Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993                   TAG: 9304290171
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

LABOR ACTIVISTS RALLY FOR REFORM OF SAFETY LAWS

"It is wrong that in Virginia working people are subjected to laws that prohibit them to have a safe workplace," Daniel LeBlanc, president of the Virginia State AFL-CIO, told about 80 people.

LeBlanc, a member of a state commission studying workers' compensation, said Virginia should require companies to form labor-management committees that would inspect the workplace for safety violations.

A similar program in Oregon has helped reduce worker injuries, he said.

He said the commission also will urge Virginia to speed up handling of worker compensation claims. The group is to report to Gov. Douglas Wilder by September, LeBlanc said in an interview.

Also speaking at the rally was Loretta Shelton, a Franklin County woman who lost her right hand in an accident at the cardboard packaging plant where she worked last May. Her claim for workers' compensation was turned down by a deputy commissioner who said she willfully violated safety rules by putting her hand in a machine.

"I don't see how anyone could say that anyone could willfully amputate their own body part," she said through tears.

Her case is on appeal to the three-member state workers' compensation commission.

Many of the workers at the rally carried signs with Shelton's picture.