Tag Archives: 28 april

2023, 2023 USA, Events listing, News, Resources

USA: AFL-CIO – Workers Memorial Day 2023 – Organize! Safe Jobs Now

March 23, 2023 Jawad

AFL-CIO’s Workers Memorial Day web page is live! – and available for you to order materials and download artwork to use for your events, trainings, conferences, newsletters, and more. aflcio.org/WorkersMemorialDay

Each year since 1989, we commemorate this day to honor those we have lost on the job and we will organize to make the fundamental right of a safe job a reality for all workers. This year’s theme is “Organize! Safe Jobs Now.” focusing on dignity at work, the growth of the labor movement and equity through safe workplaces.

Please join us this April 28 to honor the victims of workplace injury and illness and the call to organize safe jobs for all workers. As we do every year, trade unionists around the country and globe will organize our communities and workplaces to observe Workers Memorial Day. We will highlight the toll of job injuries and deaths; demand that elected officials put workers’ well-being above corporate interests; and demand safe jobs for all. This year, and every year, the labor movement will defend the right of every worker to a safe job and build collective power to make that right a reality.

We can’t do this alone, and together, we need to organize all workers in this fight for safer working conditions. We are building campaigns leading up to the end of April and throughout the year to mourn and fight.

Please use the resources below when planning for this year’s Workers Memorial Day and reach out to us with any questions, concerns, comments along the way.

Materials and Artwork:

Please visit this page to view and download this year’s materials and artwork. These include posters, stickers, and fliers in English and Spanish. Stickers are available for “Organize! Safe Jobs Now” and for “Mourn for the Dead. Fight for the Living.”

Please place your order for materials here. You can either pick up materials in person at our Washington DC headquarters or have them shipped to you.

Workers Memorial Day Events:

We want to hear about your Workers Memorial Day plans! Please share your event with us so that we can include it on our map of events across the country. Plan events, actions, activities and observances with suggestions in our flier.

Toolkit Coming Soon:

We are working expediently to distribute more materials to help you plan your commemorations and advocacy efforts. These include talking points, sample materials for media outreach, worker safety and health facts, state-by-state safety and health data, fact sheets, digital resources, infographics and more.

How to reach out to us about Workers Memorial Day:

oshmail@aflcio.org or 202-637-5047

Hashtags you can use to build solidarity online around Workers Memorial Day:

#iwmd2023 #WorkersMemorialDay #1uSafety

Please note: Our annual report, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, will be published at the end of April. You can place orders now for a hard copy of the report, and it will be shipped later. It will also be available electronically.

Come organize with us!

aflcio.org/workersmemorialday

2023, 2023 Europe, 2023 Netherlands, Events listing, News

Netherlands: FNV Symposium Workers’ Memorial Day

March 23, 2023 Jawad

FNV Symposium Workers’ Memorial Day

https://www.fnv.nl/werk-inkomen/veilig-gezond-werken/bedrijfsongevallen/workers-memorial-day

On the 28th of April the Dutch National Trade Union FNV and the Foundation for Work Related Accidents (Stichting Arbeidsongevallen) will organise a symposium at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport in honour of the Workers’ Memorial Day.

Central topic will be that occupational health and safety is a fundamental workers’ right. In the Netherlands every year over 4000 workers die due to work related accidents or diseases. This is unacceptable!

The symposium will have presentations from Kitty Jong, vice president of FNV, Hanneke van den Bout, director Health and Safety of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Rits de Boer, Inspector General of the Dutch Labour Inspection and Jan Warning, director of Institute of Victims of Occupational Diseases by Hazardous Substances (ISBG).

There will also be various presentations by workers about their experiences at the airport work floor of Schiphol. These workers, like luggage handlers, face very harsh safety and health conditions and are only paid minimum wages.

The foundation for Work Related Accidents will present results of their research on work related accidents among precarious workers.

At the end of the event the Laura Brugmans award will be handed out. Laura Brugmans was one of the founders of the Foundation for Work Related Accidents.

(https://www.stichtingarbeidsongevallen.nl/in-memoriam-laura-brugmans/)

More information on FNV’s policy for OSH

https://www.fnv.nl/werk-inkomen/veilig-gezond-werken

https://www.fnv.nl/nieuwsbericht/sectornieuws/schiphol/2022/01/nieuwe-minister-moet-haast-maken-met-arbeidsomstan

https://www.fnv.nl/nieuwsbericht/algemeen-nieuws/2022/12/minister-van-gennip-tekent-europees-vakbondsmanife

2023, 2023 UK, News

UK: TUC – Our big day is just 7 weeks away!

March 7, 2023 Jawad

In seven weeks’ time, it will be International Workers’ Memorial Day, which as many of you know is an international day marked by the trade union movement to remember all workers who lost their lives to workplace illness or injury, and to recommit ourselves to fighting to keep workers safe: Remember the Dead, Fight for the Living!

You might: On 28 April remember someone who died as a result of work by using our online memorial wall; check out our workers’ health & safety timeline and use it for member education; host a IWMD event and list it on our website with an interactive map; or ask your local council to sign up to our Stay Safe, Join a Union campaign.

Action Online memorial wall. IWMD interactive events map. Stay Safe, Join a Union campaign.

Resources IWMD posters and graphics for social media. TUC guide to Organising on Health and Safety. Upcoming TUC Education courses for reps

2023, 2023 UK, News, Resources

UK: Organising 101- Hazards magazine

February 17, 2023 Jawad

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]

2023, 2023 UK, News, Resources

UK: 28 April organising resources from TUC and Hazards magazine

February 17, 2023 Jawad

Health and Safety and Organising – A guide for reps, TUC and related interactive guide for union reps (you may need to register to access this resource).

Organising for OHS, Hazards website.

2023, 2023 global, Events listing, News

Global: l’organisation des travailleurs en faveur de la santé et de la sécurité – un volet primordial de l’action syndicale

February 13, 2023 Jawad

2023 sera une année cruciale pour les syndicats et pour les personnes qui travaillent. L’année dernière, nous avons obtenu qu’un environnement de travail sûr et sain soit reconnu comme un droit pour les travailleurs. Cette reconnaissance a donné un nouvel élan à l’organisation des travailleurs en faveur de la santé et de la sécurité – un volet primordial de l’action syndicale. Cette année, la Journée internationale de commémoration des travailleurs décédés et blessés, le 28 avril, sera dédiée à cette priorité syndicale essentielle.

Owen Tudor, secrétaire général adjoint de la CSI.
Bulletin d’information de la CSI – Février 2023.

#iwmd23

2022, 2022 Global, Events listing, Gallery, graphics, News

Global: IWMD 2022 – 105 BWI affiliates in 50 countries call to recognise OHS as a fundamental right

May 25, 2022 Jawad

To commemorate this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day, BWI-affiliated trade unions once again raised their voices to persuade the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to recognise health and safety as a fundamental right.

Through meetings with workers, nationwide tours on occupational health and safety (OHS), press conferences, OHS training workshops and social media use for campaigning, 105 BWI-affiliated unions from 50 countries took part in the global union’s month-long IWMD campaign.

Some of the highlights of BWI affiliates’ various IWMD actions worldwide were:

The action by the Belgian affiliate ACV where more than 1,000 ACV activists and staff members visited nearly 15,000 industry workers in the spread of more than 2,000 sites. The trade union took advantage of the opportunity to give workers good advice on health and safety.
In South Korea, KFCITU opened a union hotline for the reporting of dangerous work, and held various rallies to support disclosure of serious accidents and occupational diseases. It also held a memorial ceremony on the second anniversary of the Han Express Accident (29 April)
In Montenegro, the Association of Occupational Safety and Health of Montenegro awarded Nenad Markovic, President of the Trade Union of Construction and Industry of Building Materials of Montenegro (SGIGMCG), for his union’s exemplary contribution to the promotion of occupational health and safety.
In Zimbabwe, the affiliates CLAWUZ, ZCATWU and GAPWUZ organised an Occupational Safety and Health Workshop on IWMD. During the workshop, participants shared their OHS experiences, discussed the key principles and aims of OHS, and highlighted the various types of occupational hazards.
In Brazil, BWI affiliates, together with other trade unions and government organizations, launched a book titled “Rosca sem Fim: Basta de mortes, acidentes e doenças do trabalho.”
BWI’s youth affiliates celebrated IWMD 2022 by once again carrying the theme “life before profit.” This was led by young trade unionists from FILCA CSIL (Italy), SERBUK (Indonesia), CMWEU (Mauritius), FOCRA (Argentina), STICC POA (Brasil) and INTERGREMIAL (Colombia), among many others. The youth section of BYGGNADS released a video commemorating the 44 workers who lost their lives in 2021 to work-related accidents. Meanwhile, an OHS exhibit was mounted by CMWEU young unionists in Mauritius near a monument in Rose Hill to honour of workers.

Labour inspections and workplace sensitisation activities were also held at construction projects in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Turkey, Tajikistan, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, El Salvador, Brazil and Argentina to ensure safety, hygiene and health measures are taken at worksites.

The big presence of BWI affiliates on conventional and social media is also worth mentioning. Such presence ensured BWI’s messages were conveyed far and wide and further stressed the importance of this year’s International Labour Conference (ILC) to declare OSH as a fundamental right.

To cap the campaign, BWI recognised the achievement of its affiliates in gathering signed joint OHS declarations with different construction, building materials and wood companies and employers’ associations. In total, over 450 OHS declarations have now been signed covering over 483,000 employers, and 18 million workers.

Source: BWI

#iwmd22, 2022, 2022 Europe, Events listing, News

Europe: Workers’ Memorial Day – 30,000 more preventable workplace deaths expected by 2030

May 3, 2022 Jawad

Almost 30,000 people may lose their lives at work in the EU over this decade without action to make workplaces safer, trade unions are warning on International Workers’ Memorial Day.

The number of fatal workplace accidents fell slowly over of the last decade, although progress was far from steady with deaths rising again in 2019, according to Eurostat data.

Another 27,041 workplace deaths should be expected between 2020 and 2029 if change continues at the same pace as during the last decade, an analysis by the European Trade Union Institute has found (see Notes below).

Workplace deaths are not expected to fall at all in Spain, are set to get even worse in France and wouldn’t end in Europe for more than 30 years. They could though be ended by 2030 if the political will existed.

Number of workplace deaths expected this decade and year in which fatal workplace accidents will be eliminated in selected member states if 2010-2019 trends continue:

Poland: 563 deaths – 2027
Portugal: 481 deaths – 2030
Romania 1,451 deaths – 2036
Austria: 694 deaths – 2037
Italy: 3,434 deaths – 2042
Germany: 3,143 deaths – 2044
Czechia: 851 deaths – 2052
France: 7,803 deaths – Never
Spain: 3,191 deaths – Never

EU27: 27,041 – 2055

The findings come as the European Trade Union Confederation launches a manifesto for zero death at work which calls on European leaders to “walk the walk” as well as “talk the talk” on saving the lives of working people.

The manifesto – which has been signed by Ministers, MEPs, trade union leaders and top occupational health and safety experts – called for an increase in workplace health and safety training, inspections and penalties to end workplace fatalities by 2030.

Half a million fewer workplace safety inspections are taking place across Europe now than at the start of the last decade, the ETUC’s analysis of International Labour Organisation data has found.

As well as workplace accidents, the ETUC are also calling on EU leaders to do more to end the scandal of cancer, which still takes the lives of over 100,000 people every year, as well as protecting workers from increasing extreme weather events caused by climate change.

ETUC Deputy General Secretary Claes-Mikael Stahl said:

“Nobody should leave home worried about whether or not they will make it back to see their family after work. But that’s the daily reality for many workers, often because of irresponsible employers cutting corners to increase profits and politicians who attack common sense safety rules and inspections for ideological reasons.

“Thousands of people are still losing their lives every year in brutal – and avoidable – accidents on construction sites, in factories and at other workplaces. Millions of people have also died after being exposed daily to cancer-causing substances at work.

“While workplace deaths might seem like something from another century, these tragedies are set to keep happening in Europe for at least another 30 years. That isn’t inevitable though.

“On International Workers’ Memorial Day, we remember the dead and vow to fight for the living. If politicians are willing to act, we could achieve zero deaths at work by 2030. It’s high time the lives of working people were made a priority.”

Notes

Projection based on the European statistics on accidents at work database (ESAW), linear regression was used to predict the number of fatal accidents at work in the years to come. The number of fatal accidents at work were predicted separately for a selection of Member States, and for EU27 as a whole. For EU27, time predicted yearly fatal accidents with R² = .63, F(1, 7) = 11.7, p = .01.

Source: ETUC

#iwmd22, 2022, 2022 Global, 2022 Latin America, 2022 North America, News

The Americas: 28 de abril, la CSA apoya su incorporación como derecho fundamental del trabajo

May 3, 2022 Jawad

La Confederación Sindical de trabajadoras y trabajadores de las Américas (CSA), en el marco del Día Mundial de la Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo (SST), refuerza la importancia de la concientización sobre esta temática, recuerda a los/as trabajadores/as fallecidos/as y enfermas/os producto del trabajo y promueve la iniciativa de incorporar a la SST dentro de los Derechos y Principios Fundamentales de la OIT.

De acuerdo con el informe de la OIT “Fomentar el diálogo social para una cultura de seguridad y salud”, cerca de 2,9 millones de trabajadores y trabajadoras mueren anualmente debido a accidentes y enfermedades en el trabajo y alrededor de 402 millones sufren lesiones no mortales. La crisis sanitaria planteó la urgente necesidad de combatir los principales factores de riesgos que aumentan estas cifras cada año y visibilizó la importancia de contar con políticas nacionales de prevención para luchar contra este problema.

El principal factor de riesgo se encuentra en las largas jornadas laborales, algo que la pandemia ha vuelto a colocar en el centro del debate. Con la restricción a la movilidad y la consecuente implementación abrupta del teletrabajo, la extensión de la jornada se ha instalado de forma silenciosa y sin normas nacionales actualizadas para regular la situación. Esto ha aparejado la agudización de enfermedades profesionales físicas y psicológicas por el estrés y agotamiento, hecho éste facilitado por la utilización de diversas herramientas tecnológicas que terminan causando un monitoreo constante de los trabajadores y las trabajadoras.

Desde el movimiento sindical de la región, volvemos a reiterar la importancia del derecho a la desconexión. El hecho que la fronteras espaciales y temporales se desdibujen con el trabajo a distancia no debe significar una violación a los derechos laborales básicos. Por este motivo, el pago por parte del empleador de los gastos en equipamientos y servicios para trabajar a distancia, el respeto a la privacidad del hogar, el cuidado de la salud físico-emocional de los y las trabajadoras y el derecho a desconectarse, deben seguir estando presentes en la lucha sindical.

Los Convenios Internacionales de la OIT como el 155, 161 y 187 son instrumentos esenciales al momento de regular la SST y debemos continuar fomentando sus ratificaciones. Desde el movimiento sindical de la región, también contamos con dos instrumentos sociopolíticos como son la PLADA (Plataforma de Desarrollo de las Américas) y la ESSLA (Estrategia Sindical en Salud Laboral para las Américas), que debemos reforzar. La salud laboral es un derecho humano fundamental y debemos fomentar sistemas nacionales de protección social universales, públicos y solidarios que incorporen a la SST como pilar.

Para lograr este objetivo, la CSA apoya la iniciativa de la CSI (Confederación Sindical Internacional) de buscar que la SST sea incorporada en la Declaración relativa a los Principios y Derechos Fundamentales en el Trabajo de 1998 que actualmente contempla el derecho a la libertad sindical y negociación colectiva, la eliminación de todas las formas de trabajo forzoso, la abolición efectiva del trabajo infantil y la eliminación de la discriminación en materia de empleo y ocupación. Esto implicará que los Estados miembros deban respetar este derecho, al margen de que hayan ratificado o no los convenios específicos en la materia.

Por estos motivos, y en consonancia con la promoción del tripartismo y el diálogo social que están fomentando desde la OIT para avanzar en este tema, esperamos que, en la próxima Conferencia Internacional del Trabajo, las partes logren la aprobación de la SST como Principio y Derecho Fundamental del Trabajo para dar así un gran paso en esta lucha que afecta las vidas de millones personas.

Source: La Confederación Sindical de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de las Americas (CSA)