Goal and Reasons

A goal is the driving force for a project and represents the campaigner’s desired outcome. Reasons provide the justification for why this outcome is necessary.

Goal

Reasons

• Each death is a family, community, workplace losing someone who was loved. Each injury is someone’s life being changed forever by something that happened at work.

• Forestry is the most dangerous industry in New Zealand. In 2013 there have already been two deaths. Since 2008, 23 workers have died and almost 900 have been seriously injured .

• This industry will not change by itself. Unless the Government steps up and regulates for real change in the way the forestry industry operates, the harsh reality is that we are very likely to see many more deaths of forestry workers in the years to come.

• The Forestry Owners described Ken's death as 'unfortunate'. The Department concludes that he was 'the architect of his own demise.' No one considered the harsh conditions of work. No one talked to his family. We did.

• NZ Forestry is 7 x more dangerous than the UK. The 8 big forest owners contract out almost all the work. They do not set standards for how workers are employed by these contrators. They conditions are hard, long hours, bad weather, long unpaid travel times. Turnover is very high.

• Recently released new safety standards written by the government and industry are far inferior to those of Australia, the UK and Canada. These need to be re-written.

• An inquiry will dig down into what is really going on just as the Pike River inquiry did. It will talk to workers and families, examine accidents and deaths and make strong recommendations

• The reputation of NZ timber is at risk from our poor record. We claim to have sustainable forestry, but our accident rate is our dirty little secret.

A stakeholder is any person or organisation who can directly influence an issue. The stakeholders listed below have been selected by the campaigner and are invited to declare their official position on this issue.

• 

  Simon Bridges

  Minister of Labour - New Zealand

  Involvement Minister responsible for health and safety at work. What they can do Change the law to strengthen the standards making it safer to work in forestry. We are also calling on the Minister to launch an inquiry into health and safety in forestry. the inquiry needs to get experts to identify the issues in the industry that are causing this carnage. It is unacceptable.

  Show involvement
  Simon has not made a response yet
• 

  First Union

  New Zealand

  Show responses and comments from 1 member
  • 

    Robert Reid

    New Zealand

    Robert has not made a response yet
• 

  NZ Forest Owners Association

  New Zealand

  Show responses and comments from 1 member
  • 

    David Rhodes

    New Zealand

    David has not made a response yet

Facts

The following facts have been submitted by the campaigner to provide sound evidence for their position. These facts and their references have not been verified by One Big Voice.

Viewpoints

Share your personal experiences and declare your stance on an issue. Honesty in your response is important for other users to use your viewpoints in good faith to help form their own opinions.

Olive Hawira

I wholeheartedly support the call for more stringent Health and Safety Standards and procedures within the forestry industry. Blaming the worker/s is unacceptable in an environment which is driven by targets, productivity and ultimately profits for those at the top.

about 1 month ago

For  

debbie mcmillan

My daughter lost her dad in a forestry accident in 2009, and she is now 5 and 1/2 and still asks why daddy had to die? I have no answers for her. Someone needs to be accountable, and more needs to be done for other forestry workers.

about 1 month ago

For  

Patricia O'Shea

And for some of us it is the lack of a just outcome which hurts. The tendency to blame the worker, and the poor quality of investigations mean that often the real cause is not addressed. In our family we have never even had an apology, even though it was proven that the machine being driven was faulty - brakes failed, machine rolled, and driver killed, 'please do better next time' was the only message they seemed interested in. Not good enough.

3 months ago

For  

Katerina Chase

This issue affects my family's daily lives! My partner was the other main feller to Ken in their crew and had been working closely with him for 2 years and he knew personally and professionally, as did all there work mates that Ken was a professional at his Job!! He had just left that job for another for about a month when Ken passed. The fact of the matter for us is that it could easily be my partner in that position if the forestry industry does not improve there health and safety procedures!! Everyday I am scared that my partner will not come home because of the shocking working conditions the forestry industry operate under!! Truth is all forestry bosses care about is there target and if they don't hit that target every week, they will push the boys to longer hours and weekend work just to achieve there goal amount of wood they get down. In forestry its all about the figures & dollars signs, not the workers who slave day in day out for them to achieve it for them!

3 months ago

For  

Nick Latty

I completely agree that forestry standards need to be very stringent - and doing so legally is a great way to affect change. I recently spent four months working in the forestry industry in Canada and the standards over there (that I witnessed) were also shocking. I had friends lose fingers over there, I have lost an uncle to a Holcim cement factory accident and a close friend in the Pike River Mine disaster. I feel deeply for safety campaigns such as this one. While I understand that there is a responsibility for all of us working in these more dangerous industries to understand the risks of our occupation, safety standards need to be improved everywhere in the world. This is an important campaign and I hope it can influence parliament to impose higher standards on New Zealand's commercial forestry industry.

3 months ago

For  

David Reeves

Too many deaths, far too many accidents, working too long and harder hours, after a time can anybody think straight. Should this be happening in our day and age, I thought this sort of thing happened in my grand parents day. I am 17 years old and to think we have not progressed. I won't join the forestry the industry doesn't look after their workers. And Yeah Ken was my cousin and he was a real good fella.

3 months ago

For  

Mary-Ann de Kort

I came from a timber town and too many people are dying for too little pay.

3 months ago

For