Tag Archives: Uk

2023 Europe, 2023 UK, Events listing, News

UK: NASUWT encourages mass participation at #iwmd23

International Workers’ Memorial Day allows us to remember the dead and fight for the living

On International Workers’ Memorial Day, we remember all those who have died at work and reconfirm our commitment to fight for the living.

This Thursday 28 April, we encourage our members to take part in remembering all those who have died at work or as a result of their workplace environment.

All workplaces should be healthy and safe environments. Organised workplaces are safer workplaces and having an active union in a workplace:

  • helps reduce injuries at work;
  • leads to a reduction in the levels of ill health caused by work;
  • encourages greater reporting of injuries and near misses;
  • makes workers more confident and productive;
  • helps develop a more positive safety culture; and
  • saves the economy many millions of pounds.

Ways you can get involved with Workers’ Memorial Day

NASUWT
  1. Become a Health and Safety Rep or recruit another Rep – does your school/college have a Health and Safety Rep? If not, why not consider becoming one? If it does, recruit someone else.
  2. We’ve produced a range of Wellbeing Tools for Teachers that include advice on identifying and dealing with stress, mental health problems and violent behaviour in the classroom, as well as ways to access support and training.
  3. A key revelation found in our latest Teacher Wellbeing Survey was that workload is still the main factor responsible for creating work-related stress.
  4. Activists can use our Wellbeing at Work Audits (login) to help assess wellbeing in their workplace.
  5. Take advantage of our free Health and Safety training programme – Health and Safety Reps save lives and prevent illness and injury because they have specialised training.
TUC International Workers Memorial Day

  1. Find a local event near you or if you’re organising one add it to the TUC list.
  2. Hold a one-minute silence – join other union activists taking part in a one-minute silence at 12 noon to remember those who have died because of their work.
  3. Share images – raise awareness of Workers’ Memorial Day at work with the TUC poster and images on social media.
28april.org/ITUC A New Social Contract
ILO World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2023

2023, 2023 UK, Events listing, News, Resources

UK: Unions make work safe

Every year more people are killed at work than in wars.

Most don’t die of mystery ailments, or in tragic “accidents”. They die because an employer decided their safety just wasn’t that important a priority.

International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD) 28 April commemorates those workers.

It’s a time for us to come together as a movement and as a community. To remember those who have lost their lives to work, and renew our commitment to fight for the living and make work safe.

We’re getting in touch because there’s an event happening in your area. Click on the map to find it and don’t forget to RSVP!

View the map

Workplace deaths are preventable deaths. Trade unions will continue to fight for a future where no worker must risk their health or life while doing their job.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown beyond doubt that working people suffer at the hands of unscrupulous employers.

We must remember those we have lost and organise for safer, healthier work in their memory.

Can’t make it to an event?

 

2023, 2023 Europe, 2023 UK, Events listing, News

Britain: Safety reps make schools safer

On International Workers Memorial Day, UK teaching union NEU says it will “celebrate the difference NEU health and safety reps can make in keeping staff and pupils safe.” 

Link to the NEU 28 April  poster

2023, 2023 UK, News, Resources

UK: Organising 101- Hazards magazine

Read the Organising 101 column by trade union activist, tutor and anti-blacklisting campaigner Dave Smith.

1. Using flower power at work
2. A walk in the park
3. If you want to win, you better listen
4. Blocking roads and turning a corner
5. Getting bugged by hot desking
6. Something for the weekend
7. Find a friend
8. Just ask what workers want
9. You gotta fight for your right to safety
10. Imagine you’re a tree
11. How to stress test your workplace
12. Unreasonable behaviour
13. Check your make up
14. Pilot study
15. All together now
16. Bright sparks
17. Corporate capture
18. No accident
19. Get back to the classroom
20. No accident [Part 2]

 

2022, 2022 England, 2022 Europe, 2022 Scotland, 2022 UK, 2022 Wales, Events listing, News

UK: Hazards Campaign resources for IWMD

The Hazards Campaign has produced a wide selection of resources to help  you mark International Workers’ Memorial Day effectively and visually including ribbons, car stickers, posters, bags, fabric face masks and t-shirts.

Download the order form here

Below is the poster – other resources can be viewed in the order form.

 

2021, 2021 Europe, 2021 UK, Events listing

UK: FACK Statement International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2021

Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) Statement

International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2021

  • It is fundamentally wrong that a wife should need to write heartbreakingly about her 6th year on the grief rollercoaster, missing her beautiful angel husband so much with every passing hour of her life.
  • It is fundamentally wrong that a mum should be marking the 18th year since her 17-year-old son was taken from her, the pain she feels, never healing, instead festering like an open wound.
  • It is fundamentally wrong that a daughter should wish her dad a happy 56th birthday, while lamenting that he will be forever 37.
  • And it is fundamentally wrong that a fiancée should go from choosing wedding cars to instead sitting in
    a funeral cortège.

We FACKers are therefore at a loss to understand why we are even having to seek to convince the International Labour Organisation that health and safety should be recognised as a fundamental right at work…!?

Because of course it should!

Read the full statement here

#iwmd21

2021, 2021 Europe, 2021 UK, Events listing

UK: Global unity in solidarity to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day (#IWMD21) – NEU

On 28 April each year, the trade union movement around the globe unites in solidarity to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day (#IWMD21)

We remember those who have lost their lives at work, or because of work, and we resolve to fight to prevent more deaths, injuries and disease as a result of work.

This year the theme for the day is A Fundamental Right to Safe and Healthy Work. The call to Remember the Dead and Fight for the Living has never been so relevant and urgent. Over the past year thousands of workers, including in education, have died from Covid-19 and we will never know the true number because many weren’t tested, hospitalised or recorded and reported as work related infections and deaths.

NEU is holding a national zoom rally International Workers’ Memorial Day – Health and Safety: a fundamental right in education – 5.30pm – 6.30pm, Wednesday 28 April,

Speakers include Kevin Courtney – Joint General Secretary, NEU; Deepti Gurdasani – Senior Lecturer in Clinical Epidemiology, Queen Mary University; and Janet Newsham – Hazards Campaign.

Register

How else can we mark the day?

  • The TUC is organising an International WMD, 2pm to 3pm on 28 April.  Speakers include Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the TUC; Sharan Burrows, General Secretary of the ITUC; and Louise Adamson, Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) campaign.  Click here to register.
  • This TUC page suggests practical ways to get involved including a searchable database of IWMD events taking place around the country – to which you can add your own events – and a range of posters and social media graphics for you to use and share.  You could display posters at home or at school or take a selfie alongside one of the posters and share on social media using the hashtag IWMD21. Or share a photo of yourself and colleagues at work.
  • The Hazards Campaign is marking IWMD21 with online activities which will be taking place across the UK and abroad.  The Hazards Campaign has published a comprehensive briefing document and also  an order form where you can get your IWMD materials including ribbons, stickers, bags and face masks.
  • What better way to mark the day than to appoint a health and safety rep in your school? Health and safety reps are making a real difference in schools which have one, ensuring that members’ needs in relation to ventilation, face coverings, social distancing and mental health are top of the agenda. During the current crisis, bespoke training with a specific focus on Covid-19 is available for new and existing health and safety reps. Contact training@neu.org.uk to sign up.
  • The NEU is supporting calls for a minute’s silence to remember the dead.  Wherever you are please try to observe this and if you are at work, please arrange with your colleagues to observe a collective minute’s silence, involving pupils where appropriate, at 11am on 28th April.
  • Barking, Dagenham and Havering Trades Union Council are organising an event focusing on asbestos in schools, chaired by Susan Aitouaziz, Secretary Barking Dagenham and Havering Trades Union Council, from 7pm – 8pm on 28 April. Register with BDHTUC@hotmail.com to receive the Zoom link to enter the meeting.

 

2021, 2021 Europe, 2021 UK, Events listing

UK Trade Union Congress – 28 April meeting featuring ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow, 14:00 UK Time

Join a TUC online meeting for Workers’ Memorial Day, where we will be hearing from trade union voices from around the world, fighting for the health and safety of working people and remembering those who lost their lives to work.

Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uEKzShAsR3SIcNowyzTwEQ

Speakers include:

  • Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the ITUC
  • Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the TUC
  • Louise Adamson, Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) Campaign
  • Apsana Begum, MP

https://www.tuc.org.uk/events/tuc-international-wmd-call

2021, 2021 UK, Events listing

UK: #IWMD21 Workers’ Memorial Day, a timeline – TUC

2021, 2021 Europe, 2021 UK, Events listing

UK: Safe work is a right not a privilege

Workers’ Memorial Day, held on 28 April every year, brings together workers and their representatives from all over the world to remember the dead and fight for the living. In 2021 the theme is: Health and Safety is a fundamental workers’ right.

Remember those we have lost and
organise in their memory.

The Covid-19 crisis underscores the need for our mental health services to be supported and for workers to know that there is help for them when they need it.

While we may not be able to attend the memorial events which usually take place, we want to build a day of ‘virtual’ action on Wednesday 28 April.

Hold a minute’s silence

Join in the minute’s silence at 11:00, which is held every year to commemorate lost workers.

Until then make sure you join a union and and get active, unions keep workers safer so join Unite today.

For further resources, including #IWMD21 posters, please visit Unite at Work –  Health and Safety.

https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/events/workers-memorial-day/

Remember the dead, fight like hell for the living