Workers’ Memorial Day 2002

Workers' Daily Internet Edition : Article Index :

WORKERS' MEMORIAL DAY
Workers’ Memorial Day 2002
The Contribution of Occupational Health to Public Health
National Day of Action against Casualisation
What Is Happening to Mark Workers' Memorial Day

Postal Workers Call One-Day Strike

US Congressional Hearing on Colombia:
US Congressional Hearing Fails in Attempt to Misrepresent Colombia's Civil War as "War on Terrorism"
Gerry Adams Responds to Hyde Invitation
Dealing with a Colombian Issue in a Foreign Country Seems Totally Unacceptable to Us

Sunday, April 28, is International Workers' Memorial Day. It is marked with the slogan: "Mourn the Dead, Fight for the Living!"

It is an indictment of the capitalist order that around the world, more people are killed because of their work than are killed through war and military combat. On average, every hour someone dies throughout Britain through circumstances at work. Many more workers are injured at work or suffer from work-related illnesses.

There were 291 people killed in Britain doing their jobs last year.

To that figure can be added the 1,000 people who died in work-related road accidents, 32 deaths on British ships and around 10,000 deaths from work-related diseases, such as asbestosis. The construction industry and agriculture are two areas where deaths are particularly high.

World-wide, the toll of people killed each year due to poor working conditions is 1.3 million, according to the International Labour Organisation.

This year, with Workers' Memorial Day falling on a Sunday, it will be observed in churches for the first time. The Clergy and Church Workers section of the union amicus has sent a leaflet containing sermon notes and a prayer to more than 11,000 clergy and faith leaders.

The TUC this year is particularly focusing on campaigning for a better service on occupational health. It points out that most workers in Britain do not have access to an OHS via work and the NHS is failing to take account of this need.

The TUC points out that major injuries are dealt with via NHS A&E services but work-related illnesses such as RSI, back pain, respiratory problems and stress-related illness, which constitute the majority of the ill-health caused by work, are not treated well by the NHS, either at primary care or at consultant level. Consequently workers with acute conditions are not referred for appropriate treatments and progress to being chronically ill and then disabled. The NHS also does not have a policy of rehabilitating sick workers to a state where they are fit to return to work.

This situation amounts to one of criminal neglect of the needs of working people and is indicative of the priorities which government sets for the NHS and the preoccupations that it has in society. While campaigning that these priorities and preoccupations are changed, and that government heed the voice of the workers and shoulders its responsibility to society, workers must also look to the future. That is to say, they must they must utilise their experience in these struggles to work out what kind of social order is required to safeguard their rights to life, health care and recognises their worth both as workers and human beings.

The TUC has, on the occasion of Workers' Memorial Day, issued a briefing to trade unions on occupational health. The briefing says that health and safety failures at work cost Britain at least £18 billion per year in lost production, treating injuries and illnesses and on compensating the victims. It continues: "The cost of this falls on all of us as victims of poor workplace conditions are treated by the NHS and paid injury, illness, sickness and bereavement benefits by the government. The personal cost to those injured, made ill or bereaved is enormous:

• each year, about 2 million people are made ill by work, over half are due to musculo-skeletal problems and stress affects half a million people;
• 150,000 people have occupational asthma with 1,500 – 1,700 new cases each year;
• 27,000 workers are forced to leave the workforce completely every year; and
• this is in addition to over 20,000 killed in workplace incidents or by occupational illnesses every year.

"Most larger companies have some sort of occupational health service (OHS) but the majority of workers in Great Britain, especially those in small firms, do not have access to any sort of OHS. The NHS currently lacks the resources or expertise to provide a national occupational health service available freely to all. What OHSs there are tend to be medically driven without worker involvement, often used as a disciplinary tool and, as they are not integrated into the health and safety systems at work, they lack preventative effect. Training in occupational health is optional for medical professionals and therefore expertise is lacking. Consequently ill-health related to work is poorly diagnosed, poorly treated and many workers suffer long periods of ill-health without adequate referral or treatment and little chance of rehabilitation. Britain is one of the few countries in Northern Europe where all workers do not have access to an OHS. An effective, universal Community Healthy Workplaces Service could have a dramatic impact on reducing and preventing workplace ill-health and thus improving overall public health."

The briefing concludes: "Unions can lobby the government to recognise that the NHS cannot provide the OHS required by workers and won't help meet the targets in RHS and SH2 and to begin to introduce Community Healthy Workplace Services urgently. Unions need to lobby the local NHS to examine and improve its OH provision in secondary care so that workers referred by their GPs are diagnosed and treated rapidly and that rehabilitation to working fitness is a primary goal. We can also lobby local NHS Primary Care Trusts to work with trade unions, Occupational Health Projects and Hazards Centres, to develop the Community Healthy Workplace OH Services in primary care accessible to all – for workers in small and mediums sized firms and the self-employed, as well as those employed in large companies."

TUC general secretary John Monks says Britain’s families have good reason to act: "Every hour of every day, a family in Britain loses someone they love. Those personal tragedies mask a public disgrace – because only a third of British workers have access to the sort of occupational health service that could save their lives." The TUC wants occupational health services for all workers; a duty on employers to have a rehabilitation policy for workers injured or made ill; more resources for the Health and Safety Executive; and more rights for workplace union safety reps to work in partnership with employers to prevent injuries and illness.

The Simon Jones Memorial Campaign (SJMC) called for a National Day of Action on 24 April against Casualisation.

Wednesday, April 24, was the fourth anniversary of Simon Jones' death. SJMC called on supporters to demonstrate in whatever way they saw fit outside employment agencies that benefit from the casualisation that killed Simon. Simon Jones was killed in 1998 on his first day at work in Shoreham Docks having been sent there by Personnel Selection, a Brighton based employment agency. Simon's family and others took action on April 24 against the Personnel Selection branch that sent Simon to his death. Carly North of the SJMC said: "Employment agencies make huge profits by providing cheap labour for companies who prefer casual labour rather than a well trained, decently paid workforce. The campaign wants to highlight this with a national day of action against employment agencies that put profit before people."

The evening saw a protest outside the Building Industry's Annual Award Gala in Park Lane. Protesters reminded the companies up for awards, including some with convictions for killing their employees, that people are sick of their profits-before-anything-else attitude. Other actions were organised as follows:

In Putney there was a protest outside Plan Personnel in Putney High Street. In Birmingham there was a vigil in Victoria Square. This was followed by relatives laying a wreath at the Workers Memorial Column in Cathedral Gardens, Colmore Row. In Manchester there was a protest at Adecco in Fountain Street. In Leicester there was a stall outside Kellys and Manpower on Market Street. In Sheffield there was a picket of Adecco Employment Agency in Commercial Street. In Liverpool there was a protest against an employment agency, part of a local carnival against casualisation organised by People not Profit. In Bristol, the Bristol against Casualisation Campaign took part in an action against an employment agency.

The TUC is marking International Workers' Memorial Day with the largest ever number of local events around Great Britain, including dedication events for memorial trees, releasing black balloons, lectures, film shows, demonstrations and church services organised by trade union members of the Amicus MSF clergy and church workers section.

Amicus (AEEU plus MSF)

Amicus Working Environment Unit is promoting WMD through the Clergy and Churchworkers Section, which has adopted WMD this year.

UCATT

In Liverpool phase two of the WMD memorial is planned when a statue of a construction worker is placed on the plinth installed last year in the Hunter Street/Christian Street area. It will be unveiled at 12 noon on 28 April followed by one minute's silence. Liverpool City Council buildings will fly their flags at half-mast, bells will be rung and the Mersey Ferries may blow their horns. UCATT General Secretary George Brumwell will be accompanied by Regional Secretaries and representatives of Liverpool City Council. Trade unions are invited to bring banners and wreaths and relatives of those killed at work are very welcome. A buffet at St. Sylvesters will be held afterwards.

UNISON

One example of UNISON activity - Medway Towns Local Government Branch of UNISON will be remembering local government workers killed in America on 11 September and in the UK. At 11.30am on 28 April they will be tying purple ribbons to the Workers Memorial Day Mulberry tree in Rochester Castle Gardens, followed by the playing of 'Fanfare to the Common Man' and then moving into Rochester Cathedral to make an entry into the Workers Memorial Book which is held there.

Construction Safety Campaign (CSC)/ London Hazards Centre (LHC)

At 11.15 am on 28 April at Three Mills Green, Hancock Road, Stratford E1, CSC and LHC will be at the memorial to the four men who died in a sewer gas incident in 1901. In 1990 three young men including two brothers died in a sewer gas incident at Watney Market, E1. There is a memorial clock tower with a commemorative plaque to these men at the Commercial Road end of the market.

Trades Union Councils and local events

Blackpool and Fylde Trades Union Council are holding a short service led by Father Bottoms in Stanley Park on Sunday 28 April at 2.30pm near the bench placed there on WMD 2 years ago. With Cllrs and other invited guests they will be planting a tree. Trade Union members are invited to attend as a mark of respect to all those who died in the workplace.

Birmingham TUC/West Midlands Hazards Trust: wreath laying ceremonies will be held on 28 April at 12 noon in Solihull at the Workers' Memorial Tree, Brueton Park, Solihull, and at 1.00 pm in Birmingham at the Workers' Memorial Plinth, Cathedral Gardens, Colmore Row.

Bradford -Trades Council leafleting and holding a remembrance event in Centenary Square on 27 April at one of the three WMD trees.

Chelmsford Trade Union Council will have an exhibition in Chelmsford library and have pressed the Borough Council to mark the event for the second year.

Dudley - at 6.30pm on Sunday 28 April, there will be a wreath laying ceremony with a period of silence at the Workers memorial Day Tree in the churchyard of St John the Baptist Church, Queensway, Halesowen in the Borough of Dudley. A special service will follow in the church where Rev'd Andrew Yates, Industrial Chaplain in the Black Country Urban Mission will preach.

Gateshead & District Trades Council are organising a memorial service in Saltwell Park, Gateshead.

Keighley Worksafe and Keighley Trades Union Council are releasing 286 black balloons representing the average number of people killed by their work each year in the Town Hall Square, Keighley on 27 April at 10am.

Leicester and District Trades Union Council are organising a stall in the Town Hall Square, Leicester, near the Workers Memorial Day Tree planted last year, from 11am to 2pm on Saturday 27 April. The stall will be the collection point for wreaths donated by trade union branches in the area, as well as exhibiting a range of literature relating to trade union health and safety activity.

Merseyside Hazards and Environment Centre is holding a week of events around WMD and May Day starting with films and discussions on WMD Sunday, a demonstration and then a play about the Tolpuddle Martyrs on May Day, and a benefit night for East Timor on Friday 3 May.

Preston & South Ribble Trades Union Council - on 27 April at 1pm at the 1842 Workers Memorial in Lune Street Preston. The Preston & South Ribble TUC President together with the Mayor and Mayoress of Preston and Deputy Mayor and Mayoress of South Ribble will jointly lay a wreath to commemorate all those who have lost their lives in work-related incidents. This will be followed by a short ecumenical service in St. George's Church.

Sheffield Trades Council is holding a Memorial Meeting at 12.30pm on Saturday 27 April in the Sheffield Peace Gardens. Chaired by John Campbell (UNISON) Sheffield TUC President, speakers include Cllr David Baker, Lord Mayor, Paula Walker, Sheffield and Rotherham Asbestos Group, Bob Warwicker, Industrial Mission South Yorkshire, Robert Morris (UCATT) and Tom Machell (CONNECT) Vice-Presidents Sheffield TUC. Bring banners and memorial wreaths. On Sunday 28 April at 6.30pm, Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street "Sheffield Churches Together" and "Sheffield Interfaith" are sponsoring an Act of Remembrance and John Campbell President Sheffield TUC will be attending.

Wolverhampton, Bilston & District Trades Union Council, and the Black Country Industrial Mission are marking Wolverhampton's 11th WMD with a service in St. Peter's Church at 11am on 28 April lead by Rev Olwen Smith, Industrial Chaplain; followed by the Trades Union Council wreath laying at the WMD tree in St Peter's Square between the church and Civic Centre.

Scotland

West Lothian Trade Unions Council is holding a ceremony in Bathgate Sports Park at 2pm on Sunday 28 April at the WMD sculpture erected last year. Eric Cram the Secretary of the Scottish Industrial Mission will be ministering and there will be representatives from the Roman Catholic Church and other denominations. The Deputy Minister for Health and Care, Mary Mulligan MSP and a representative of the Scottish TUC and Maureen Rooney of the HSC will also be attending. Primary Schools are being involved in designing a plaque. People are invited to bring flowers to remember loved ones who were killed by work.

Edinburgh Trade Union Council is holding a ceremony at Princess Street Gardens on Sunday 28 April at the two WMD trees.

In Dundee the City Council and the Trades Union Council are organising their annual WMD lecture on Friday.

Mid Lothian Trades Union Council will be holding a ceremony on Sunday 28 April at 12 noon at George V Park in Bonnyrigg at their memorial. Ian Tasker Health and Safety Officer for the STIC will be attending

West of Scotland Hazards Group will be holding an asbestos related event.

Postal workers defending their right to a livelihood have called for a one-day strike on May 8. Giving with one hand and taking with the other communications monopoly Consignia, which includes the Post Office, has made a 6.9 percent pay rise for postal workers conditional on the introduction of new working arrangements. Consignia's insistence on introducing one single four-hour delivery round, jettisoning the second post, has added more anger to the workers' resistance to the company’s threat to shut post offices and sack workers.

Jerry Cope, group managing director for Consignia's mail services, said any approach other than mediation would be "financial suicide" for the organisation.

The company has already announced its intention to axe 15,000 jobs and close 3,000 post offices. The company is pressuring the union to approve the new working arrangements before announcing measures to cut £1.2bn of costs including further redundancies. A Communication Workers' Union official said that the union did not want to undo a recent agreement with Consignia on voluntary redundancies that protected jobs and pay. Postal workers have already backed industrial action in a ballot held earlier this year and would not have to vote again.

The union maintains that providing one mail delivery a day and the increase in the size of each postal worker's round will cost jobs and lead to a worse service for customers. Postal workers currently deliver letters to homes in two delivery rounds, each of two and a half hours. "We don't want this strike but the employer is holding a gun to our head," said John Keggie, CWU deputy general secretary.

London's postal workers are also very likely to stage a separate strike within the month in a dispute over the reinstatement of two of their colleagues, a union official says. Consignia sacked brothers Mick and Tom Doherty for their alleged involvement in football hooliganism. The charges against them were subsequently dropped but Consignia have refused to reinstate the pair. The firm's refusal comes despite their case for unfair dismissal being supported by an employment tribunal. The allegations arose following clashes between fans of Arsenal and Turkish side Galatasaray after the 2000 UEFA cup final. Communication Workers' Union officials and the brothers have handed in an open letter to Industry Minister Alan Johnson at the Department of Trade and Industry in London.

Senior London organiser Norman Candy said that the union will ballot its members over strike action within the next two weeks, and that he is "very confident" a walk-out would take place across London "within the month". The strike will last at least 24 hours and possibly longer, Norman Candy says. CWU deputy general secretary John Keggie added the union may take the industrial action to a national level if Consignia continues to refuse to reinstate the brothers. He said: "We went through the proper procedures in a tribunal, we won both cases unanimously and the business is still refusing to reinstate (them). These two guys are innocent and the management are refusing to move. And that's why we're now going to ballot all our members across London so that we can have justice done here. This is outrageous."

As well as defending their right to a livelihood, the Post Office workers' actions highlight the need for a modern postal service which meets the needs of a modern society and renovated national economy. Consignia’s drive to compete in the globalised economy, as set by the government and the EU, is bringing disaster to the Post Office workers and to the needs of the economy.

The US Congressional hearing seeking to boost military aid for the Colombian government's war against the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) has at least temporarily failed to link the civil war in Colombia to the "war on terrorism". The House Foreign Relations Committee announced on Thursday, April 25, that revision of a draft bill to lift restrictions on aid to Colombia has been indefinitely withdrawn from the agenda due to a lack of consensus.

In the latest bid to lift the restrictions, the Republican-controlled committee claimed on Wednesday that the IRA has "well-established" ties with the FARC insurgency, which included teaching the rebels the tactics of "urban terrorism". The allegation was based on the arrest in Colombia last August of three Irish citizens who Colombian authorities claim were connected with the IRA and were training the FARC in the use of explosives.

In its preview, the House committee put forward allegations that the IRA, along with Iranians, Cubans and possibly members of the ETA Basque separatist group, had been training the FARC. But officials from both the State Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency admitted that they had no direct proof. Republican lawmakers have proposed giving Colombia an extra $538 million in aid next year, but without the current restrictions that the money be used only to fight drug trafficking.

Lifting those restrictions has sparked controversy in Congress, not only regarding a possible greater US involvement in Colombia's civil war, but also in relation to what some perceive as a lack of results in the war on drugs in spite of the hundreds of millions earmarked for Colombia, as well as a lack of a clear vision regarding US foreign policy with respect to Colombia.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams had declined to testify to the hearing into the alleged IRA links with FARC, saying that it was not in the interests of northern Ireland's peace process. In a four-page letter to US Congressman Henry Hyde, Republican chairman of the international relations committee, the Sinn Fein president cited legal reasons for his decision not to attend.

"I am concerned that my attendance at the international relations hearing may impact on due legal process in Colombia," he wrote. "Although this is not your responsibility or intention, I am particularly concerned about the way anti-peace process elements in Britain and Ireland have seized upon the hearings to damage the peace process itself. Let me state again to you that neither I nor anyone else in the Sinn Fein leadership is responsible for the movements of every republican. I believe the visit to Colombia by the three detained Irishmen to have been ill-advised, even though, as they argue, well intentioned."

Gerry Adams told Irish state broadcaster RTE that the Congressional investigation appeared to have a "very narrow agenda". Gerry Adams said that he felt his decision not to testify before the US committee had been justified by the revelations in the committee's preview. He added: "Henry Hyde's assertion actually vindicates the lawyer's advice because here he is accusing two of these three men of being IRA explosives experts."

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams speaking at a press conference in Belfast on April 23, 2002, said:

"Let me begin by saying at the outset that I have written to Henry Hyde, the Chairperson of the Committee on International Relations, declining his invitation to attend the Committee on International Relations Hearing.

"I have offered to meet the Committee the next time I am in Washington.

"My priorities in approaching this important matter have been to defend the peace process, to defend Sinn Féin's essential contribution to it, and to give proper consideration to the plight of the three men presently in detention in Colombia, their right to a fair trial and the anxieties of their families.

"I have received legal advice from the lawyers representing the three men in Colombia. It argues that the Congressional hearings and my presence at them may well be prejudicial to any possibility of a fair trial.

"It is also my view that the hearings are only coincidentally about Ireland. They are essentially about the relationship between the USA and Colombia. These matters are for the governments of these two countries.

"I am satisfied with the IRA statement of September 19 last year in which the IRA leadership made it clear that it 'sent no one to Colombia to train or to engage in any military co-operation with any group'.

"Crucially, the IRA asserted that it 'has not interfered in the internal affairs of Colombia and will not do so'. And it went on, 'the IRA is not a threat to the peace process in Ireland or in Colombia.'

"In my conversations with US officials and with political representatives I have made it clear that Irish republicans, whether as ordinary citizens or as activists, have no desire to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

"We have a desire to learn from other conflict resolution processes and if possible to be helpful to those who want to build peace.

"Irish republicans pose no threat to US National Security interests in Colombia.

"Anyone who observes our record and our role in the peace process will know our commitment to peace in our own country and throughout the world is steadfast.''

The Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective issued the following press release dated 24.4 2002.

The Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective wishes to make known its concern about the politicisation by the Colombian government and the United States Congress of the case surrounding the three Irish citizens detained by the Colombian army in Bogota in August 2001.

As many of you know, today (24 April) an audience of the External Relations Commission was held in the United States, convened by the United States Congress in order to study the alleged relationship between the FARC and the IRA.

Dealing with a Colombian issue in a foreign country seems totally unacceptable to us and we believe that the case is being prejudged. This is all the more serious when we take into account that trial proceedings are being delayed and defence lawyers are prevented from throwing any light on the situation.

The JAR Lawyers Collective wishes to make manifest its concern about this situation given that the reason for the case being handled in this way is not clear – it constitutes without doubt unlawful pressure on the Colombian justice system which is responsible for investigating the alleged acts for which Irish citizens Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McAuley were detained.

While the Colombian government and the United States Congress are developing this big campaign which is violating the right of these Irish citizens to a presumption of innocence, the Colombian police and the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute are preventing the aforementioned citizens from having access to a defence and have repeatedly presented the lawyers responsible for providing this defence with unacceptable obstacles – an attack on human dignity – when they have tried to meet with their clients.

We ask you to demand that the Colombian government observes the respect required by the delayed trial proceedings and to demand that other governments, organisations and the media abstain from making pronouncements which could give rise to a precipitated judgment for the detained Irish citizens.