Quebecor world workers demand say in safety

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VERSAILLES, Ky./CNW/ -- Workers, community members, clergy and elected political leaders gathered in front of the Quebecor World Inc. plant to demand a voice in healthcare decisions, working conditions, and safety. 

The group also honored the memory of their co-worker killed in the plant on recently.

   
Carolyn Cox Campbell, 62, died at University of Kentucky Hospital from injuries sustained in a forklift accident at the Quebecor World plant.  Those attending the gathering and workers inside the plant held a simultaneous "moment of silence" for their fallen friend and co-worker followed by a prayer by Fr. John Rausch, Coordinator for the Justice and Peace Commission, Diocese

of Lexington.  "Our prayers go out to the family," said Fr. John Rausch.  "We are standing with them in their time of grief."

   
A delegation of workers presented management with a petition signed by an overwhelming majority of the workers at this facility.  The petition protested dramatic decreases in their healthcare coverage and continued increases in their co-pay premiums.  The petition states that workers at the Versailles facility want the same say in their healthcare plan as the 7,000 Quebecor World workers in the United States that enjoy union representation. "The healthcare coverage keeps going down and the premiums keep going up," stated Lucy Frost, a 28-year employee.  "It's forcing people to choose between healthcare and groceries."

   
Close to one hundred people gathered at the plant including

representatives from over a dozen labor and community organizations and State Representative Joni Jenkins.

   
The Kentucky Occupational Safety and Health Administration (KY OSHA) launched an investigation of the accident on Monday and is expected to confiscate the forklift Campbell was driving at the time of the accident.  The investigations should take about a month according to KY OSHA officials.

The JusticeQuebecor campaign, launched in December 2003, is an

unprecedented effort by Quebecor workers and their unions throughout the world to win basic human rights on the job at Quebecor World's facilities worldwide.

These rights, which are enshrined in the conventions and declarations of the International Labor Organization, include the right to organize a union free from management interference, the right to engage in collective bargaining, and the right to a safe and healthy workplace.

For further information:  Bernard Pollack of Justice@Quebecor,

202-321-2025, or  bpollack@aflcio.org