The Rwanda Extractive Industries Workers” Union (REWU) has planned a series of site visits, inspections, safety campaigns and commemorations to raise awareness of work hazards and to honour departed workers. The activities will involve unions, workers and the employers.
The BWI affiliate National Union of Building, Engineering and General Workers (NUBEGW) has reported plans to run occupational health and safety awareness activities in six separate organised workplaces.
In Mozambique the union SINTAICAF will join with the national centre to conduct a campaign stressing the importance of Occupational health and safety.
On International Workers ‘Memorial Day the union and BWI affiliate Construction Workers’ Union of Mauritius (CMWEU) is planning training and campaigning activities with the national centre including pamphlet distribution.
The Zimbabwe Construction and Allied Trades Workers’ Union (ZCATWU) is planning to mark 28 April through joint occupational health and safety training and inspections with a Chinese employer.
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At the recent United Steelworkers Health, Safety and Environment Conference there were very few dry eyes when they remembered those who never made it home from work since the last conference.
Watch the video memorial showing a list of bargaining unit members, supervisors, and contractors killed in USW workplaces from August 23, 2019 to April 11, 2023.
May they rest in peace, power, and solidarity.
FGBB, a Tunisian affiliate of the global construction federation BWI has reported that safety campaigning actions will be held to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day, involving over 200 workers.
The 28th of April is #InternationalWorkersMemorialDay
Unions Tasmania will hold services in Launceston and Hobart to remember those killed or injured because of their work. We invite the community to join with us #politas #IWMD23
ILO ‘fundamental’ OHS dialogue on 28 April
A safe and healthy working environment is a fundamental principle and right at work
In June 2022, the International Labour Conference (ILC) decided to include “a safe and healthy working environment” in the ILO’s framework of fundamental principles and rights at work.
On 28 April 2023, the ILO will celebrate this decision, bringing together experts and constituents to discuss the implications it has for the world of work, as well as how to practically implement this right in the world of work. It will also serve to present the findings of research on the implementation status of various provisions of the fundamental Conventions No. 155 and No. 187.
How can we promote the fundamental right to a safe and healthy working environment?
Join the ILO global dialogue on how to implement a safe and healthy working environment as a fundamental principle and right at work.
No-one should die to make a living. After all, occupational health and safety is now a globally-binding ILO fundamental legal right at work.
But a new report warns bad jobs still kill someone somewhere every six seconds, every day, round the clock. It notes that last year the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) recognised occupational health and safety as a top rated ‘fundamental’ right at work.
“Politically, it’s a game changer,” it notes. “Practically, workers have continued to die, an estimated 3 million in the last year alone.”
The report, published in the union-backed Hazards magazine ahead of International Workers’ Memorial Day, argues union organising can make the difference. “Whether you describe it as the ‘union dividend’, ‘union advantage’ or ‘union effect’, there is a long-established, well-tested proof of the life-saving impact of union organisation at work. It shows walking out or being walked all over can be a life or death decision.”
Organising for occupational health and safety is the theme this year for the 28 April event.
Full story: Everyday heroes: The lifesaving union effect. Hazards, number 161, 2023.