BC At Work, Episode 7, Video

[00:00:14.07] – Scott

Hi, I’m Scott Swanson.

 

[00:00:15.28] – Judy

And I’m Judy Pal

 

[00:00:16.24] – Scott

And this is BC At Work.

 

[00:00:23.04] – Speaker 3

This week, Vancouver’s Rocket and fighting for a cause. BC At Work, the inside story showcasing the unions, working people, and the companies that employ them. This week from Queen Elizabeth Park, here’s Scott and Judy.

 

[00:00:51.22] – Scott

Good evening and welcome to the show. Well, as you can see, the weather is holding, and as we promised you last week, we’re coming to you tonight from Queen Elizabeth Park.

 

[00:00:59.09] – Judy

You know, Scott, with all the little brooks and the ponds and the walking paths, it’s really hard to believe that Queen Elizabeth Park used to be a quarry.

 

[00:01:05.14] – Scott

That’s right, Little Mountain.

 

[00:01:07.07] – Judy

Why did they call it Little Mountain?

 

[00:01:09.05] – Scott

Because it’s a mountain and it’s little, I guess.

 

[00:01:11.25] – Judy

You don’t know the real reason, do you?

 

[00:01:13.25] – Scott

I don’t know the real reason.

 

[00:01:15.06] – Judy

Like I was saying, this is just a beautiful place to come walking any time of the year, and it’s right here in the heart of Vancouver.

 

[00:01:21.02] – Scott

And on top of this mountain is the Bloedel Conservatory.

 

[00:01:23.25] – Judy

And we had the opportunity to speak to the head gardener there, Robert Leupen. What appears to be a haven for a variety of birds, fish, a tropical rainforest in fact, is right in most Vancouverites’ backyard. The Bloedel Conservatory, famous for its domed skylight capping off Little Mountain in Queen Elizabeth Park, is perhaps more famous for its vast majority of plant life rather than the wildlife. But the over three dozen species of birds and fish that grace the Conservatory add a unique dimension to one of the most popular attractions in Vancouver. The care and consideration that must go into maintaining the plants and animals is a full-time occupation for Robert Luepen of CUPE Local 1004. What title do you give a man that not only tends to the flower beds and tropical plants, but keeps the exotic wildlife at the Conservatory healthy, happy, and in top condition?

 

[00:02:19.13] – Robert Leupen

I’m the gardener, and that means I’m in charge of the fish, the birds, I do the pruning, planting of plants, maintaining of the birds and the fish, feeding them, looking after them, make sure they stay healthy. The fish are Japanese carps, koi, and some of them get really old. Most of them have been donated. Some people have them in the backyard, they get too large, they’ll donate them to us, or we get them from the Vancouver Aquarium. There’s a bird feeder and there’s a central location where they get all the feed. They know where it is. We have to make sure they get their regular worms in the morning and their apples and their seed. Like, they go hungry if you forget about them for a day. Basically, the fish and the birds are a surprise for the people in here. Some people are not interested in plants. Children, for instance, are not really interested in plants, so they love to see the birds, the parrots. Like, I meet so many different people on so many different days.

 

[00:03:16.21] – Judy

Where do the visitors come from?

 

[00:03:18.03] – Robert Leupen

Oh, they’re from everywhere. They’re like our plants.

 

[00:03:19.29] – Robert Leupen

I think I’ve talked to everybody from everywhere.

 

[00:03:23.17] – Robert Leupen

People are always afraid that the birds do their droppings on top of people, right? And it usually doesn’t happen, but one time there was a lady in here with a very large nose, and somehow the bird crap ended right on top of her nose. As far as humour is, no, there isn’t really. Birds just fly around and be happy.

 

[00:03:46.10] – Scott

What do you like about your job?

 

[00:03:47.16] – Speaker 3

It’s fast, it’s exciting, and it’s never dull.

 

[00:03:51.05] – Scott

Still to come on the show…

 

[00:03:54.01] – Scott

Clay Perry’s logbook, and the VGH burn unit, right after these messages.

 

[00:04:00.23] – Tom Fawkes

Thank you. Enjoy your stay, sir. Whether it’s a good meal, a good night’s rest, or friendly and helpful service, we’re here to make good times better in BC.

 

[00:04:11.10] – Tom Fawkes

You know, it’s really fun to meet people from all over the world, and I enjoy sharing this beautiful province, and I’m proud to be a member of Local 40.

 

[00:04:17.15] – Nick Worhaug

The hospitality industry is the second largest in BC. We know our work is important to all British Columbians. Working with other trade unions, the business community, and the public, we make the good times better in BC.

 

[00:04:30.24] – Art Gruntman

I’m Art Gruntman, Western Vice President of the Canadian Paperworkers Union. Our members are hard at work in pulp, paper, and related industries all over BC. A good example is Scott Paper in New Westminster, where 560 proud members produce a wide range of products using state-of-the-art technology. For 46 years, the CPU has represented the Scott employees. Our union, the employees, and the company will continue to work together for a better BC for you and your family.

 

[00:05:03.03] – Judy

We’ve all suffered a burn at one time or another, but it’s hard to imagine the pain of someone who suffered third-degree burns over 75% of their body. Just recently, the Vancouver General Hospital has established a tissue bank. Through fundraising efforts of groups like the firefighters across the province, severe burn victims have a better chance.

 

[00:05:25.17] – Scott

A key to survival and an instrument of destruction. Last year in Vancouver alone, there were 1,584 fires. There were 8 deaths and 185 burn unit cases. So far this year, there have been 152. For victims of massive third-degree or full-thickness burns, the skin bank and the epithelial tissue culture lab at the VGH Burn Unit can make the difference between life and death. Upon arrival at hospital, a section of unburned skin about the size of a quarter is removed and carried to Ian MacDonald in the tissue culture lab. From this small section, enough tissue can be grown to cover burns over 60% of the body. Removed from its incubator, Ian examines each section before lifting it and preparing it for the surgeons. This is done in a sterile work environment. To enable our cameras to see what he does, Ian had to bring the newly cultured tissue out of its environment and onto a counter to continue the process. Unlike many labs, Ian is the only technician at the epithelial tissue culture lab. From the postage stamp-sized skin section taken from the patient, enough skin can be grown to cover their entire body. An enzyme solution is added which causes the tissue to break free from the plastic Petri dish.

 

[00:07:01.06] – Scott

It takes great patience to complete this painstaking process.

 

[00:07:06.10] – Ian MacDonald

I just have to mechanically do this because it’s hard for the enzyme to work underneath, plus I want a nice little edge so I can clip it.

 

[00:07:17.29] – Scott

Ian removes a Vaseline-covered piece of gauze used for backing the tissue. This gauze will be clipped to the tissue and sent to the operating team.

 

[00:07:42.19] – Ian MacDonald

That’s the epithelium there, and I’m going to tease it out.

 

[00:07:48.01] – Scott

This tissue is 3 to 5 cells thick, thinner than a sheet of onion skin paper. To prepare enough tissue for a major burn can take several hours and timing must be perfect. This is living tissue. From the moment it is removed from its incubator until it is applied to the patient, each step is critical. The tissue must be kept sterile and alive.

 

[00:08:12.27] – Ian MacDonald

Moist.

 

[00:08:15.20] – Scott

It takes 3 weeks to culture the patient’s own tissue. During that time, the burn must be covered and kept free from infection. In the past, sterile dressings were used which had to be changed constantly, a painful and traumatic process which did not stop the tremendous heat loss. The skin is the largest organ in the body with a major responsibility to maintain the body’s temperature. A better bandage for massive full-thickness burns is the homograft. A homograft is cadaver skin which has been frozen and stored at the skin bank until needed. It is a temporary covering of living tissue. Once the homograft has been thawed, Paul Wertz prepares it in a sterile environment for the application to the patient. Because it is restored living tissue, it will send capillaries down to the patient’s blood supply. The body’s natural rejection of this tissue will take approximately 3 weeks, By which time the patient’s cultured tissue is ready. It’s amazing that this once frozen tissue can be so elastic and so tough. A major source of funding for the burn unit is the money raised by the members of the International Association of Firefighters.

 

[00:09:33.10] – Terry Richardson

It’s one of the things that just seems natural for a firefighter to raise money is for the burn unit. And after touring the burn unit down there, it’s, it’s the work that people do down there is really incredible.

 

[00:09:44.27] – Scott

Terry Richardson and members of the International Association of Firefighters Local 2407 have raised over $16,000 for the burn unit.

 

[00:09:54.14] – Speaker 3

Medical research probably needs a lot of funding, and I guess being in the fire department, we see a lot of burn victims, and I guess it’s part of our job.

 

[00:10:07.11] – Scott

The Vancouver Firefighters Hall of Flame calendar raised $106,000 last year. It’s through the efforts of groups such as the firefighters that the burn unit at VGH is there when we need it.

 

[00:10:22.23] – Judy

And now, from the wrinkled, unabridged pages of his historical logbooks, BC At Work’s resident storyteller, Clay Perry.

 

[00:10:31.22] – Clay Perry

Women were playing a direct and crucial role in the BC labour movement by the turn of the century. Shortly after that, the women who were operators in the telephone system conducted a dispute with their employer with a tactical sense and discipline that astounded their employer, and I suspect a good deal of the men who were involved in the labour movement at the time. And those same women, some few years later, were the last to return to work after going out in sympathy for the Winnipeg General Strike. Helena Gutteridge, who was later to become Vancouver’s first woman city councillor, was an active and prominent leader of the labour movement throughout that period. And on behalf of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, chaired the first meeting of the BC Loggers Union. But perhaps most astonishing as an achievement was a group of women who organized and kept organized a union on behalf of domestic workers. There are very few fields that are more difficult in which to organize a union than that, and at that time there were very few fields in which workers needed unions more, and I suspect that that may well still be the case.

 

[00:11:56.13] – Clay Perry

And that’s Perry’s logbook.

 

[00:11:58.13] – Scott

If you could have any job in the world, what job would that be?

 

[00:12:01.26] – Speaker 10

Um, something really easy and paid $20 an hour.

 

[00:12:06.21] – Judy

See, Scott, that’s what we were talking about. There’s a couple down there having their pictures taken.

 

[00:12:09.26] – Scott

You’re right.

 

[00:12:10.20] – Scott

We’ll be right back.

 

[00:13:14.25] – Speaker 6

If you’re shopping for a home, this is not the place to start.

 

[00:13:18.21] – Speaker 3

A Royal Bank report on prearranged mortgages.

 

[00:13:21.27] – Speaker 6

It’s hard to know what you can buy until you know how much you can borrow. That’s where the Royal’s prearranged mortgage can help. You’ll know exactly how much you can borrow and what your monthly payments will be. You’ll know what price range to look at. And the Royal will guarantee the interest rate for 60 days. It’s like having the cash before you start house hunting.

 

[00:13:42.00] – Speaker 3

Royal Bank prearranged mortgages.

 

[00:13:44.01] – Scott

For over 30 years, visitors to Vancouver’s International Airport were greeted by a statue of a rocket that looked as if it’d come straight out of Buck Rogers. Up until 1972, it was a Vancouver landmark.

 

[00:13:58.14] – Scott

At the southern foot of the Cambie Street Bridge, overlooking the Expo site, sits a remembrance of Vancouver’s past. A rocket. It didn’t go to the moon, but it once won the grand prize during Vancouver’s 50th Jubilee celebration in the 1936 PNE Parade. We spoke with the designer, Lew Perry.

 

[00:14:15.26] – Lew Parry

One day Dan McPherson came into my office and he said, ‘Lou, we’re thinking of putting a float in the parade,’ and talked with his Scottish accent, you know, And I said, ‘Well, what’s that got to do with me?’ He said, ‘Well, we want you to design it.’ So being an old trade unionist, I agreed to do this and I went to work.

 

[00:14:48.25] – Scott

Looking at the pictures reminds me of a cross between Buck Rogers and Jules Verne. Were you followers of those?

 

[00:14:54.29] – Lew Parry

Well, Jules Verne was born then, but Buck Rogers was still a twinkle in his old man’s eye as far as I could figure out.

 

[00:15:06.08] – Scott

It was a landmark at Vancouver International Airport for 37 years before being removed to make way for new construction. How was the Rocket reborn?

 

[00:15:14.18] – Lou Molgat

It was a challenge really that was put through the—to a Denny Boyd column, wondering if we would rebuild or somebody would rebuild the rocket that sat at the airport for umpteen years. And that’s really how it came about.

 

[00:15:33.00] – Scott

With the help of the Transportation Club, it became a centennial project.

 

[00:15:36.16] – Lou Molgat

The Vancouver Transportation Club, it’s a group of people that are involved in transportation such as trucking, railroad, ships, anything to do with transportation. It’s more of a social club than anything else.

 

[00:15:55.13] – Scott

To be ready for Expo ’86, Robert Colvin of the Sheet Metal Workers Local 280, in consultation with Lew Parry, redesigned and supervised the reconstruction of the rocket at Terminal Sheet Metal of Vancouver.

 

[00:16:08.12] – Lou Molgat

They’re an old firm that have been around for quite a few years, and the people in that shop volunteered their time rather than made monetary contributions. They volunteered their time. We asked the City well on where it is that they would locate it. We wanted to give it to the City of Vancouver, but we didn’t want it shuffled off facing a wall somewhere, you know what I’m talking about. And so after some heavy discussion with Mr. Puil and a few of those people up there, they assigned us to the south end of the Cambie Street Bridge, and we were very pleased with that.

 

[00:16:47.09] – Scott

It cost $40,000. Took a year to build with nearly 300 labour hours donated by sheet metal workers to reconstruct the rocket. Lou Perry still remembers the birth of the original rocket.

 

[00:16:57.26] – Lew Parry

And I’ll never forget those guys with their polishing rags and so on as they shined it up prior to going out the door to the parade. It was a proud moment for all of them and I think they well deserved the credit.

 

[00:17:14.25] – Scott

And if you could have any job in the world, what job would that be?

 

[00:17:17.29] – Speaker 10

Uh, to be a vet or the zookeeper of the San Francisco Zoo or San Diego Zoo.

 

[00:17:24.06] – Charlie Farquharson

My old granddad used to say the only good government’s a bad one that’s scared to death. Well, sir, if that’s the case, then your BC province must be in for good government.

 

[00:17:35.14] – Speaker 8

You’re still in bed when the first trucks start rolling. Before this day is through, each man will lift 15,000 pounds of garbage and walk miles of back alley. This job is tough and it’s dirty. It takes a special kind of man to work this hard for you and your community. A garbage man. It’s his neighbourhood too. They can’t rush it or cut corners because a safe, clean city is something to be proud of. And you can’t put a price tag on that. CUPE garbage men. A winning team that takes pride in a job well done.

 

[00:18:05.09] – Speaker 12

On February 15th, 1986, 19 cars derailed in Fort Langley carrying toxic chemicals. For the people who lived nearby, the most important person in the world was Rick Hawes, a member of the BCGEU. Rick Hawes was first on the scene to protect people by checking the water, soil, and air for contamination. It could have been a disaster. Instead, it was just another hard day’s work for Rick Hawes.

 

[00:18:31.21] – Speaker 3

The BCGEU— partners in your community.

 

[00:18:58.15] – Speaker 14

This challenge to your attitude toward older people is from University Hospital, because we care about caring for the aged.

 

[00:19:06.20] – Scott

Well, we’ve reached that point in the show where it’s time for the wit and wacky wisdom of Charlie Farquharson.

 

[00:19:11.14] – Scott

Excuse me.

 

[00:19:27.05] – Charlie Farquharson

Come on, you turkeys, line up at the trough.

 

[00:19:34.22] – Charlie Farquharson

My old granddad used to say the only good government’s a bad one that’s scared to death. Well, sir, if that’s the case, then your BC province must be in for good government. I’m not just talking about your present incumbent, Premier Billy, Mr. Blunderful, but the fact that a lot of your sociable credit card-backed debentures is now in the cabinet while your ex-cabnutters is sitting in the back with a resigned look on their faces. And them old cabnutters that’s still left must be saying to theirselves, ‘There but for the grace of McCarthy goes me. And the reason they’re all sitting in a pool of despair is because they can’t seem to get the ear of their premier, who’s too busy talking to some reporter in a parking lot. And his party don’t get to hear what he’s up to till they tune in on the radio or the TV. The whole ruckus started up when Billy give all the power to a simpering serpent who had never been elected, only anointed. And now that that pool has been drained, they still got a big split in their caucus! Billy Vander Shazam come here from your Never-Neverlands, but he never really gotten Dutch till he come to this country.

 

[00:20:37.01] – Charlie Farquharson

They say immigrants is no excuse, but I heard that as a little boy during the war, young Billy couldn’t go to school ’cause his wooden shoes was too small for him. And even today, they say he’s too big for his boots. But you know, Billy lives in Fantasyland, which most people nowadays thinks is them bird cages over to Victoria, but it’s really a kind of flowery Disneyland owned by his wife Lillian. And your BC voters is starting to say that maybe her husband should borrow one of Lillian’s headbands just for to keep the air in.

 

[00:21:14.22] – Martin Sheen

California grape growers don’t really care about the health of farm workers. They only care about making more money.

 

[00:21:20.05] – Scott

BC At Work was on location during this filming of a BC Federation of Labour commercial with actor and social activist Martin Sheen.

 

[00:21:26.16] – Tom Fawkes

Which means we’d be stationary, which means it would, it would work.

 

[00:21:29.27] – Tom Fawkes

But for this, but for this thing, you introduce yourself.

 

[00:21:33.00] – Scott

Martin Sheen came to Vancouver to kick off the BC Federation of Labour’s boycott of California table grapes. In a press conference held in Vancouver, he joined the executive officers of the Federation to address an issue which concerns us all.

 

[00:21:47.05] – Martin Sheen

This particular issue reaches me on a very human, very practical level. I have children, I have grandchildren. I would not want my children going into these fields after a spraying, nor my grandchildren. I don’t see any of the sons and daughters of the growers themselves going into the fields to tend these crops after spraying. So again, it’s a— it’s part of the plight of the poor that’s given to carry this burden.

 

[00:22:20.08] – Scott

To give our viewers a better understanding of the background of the boycott, we once again present an excerpt from ‘The Wrath of Grapes’.

 

[00:22:31.08] – Speaker 14

Pesticides were once considered a miracle of science. They’ve become a chemical time bomb, threatening to contaminate our food supply and our environment. Without contracts, farm workers earn low wages under miserable working conditions. They have no protection from deadly pesticides. Every year, more than 300,000 farm workers are poisoned in the United States. Farm workers have the highest incidence of job-related illness in California. Grapes are the most dangerous crop. Pesticides cling to leaves and are absorbed through the skin. 8 million pounds of pesticides are used annually on grapes. Even though they can be grown commercially without these dangerous chemicals. One-third of the pesticides used on grapes are known to cause cancer. Some are so toxic that they affect workers entering fields weeks after spraying. On August 5th, 1985, 32-year-old Juan Chaboya began working in a San Diego County field an hour after it was sprayed with the deadly pesticide Monitor. There were no warning signs posted. He collapsed in the field and died before he could receive medical attention. Pesticides are also dangerous to the children of farm workers. Salvador de Anda followed his father into the fields. His mother, Alicia, worked in the grape fields during her pregnancy. On Salvador’s 9th birthday, doctors told his mother that he has inoperable cancer.

 

[00:23:57.28] – Alicia

My whole world has crumbled down.

 

[00:24:01.08] – Speaker 14

Alicia De Anda blames pesticides. Salvador doesn’t think about blame. He just wants to be a normal boy.

 

[00:24:08.23] – Salvador

I went to school and then they started making fun of me.

 

[00:24:13.15] – Speaker 14

Other children wouldn’t play with him because they were afraid of getting cancer. It’s hard for Salvador to talk about it. The dangers posed by Captan are not confined to farm worker families. The California Department of Agriculture found residues of Captan and 10 other pesticides on grapes they sampled. Most of these residues cannot be completely washed off. The long-term effects of pesticides on consumers are unknown and may not show up for many years. California is one of the richest agricultural regions in the world. In 1984, state growers used more than 300 million pounds of pesticides, some of the most toxic chemicals ever manufactured.

 

[00:25:18.01] – Scott

The BC Federation of Labour supports the boycott of California table grapes. We urge you to do the same.

 

[00:25:27.12] – Martin Sheen

I was frankly overwhelmed by it, that the support of fellow unions north of our borders was stronger than the unions in our own country, and I wanted to reciprocate that support and come in here and say, one, thank you, And, uh, two, please keep it up. We need all the help we can get.

 

[00:25:48.24] – Scott

That’s it for this week. Thank you for being with us.

 

[00:25:51.02] – Judy

Next week we’ll be taking a look at the film and television industry in British Columbia.

 

[00:25:54.21] – Scott

That’s right, we’ll be visiting the sets of a number of motion pictures filming in the Lower Mainland.

 

[00:25:58.20] – Judy

Geez, I really hope we can meet a big star.

 

[00:26:01.19] – Scott

You work with one every day.

 

[00:26:03.18] – Judy

Scott, I said star. Good night.

 

[00:26:07.02] – Speaker 9

Good night.

 

[00:26:11.10] – Speaker 3

If you have a good story about a BC union, worker, or company, write to us at BC At Work, Suite 411, 1200 West Pender, Vancouver. The producers of BC At Work would like to thank the following companies for supplying goods and services. Our show hosts travel BC in the luxury of a 28-foot motorhome provided by Okanagan Manufacturers. The crew vehicle for the show is a 1988 Chevy S-10 Blazer, compliments of Westminster Auto Leasing. Our fuel expenses throughout BC have been provided by the Petro-Canada dealers and agents. Our energy is Canada. While on the road, the cast and crew of BC At Work stay at Coast Hotels, the choice of the frequent traveller. Everyone on the show can stay in touch no matter where we are in the province thanks to Autotel and cellular equipment compliments of Cellular Express and BC Cellular. Aerial footage made available through the services of Vancouver Helicopters. This week’s show has been made possible in part by contributions from Labour Canada, CUPE BC, and CU&C Health Services Society.