Workers' Memorial Day
Wednesday 28th April 2010
UNISON Staff and IWMD – Minutes Silence
UNISON Staff are taking part in a minutes silence at 12 midday on Workers Memorial Day, Wednesday 28 April. Staff at Mabledon Place will be asked to observe the minutes silence at their desks or site of work at that time. Regions are also asked to participate in the minutes silence.
Health Conference will also be having a minutes silence on its last day, along with a short address by the President, and a short powerpoint presentation. Leaflets and ribbons for IWMD will be made available to delegates.
Materials for UNISON Branches and Activists
A UNISON IWMD poster, stock no. 1288 (http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/19058.pdf) and leaflet, stock no. 2746 (http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/19059.pdf) are now available and may be ordered from the Communications Unit in the usual way. Staff may want to wear the ribbon on IWMD, 28 April – especially if they are out of the office.
All health and safety contacts will also receive a copy of the recent IWMD circular to branch health and safety officers (HS/02/10), and copies of the leaflet and poster as per usual.
Appeal for Information
UNISON is looking for further recent case studies (anonymous or otherwise) which highlight the importance of health and safety at work, and the tragedy and trauma of when it all goes wrong. Please contact
Vincent Borg
Assistant National Health & Safety Officer
UNISON
1 Mabledon Place, London, WC1H 9AJ
Direct Dial: 020 7551 1709
Enquiry Line: 020 7551 1156
Fax: 020 7551 1766
Email enquiries: healthandsafety@unison.co.uk
Direct Email: v.borg@unison.co.uk
Web: http://www.unison.co.uk/safety
It's great news that Workers Memorial Day will now be officially recognised by the government – now they must admit the true extent of workplace ill-health, accidents and death AND enforce the law as vigorously as they do parking offences to reduce the damage done! http://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/pressrelease/wmdrecognition2010.htm
This is due to our campaigning – all of us, the Hazards Campaign, trade unions, the TUC and Families Against Corporate Killers – well done!
Workers Memorial Day is OUR day, a day when workers and our families, and our trade unions, focus on health and safety at work, both in our workplaces, and at events locally, nationally, and worldwide. Every year more people are killed at work than are killed in war. Most do not die of mystery ailments, or in tragic “accidents”. They die because an employer decided their safety just wasn’t that important a priority. Workers Memorial Day Remembers all of the Dead but also commits us all to Fight like hell for the Living, to stop these totally avoidable deaths that destroy lives and wreck families.
This year more than ever we need to fight for our lives as the recession caused by a greedy, globalised financial system acting out of control, under governments committed to deregulation and light touch regulation, has caused global meltdown and threatens to make our health and safety an even lower priority and destroy more lives.
There will be an election in the UK in few months and we need to use WMD to put workplace safety and health on the election agenda. We must Fight for the Living in the build up to Workers Memorial Day by making our case that safe and healthy work is a human right not a privilege, that currently work causes massive amount of harm for which employers pay a tiny proportion, that whatever government is elected must not deregulate health and safety, must not reduce enforcement and compliance, must not allow employers to audit and regulate their own H&S and keep inspectors out; and must ensure positive legal duties for H&S on directors, well funded preventative enforcement with teeth, deterrent penalties, and just compensation for all workers and their families harmed by work. http://www.hazards.org/deadlybusiness/specialinvestigation/index.htm
DON’T DO NOTHING, TAKE SOME ACTION, GET INVOLVED
Attend one of the local events or organise one yourself. If you cannot attend an event try to do something in your workplace – and at very least put up posters, wear a forget me knot ribbon and hold a one minutes silence at noon
Every year there are thousands of events across the world on WMD attended by millions of people. There are hundreds in the UK, see below.
The point of the Day is two fold:
to Remember the Dead – all those killed at and by work
And also
to Fight for the Living – all workers and everyone affected by work activities
Resources
See Hazards magazine website: http://www.hazards.org/deadlybusiness/specialinvestigation/index.htm; http://www.hazards.org/wmd/index.htm,
For Safety Reps Guide to Workers Memorial Day see
http://www.gmhazards.org.uk/SRep%20guide%20WMD%202010.pdf
For background to Workers Memorial Day see
http://www.gmhazards.org.uk/WMD%20lft%202010.pdf
Hazards Campaign Press Release http://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/pressrelease/wmdrecognition2010.htm
H&S Statistics
Globally Over 2 million people killed by work – International Labour Organisation estimate.
The real GB figures for deaths due to work are much greater than HSE official figures See Safety and Health Practitioner December 2009 -The Whole Story- http://www.shponline.co.uk/article.asp?article_id=8265&viewcomment=1
To order Purple Forget me knot ribbons see
http://www.gmhazards.org.uk/wmdribbonof.doc
To order Union Workplaces are Safer Workplaces car stickers http://www.gmhazards.org.uk/wmdstof.doc
For free posters - as on the back of Hazards 109 – A3 & A4 - send your postal address and No of each size you want to mail@gmhazards.org.uk, Posters say: ‘Organised workplaces are safer workplaces Ask your safety Rep, Don’t mess with our safety: we’ll bite back’ across an image of a face with teeth.
Events
There are events all over the UK see listing on http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/index.cfm?mins=293
Not a member?
If you're not a member of a union, join one now! Union members get a better deal at work all round. To find out more go to Join UNISON