

Shellfish asthma, ergonomics, mental health and lessons learned from the pandemic are among the issues being highlighted by the campaign.