Union calls for closer look at armoured car industry in light of murders

EDMONTON - A union representing 2,000 armoured car workers across Canada is calling for a federal government task force to study the industry and develop better safety regulations for workers.

Bill Murnighan, research director for Unifor, said this week?s trial and sentencing of triple-murderer Travis Baumgartner, a trainee armed guard with G4S Cash Solutions who gunned down his four co-workers last summer, has shown the public how little oversight there is for Canada?s armoured car industry, made up of private, for-profit security companies.

Baumgartner killed Michelle Shegelski, Edgardo ?Eddie? Rejano and Brian Ilesic, and left Matthew Schuman with serious brain injuries. He was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years.

?When people realize someone with minimal training and minimal background checks is handed a high powered weapon and put on the street, it makes people think,? Murnighan said.

Unifor, formed Sept. 2 by delegates from the former Canadian Auto Workers and Communications Energy and Paperworkers? Union, is calling on Ottawa to establish a task force on the armoured car industry.

In a letter sent Thursday to Minister of Public Safety Steven Blaney, Unifor president Jerry Dias said the lack of comprehensive industry regulation is increasingly putting public safety and the safety of armoured car employees in jeopardy.

?Canada has a patchwork of out-of-date and ineffective regulations governing the armoured car and secure logistics industry,? Dias writes.

Unifor represents more than 300,000 members, including 2,000 armoured car employees in Ontario and B.C., employed at Brink?s, G4S and smaller, independent firms.

?There?s been changes in the industry with new firms coming in and a lot of competition between firms. What they?re doing to compete, as you might imagine, is lowering costs, and the way to lower costs is to cut corners and cut standards,? Murnighan said.

?If you had higher standards and there wasn?t such an ongoing push to lower costs, I think companies would invest more in finding the right people. They would take more time to train people, there wouldn?t be a rush to just grab anyone they could.?

Earlier this week, a spokesperson for G4S Canada told the Journal that Baumgartner had to pass a federal firearms training test as well as a psychological evaluation before he was hired. He then had to undergo G4S training in marksmanship and physical combat.

In July, Unifor released a report on the armoured car industry outlining safety concerns and solutions. The report says there are inconsistent standards across jurisdictions and calls for establishing minimum standards in the areas of training, crews, vehicles and equipment.

There have been more than 70 attacks on armoured cars in Canada since 2000, the report says.

?From our perspective, this is not a complicated thing. It?s almost a no-brainer, that there should be a careful look at this industry and its regulations, not only in the aftermath of Edmonton, but just generally,? Murnighan said.

More comprehensive regulations have been adopted in other countries, Murnighan said.

G4S ?already operates in the E.U., around much tighter restrictions, so they?re familiar with this. This shouldn?t be new to them,? he said.

cklingbeil@edmontonjournal.com

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Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F231/~3/Eze2KAmQSDo/story.html

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