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The Oakville Beaver, W ednesday March 5, 2003 - A 3 `Work shouldn't hurt' Oakville Labour Council says workers and employers need to be more aware o f Repetitive Stress Injury live with her parents, who are facing their own serious health issues. O A K V IL L E B E A V E R S T A F F "I want to keep working. I want to Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) may stay productive," she says. "I don't want sound relatively benign but sufferers of to be disabled the rest of my life." RSI is an umbrella term for a num this often crippling affliction make it painfully clear that nothing is further ber of "over-use" injuries to soft tissue like the muscles, tendons from the truth. and nerves of the neck, "Unfortunately most "The public generally back, arms and more. workers find out the hard assumes RSI (Repetitive They are caused by repe way," said Madonna tition, force, awkward or Stress Injury) comes Louvelle, 35, who severe static postures and espe ly damaged her back dur only from computers. cially poor workplace ing years of heavy lifting This is one of the myths ergonomics. at a clothing company According to the we are trying to warehouse. Association of Worker's Louvelle made her overcome." Compensation Boards of comments Friday during · Laura Munro, Canada, in 2001 these the Oakville and District ergonomist with the injuries accounted for Labour Council's Occupational health 43.4 per cent o f total International RSI Clinics fo r Ontario injuries in this country. Awareness Day work Workers Inc. The financial impact shop at the Canadian from lost wages and com Auto Workers 707 Hall. During the event, experts on the subject pensation to absenteeism has escalated and RSI sufferers drove home the press to the billions of dollars. "The public generally assumes RSI ing need for awareness among workers comes only from com puters," said and understanding from employers. "We want to reach anyone who is at Laura Munro, ergonomist with the risk, from computer users to assembly Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario line workers, to students," said RSI Day Workers Inc. "This is one of the myths chair Don Switson. a former mainte we are trying to overcome." Often, says Ross Riddell o f the nance mechanic who bears the scar from carpal tunnel syndrome surgery on his Workman's Health and Safety Centre, wrist. "RSI doesn't discriminate. It hits injured employees look everywhere but a cross section of the population their workplace for the cause of health problems. engaged in a variety of occupations." "It is largely misunderstood," he Labour Council president Willie Lambert was more succinct: "Work said. "People want to place the blame on something else. No walk o f life is shouldn't hurt." Unfortunately for Louvelle, it's too immune." Switson is particularly concerned late: cartilage in her spine is so degrad ed she remains in constant pain, hasn't with prevention which does not. con worked since September and now has to trary to what many employers think. \ville and District Labour Council By Howard Mozel require large expenditures to ensure. "Many injuries can be avoided very easily, like a new keyboard," says Switson. "It's not a huge investment." Also key is for workers not to ignore their aches and pains - or submerge their ailments in medications - but to seek help right away. "We want to get across to all workers that when you start to hurt, get it docu mented," said Riddell. Roger Pulver, an occupational health nurse with the Occupational Health Clinics, also encouraged workers with health problems or questions regarding their workplace to call his agency at 1800-263-2129 or visit www.ohcow.on.ca. International RSI Awareness Day is observed annually on the last day of February and last week's workshop marked the first of what Lambert hopes w ill`be a yearly local event. He was especially pleased that M ayor Ann Mulvale declared Feb. 28 RSI Awareness Day in Oakville. To further help spread the word, the Labour Council printed 10,000 copies of a brochure which was sent to work places all over the region. "We're hoping to build on this year by year," he said. As Louvelle's story illustrates, the stakes are high. Eleven years of lifting 50-lb. cartons and driving a forklift have resulted in six low-back claims to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). Now. the pain is so bad she can't work. "I was suffering. I never really felt well. I was in pain every day," said Louvelle who, despite her agony, helped form the health and safety committee at her former workplace in order to spare international J V O fk ItS I A w arei S h o e (1 4 ^ 1 . yhai Peter C. McCusker · Oakville Beaver M adonna Louvelle severely dam aged h er back during years of heavy lifting at a clothing com pany warehouse. co-workers - including her own sister a similar fate. "Changes are coming there, but it's too late for employees like me." Other contacts that workers should know include the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. 905570-8094. www.ccohs.ca; Workers Health and Safety Centre, 905-5455433, www.whsc.on.ca; and the Oakville and District Labour Council. 905-844-9451. Duncan's ancestors fled to Oakville to escape slavery (Continued from page A1) were near the point of exhaustion. More than 40,000 slaves made their way to Canada through the Underground Railway. Alvin Duncan's own family history, at least locally, dates back to the 1870s when the Quakers, who were also aboli tionist supporters, safely brought Duncan's grandfather Benedict, a slave from Maryland, to Oakville. He became the `sexton' or janitor of St. John's United Church and taught his son (Duncan's dad) to play the organ setting the groundwork for the musical legacy of the family. Witness Duncan's daughter Arlene, who performs in the musical docudrama Sing Out Freedom Train. By the 1930s though, life in Oakville for black people had lost some of its lus ter, as meticulously told in the series History's Courtroom. At the centre of this obscure igno minious story is Duncan's friend Ira Johnson. He had made the mistake of falling in love with a white woman named Isabel Jones. She, too, loved him. But interracial couples were socially unacceptable and brought a nearby chapter of the Ku Klux Klan to town. The Klan set fire to a cross on Johnson's front lawn warning him to stay away from Jones, but the threat only served to ignite a long court battle that although was not focused on curb ing racism, set a path toward it. Johnson and Jones eventually mar ried. A minister living in New Credit Reserve, near Brantford, did the honours because clergy here refused to perform the ceremony. The couple moved back to Oakville and had three children who lived to see hate laws created. At 87 years old, Duncan, too, has seen innumerable changes. 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