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Reduce Differences in Health Status Build Healthy Public Policy Strengthen Community and Personal Action
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Restructuring and Women’s Health:
Canadian society is experiencing the effects of extensive restructuring, yet little research has been done to examine the health impacts of restructuring processes. Overharvesting, reduced biodiversity and pollution are examples of environmental restructuring. Industrial restructuring includes work reorganization (de-skilling and re-skilling) and downsizing, and political restructuring processes involve changes to public services and social programs. In Newfoundland, restructuring followed the northern cod moratorium of 1992. The moratorium terminated all fishing activity related to the northern cod stock along the east coast of the province. Closures and quota reductions for many other groundfish species were applied to other fishing areas, too. As a result employment in the fishing industry declined drastically. Since the moratorium, growth in the shellfish sector has provided jobs for some fisheries workers. In recent years the government of Newfoundland and Labrador has been looking at nickel mining and smelting as another possible means to create employment. As is common in restructuring, this industry, if developed, will bring with it new occupational health risks. Currently there are no mechanisms in place to ensure that these risks are anticipated and minimized at the construction phase. From Fishplant to Nickel Smelter: Health Determinants and the Health of Newfoundland’s Women Fish and Shellfish Processors in an Environment of Restructuring (April 2001) is a case study of the relationship between restructuring and women’s health in a fisheries-dependent region of Newfoundland in the wake of the groundfish crisis. In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 women shellfish-processing workers and 15 women fish-processing workers who retrained in an attempt to change sectors. These interview data were contextualized using key informant interviews with health professionals, an analysis of Workplace Health Safety and Compensation Commission (WHSCC) claims data for fish-processing workers, an analysis of data on training programs introduced in response to the fisheries crisis, and key informant interviews with educational administrators. Retraining of workers is one response to restructuring and it was a significant focus of this study. While education is often credited with improving people’s health through improving social supports and participation, the greatest impact of education on health results from the ways it mediates access to meaningful employment experiences.¹ The potential health benefits of education and training may be jeopardized by limited access to career counseling and preferred training options, shortcomings in the training experience and employment outcomes. This jeopardy is perhaps particularly relevant to working class women, such as those in this study, for whom training is a response to involuntary displacement and a requirement for income support and for whom the point of education and training is to find paid work. As the traditional fishing industry restructures and fewer opportunities for work are available, women and men from rural Newfoundland communities will seek employment in new industries. To identify the potential health risks associated with the development of the Voisey’s Bay Nickel mining and smelting project proposed for Labrador and Newfoundland, we also analysed Ontario Workplace Safety Insurance Board data on the health risks for women and men associated with that industry in Ontario. Our study found that environmental restructuring, along with government and industry efforts to downsize the fishing industry, shifts from groundfish to crab and shrimp processing, and changes to Employment Insurance (EI) regulations, have resulted in fewer jobs, less certain work, and reduced incomes for fish-processing workers. WHSCC claims during the period of restructuring showed reductions in the frequency and incidence of claims for men and women processing workers between 1985 and 1998. Losttime accidents also became less common relative to medical aid and report-only claims. These trends are partly the result of reduced numbers of workers and reduced hours of exposure caused by plant closures and downsizing. However, interviews with study participants also suggest that seasonality and employment uncertainty may discourage workers from making WHSCC claims, particularly losttime claims. EI regulations also appear to discourage reporting of workplace injuries and occupational diseases by excluding time off work on WHSCC benefits from the time that counts towards EI eligibility. The shift from groundfish to crab and shrimp processing has also changed occupational health risks. The risk of Occupational Asthma from snow crab, for example, has become relatively more significant while effective mechanisms for preventing, diagnosing and compensating this illness are not yet in place. Women who attempted to leave fish processing in the 1990s encountered inadequacies with the retraining options and services provided under the federal Atlantic Groundfish Strategy (TAGS). Career counseling was largely unavailable, access to training was limited to a narrow range of options, and some women encountered negative stereotypes among TAGS administrators concerning their capabilities. As one woman said, "The message went out that all fishery workers were illiterate." Women who accessed TAGS training seats were under-represented relative to men and the average duration of their programs was shorter. Of the 15 women in this study who took skills training, some described shortcomings with the actual training, a majority were unemployed at the time of the interview and none had found stable employment after training. Many said they would not be doing any further training. One woman, only 37 years old, went back to work in fish processing after completing a technology program. Unable to find employment related to her retraining, she commented, "My personal expectations have gone down a lot. I feel like I am stuck in a job that I despise... It’s too depressing." The word "devastated" was often used to describe the impact of the moratorium on the families and communities of the women we interviewed. Twenty-one of thirty-six respondents said they found their lives very or somewhat stressful, and twenty-two reported stress levels were higher than they had been six years earlier, around the time of the announcement of the moratorium. For women displaced from fish processing, apart from loss of income, the greatest impacts were: persistent work insecurity, disappointment because they did not get work after training, loneliness because close friends/family members had moved away and depression due to the severing of close ties with former co-workers at the fishplants. "What I wanted after the moratorium was called was a reason to get up every morning," one woman reported. "The fishplant was everything: all my siblings worked there and I’ve had to watch them one-by-one move away." As the fisheries downsize and restructure, displaced workers and young people who would have sought work in fisheries have begun seeking work in other industries. Women from fishery-dependent communities want and need jobs, including the better paying ones in nontraditional areas such as trades and technology. Over the past decade, employment has expanded in the oil and gas sector. Previous research on this sector pointed to serious health risks for women at Hibernia associated with an inadequate transition into trades work. Recently the government of Newfoundland and Labrador has been trying to negotiate an agreement with Voisey’s Bay Nickel for a nickel mine and mill in Labrador and a smelter in Newfoundland. It is important to anticipate and take steps to minimize the health risks this industry could bring for women and men employees. Ontario Workplace Safety Inspection Board claims data and three cancer studies were reviewed to examine jobs and the occupational health risks associated with them for women and men in these industries. The number of women working in nickel production and mining jobs in Ontario is still small but the data and cancer studies show that both women and men are getting injured and sick as a result of nickel mining and smelting. Some of the health issues are: relatively high rates of accidents and injuries—especially for men; workers experiencing difficulty gaining compensation for respiratory cancers; a significantly higher incidence rate of trachea/bronchus cancers in the general population around Sudbury as compared to the rest of Ontario; the exclusion of women workers from cancer studies done on the industry; and safety risks to women in maledominated work environments. The Newfoundland and Labrador government and the Workplace Health and Safety Compensation Commission should take steps to minimize these health risks for women and men when they lay the groundwork for nickel mining and smelting in the province. The collapse of the groundfisheries jeopardized women’s health through its impact on their employment and incomes and by changing the primary occupational health risks in the industry. Training programs failed to offset the risks to these women’s health. This study suggests that a more in-depth, gender-based analysis and a social-ecological approach to health should be incorporated into planning and negotiations related to all resource-sector initiatives, whether in periods of downsizing or growth. In addition, governments at all levels should take a more proactive role in job creation and in guiding the makeup of the Canadian labour force in an equitable manner. For a copy of the full report, From Fishplant to Nickel Smelter:
Health Determinants and the Health of Newfoundland’s Women
Fish and Shellfish Processors in an Environment of Restructuring, contact: NOTES |
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