Passionate speeches

Merseyside today (April 28) remembered its loved ones that have been killed and died as a result of work.

International Workers’ Memorial Day (IWMD) began in the USA in 1970 and its success inspired similar events globally to be organised annually on April 28. The late Hazards Campaigner and TGWU activist Tommy Harte brought IWMD to Britain in 1992, making this year’s many events part of the 25th commemoration.

The UN International Labour Organisation estimates that a minimum of 2.3m people are killed annually by work. This exceeds the figures for war. In Britain there are 1.2m working people suffering from a work-related illness, mesothelioma deaths from past exposure to asbestos are touching 3,000 annually and 142 workers were killed at work in 2014/15.

Working days lost to work-related illness and workplace injury run to over 27m. The human waste is criminal enough. But there is also a massive estimated economic cost – especially to the public services and the NHS – of injuries and Ill-health from work totalling £14.3bn every year.

#IWMD16 centres on strong laws, strong enforcement and strong unions. Strong laws are needed to ensure that those employers responsible for deaths, injuries and longer term debilitating illnesses are held to account. That lessons have been learned and others who follow don’t feel tempted to reintroduce unsafe practices.

Strong enforcement

Strong enforcement is required to help ensure that those who flout safety laws are caught to prevent a further loss of lives. Strong unions, with elected safety reps with sufficient time to effectively undertake the role, are needed because every statistic going shows that unionised workplaces are safer workplaces.

How sickening – but not unsurprisingly – that this current Tory government of millionaires, bankers and expense fiddlers has deregulated many of the UK’s once proud safety laws, slashed the HSE to the point where it can’t possibly investigate anything except the most serious incidents, and allowed bosses that have run firms where workers have been slaughtered to escape justice.

Fuelled by such a climate, employers have been encouraged to try and prevent trade unions representing their members.

Today’s event in Liverpool was one of numerous #IWMD16 events that ranged from Jersey to Aberdeen.

The large crowd at South Piazza heard a series of passionate speeches. They started with Mick Whitley, the Unite regional secretary in the north west, who said, “No worker should leave home in the morning and not return that evening through accidents just because the employer wants to cut corners to get the job done quicker and make a nice fat profit for himself or a nice dividend for his investor.”

Mick spoke of the need to replace the current government with a progressive Labour one led by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell.

Other speakers brought home the truth of poor health and safety by reminding the audience that four construction workers had been killed on April 8at Didcot ‘A’ Power Station, while on March 2 a 27-year old man was crushed to death by a one ton bale of paper as he worked in a Widnes recycling plant.

Concern was also expressed over cuts to local government safety inspectors. Steve Tombs, professor of criminology at the Open University, highlighted how in Liverpool and Sefton Councils there are no longer any dedicated health and safety environmental health officers.

“All this means the average workplace will face an inspection once every 43 years, yet the government talks of safety being a burden for employers,” said Steve.

The event ended with a minute’s silence, the laying of wreaths in honour of the dead and the call to remember the dead, fight for the living.

Pic of Les Gouthwaite, construction worker and Unite member, given permission to stop work during speeches. By Mark Harvey