Years of Dedication Times Three

The Dick Martin Award recognizes the dedication to the betterment of occupational health for all workers in Manitoba, exhibited by the people who receive it.  This award is one of our highest honours and commemorates the importance of the hard work and dedication accomplished by the late Brother Dick Martin to establish the MFL Occupational Health Centre. There were three recipients of the Dick Martin Award at this year's convention.

Brother Jay Cowan's contributions to occupational health issues are substantial, beginning in the 1970s when he was an activist in Leaf Rapids and Lynn Lake. At the time, he was both a member of the Steelworkers Health and Safety Committee and Chair of the Manitoba Federation of Labour's Health and Safety Committee.

As an elected member of the NDP Caucus, Brother Cowan championed many labour issues, including occupational health. His detailed knowledge enabled him to challenge the Sterling Lyon Conservative Government on a daily basis, particularly on the issue of lead exposures. When the Pawley administration sent the Conservatives packing in 1981, Brother Cowan was named Labour Minister and able to assume a leadership role in Cabinet and Caucus on issues of importance to working people.

One of his most significant acts was making Dick Martin's dream of an Occupational Health Centre a reality. Though these achievements took place in the 1980s, they continue to bring important benefits to working people in Manitoba to this day.

Brother Rob Hilliard has devoted much of his adult life to building the labour movement, unions and improving the lives of working people. It all began in the Birch Tree mine in Northern Manitoba in the mid '70s where Rob sat on his first Health and Safety committee.

In 1979, he became a member of local 8144 of the Steelworkers at the Leaf Rapids mine. He spent eight years there, six of them as Local president and he also co-chaired the Health and Safety Committee.

Rob became the MFL's first Health and Safety Representative in 1989. He was also responsible for Workers Compensation issues. In 1989 he was named Federation Co-ordinator, and in 1995, became president of the MFL – a post he held until 2004.

Today, Brother Hilliard is the Director of Workplace Safety and Health for UFCW 832. He is also responsible for advocacy on Workers Compensation cases for the union, and the challenge of promoting health and safety issues specific to the union's large immigrant workers membership group. He also sits on the Minister of Labour's Advisory Council on Workplace Health and Safety where he keeps labour's interests front centre.

Brother Pete Walker joined the staff of the MFL in 1999, bringing with him many years of experience as a union activist with particular emphasis on health and safety and injured workers issues. As MFL Health and Safety Representative, Pete quarterbacked the Federation campaigns to modernize and make more relevant the Workplace Safety and Health Act and the Workers Compensation Act. Both campaigns were enormously successful and resulted in important changes and improvements for working people.

Throughout his tenure with the MFL, Pete dispensed critical advice to unions and their members on many issues. He served as confidant and mentor to hundreds of activists and helped them with their efforts to help others.