US campaign and support group Unite Support and Memorial for Workplace fatalities (USMWF) invites everyone to join them in a day of honoring, recognising and remembering fallen workers on 28 April. They hope you will help them get the word out and share with your family, friends and co-workers.
There will be a day of events; in particular, they hope you will join them on April 28, 2020 at 7pm cst. for their ceremony LIVE on Facebook.
11am Sunday morning, 12 April, flowers are laid to mourn construction workers who will lose their lives unnecessarily during the coronavirus pandemic.
The respectful ceremony took place at the ‘Building Worker’ bronze statue at Tower Hill, which was commissioned as a memorial for all those who have died on building sites by the construction union UCATT (now a part of UNITE). The symbolic event was to mourn the dead, but also the fight for the living, and was carried out as part of the mass #ShutTheSites movement that has been trending on social media for the past 2 weeks, calling for non-essential building sites to be closed.
“The Bronze Building Worker statue has for many years been a memorial for workers who have died on construction sites. Flowers have been respectfully laid today to mourn the dead. But in this time of crisis we should also fight to protect the living. None of us want to be here in 6 months time laying a bigger wreath to thousands of construction workers and their family members who may lose their lives unnecessarily.
If construction workers are building a Nightingale Hospital or carrying out emergency maintenance on vital infrastructure, that’s clearly crucial to fight this pandemic. But hundreds of thousands of building workers are being forced to continue working on building sites by greedy developers and employers in order to build luxury flats, hotels and powers stations that will not be completed for at least another 5 years. None of these are essential.
Construction workers often travel on packed public transport or in shared minibuses, eat together in site canteens, live in huge site accommodation blocks and generally work in close proximity. No building worker in the country believes that construction can continue in any meaningful manner while complying with the 2m social distancing rules. Major contractors also have an appalling track record on health and safety; over decades they have sacked and blacklisted those prepared to stand up for the safety of their fellow workers. By keeping non-essential building sites open, the government and businesses are prioritizing profit above public health.
No construction worker wants to put their families lives at risk or add more burden to the NHS. The UK government should immediately close all non-essential building sites. But they also need to ensure that every single worker, whether an employee, self-employed or an agency worker, is paid straight away. We need to protect our families, but we also need to put food on the table.
Rather than forcing construction workers to choose whether to protect their families or pay their bills, the government should suspend all mortgage, rent, interest payments and penalty clauses for the next 3 months (as has already been done in Italy) and pay everyone a universal basic income (as has occurred in Hong Kong and is being proposed by the Spanish government)”.
#ShutTheSites
#PAYEveryworker
#StayHomeSaveLives
The memorial protest comes at the same time as the government issued new advice that 2m social distancing will no longer need to be strictly applied in the construction industry, but instead recommends that workers are kept two metres apart “as much as possible”. This is in stark contrast to guidance from the Scottish Government, which has ordered the closure of all non-essential construction.
Construction workers have been voicing their opposition to keeping non-essential building sites open on social media and a number of videos from across the UK have been collated and now appear on the attached .
A full risk assessment was carried out before the protest which identified potential hazards and control measures were implemented to remove the risk
Only 2 workers involved to comply with government guidelines (many more wanted to attend)
Event coincided with a trip to buy food
2m social distancing at all times
Participants arrived by private transport rather than the packed tube
PPE worn
The protest with two construction workers could be deemed unlawful. The irony being that thousands of construction workers, often lacking PPE, packed onto building sites across the UK is being actively encouraged by the government.
Dangerous occurrences and cases of actual ill-health related to coronavirus exposures have now to be reported, the UK regulator the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said.
The enforcement agency said the new legal reporting requirement under RIDDOR (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) applies “when an unintended incident at work has led to someone’s possible or actual exposure to coronavirus. This must be reported as a dangerous occurrence.”
Employers must also make a report when “a worker has been diagnosed as having Covid-19 and there is reasonable evidence that it was caused by exposure at work. This must be reported as a case of disease.”
An update to the HSE reporting webpages advises employers: “If something happens at work which results in (or could result in) the release or escape of coronavirus you must report this as a dangerous occurrence. An example of a dangerous occurrence would be a lab worker accidentally smashing a glass vial containing coronavirus, leading to people being exposed.
HSE adds: “If there is reasonable evidence that someone diagnosed with Covid-19 was likely exposed because of their work you must report this as an exposure to a biological agent using the case of disease report. An example of a work-related exposure to coronavirus would be a health care professional who is diagnosed with Covid-19 after treating patients with Covid-19.”
Malaysia’s Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) has moved to clarify that COVID-19 is recognised as an occupational disease under the country’s Employment Social Security Act 1969. Read more
The AFL-CIO has put together a list of resources for working people impacted by COVID-19. The site includes information about unemployment benefits, paid leave, health insurance and community assistance resources. Find them here: aflcio.org/resources
Payday Report has launched an interactive Covid-19 strike tracking map so that workers can follow the wave of strikes hitting the country. Each point contains a link to more information on the strikes occurring. More
ITUC Global Covid-19 Survey: Regional differences exposed in government responses to the Covid-19 pandemic – millions of workers in Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas at risk of economic devastation
The impact of Covid-19 on jobs and employment has increased as more countries are responding to the pandemic with national lockdown measures including the closure of schools and non-essential business. While wage protection and income support are provided in many G20 and OECD countries, working people in Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas have lost jobs and incomes and could face widespread famine unless there is urgent global co-ordination and fiscal stimulus measures. Read more
Desde que la pandemia de COVID-19 paralizara la actividad en varios países europeos, las personas confinadas en sus casas salen a sus ventanas y balcones cada noche para vitorear y aplaudir a los trabajadores sanitarios que luchan contra el virus.
Los médicos, los enfermeros y otros profesionales sanitarios se encuentran en primera línea de la lucha contra una pandemia que ya se ha cobrado más de 62.000 vidas en todo el mundo (en el momento de la presente publicación). Y estos trabajadores pagan un precio muy alto. En Italia, donde se ha registrado el mayor número de muertes por coronavirus hasta la fecha, más de 40 trabajadores sanitarios han fallecido desde el inicio del brote, mientras que en todo el mundo decenas de miles se han contagiado y han tenido que ponerse en cuarentena, lo cual ha supuesto una presión increíble para muchos sistemas de atención de salud.
Sin embargo, la contribución de muchas otras categorías de trabajadores también es esencial en la lucha mundial contra el virus. Se trata de trabajadores que no pueden desempeñar su trabajo con un ordenador portátil desde su salón y ahora realizan su trabajo diario con la preocupación añadida de contraer una enfermedad potencialmente mortal.
Camioneros de todo el mundo han publicado fotos de sí mismos en las redes sociales con el pie de foto: “No me puedo quedar en casa, soy camionero”. En Italia, un empleado de supermercado murió tras contraer el virus; en Sudáfrica, periodistas han dado positivo en las pruebas del coronavirus; trabajadores de la economía de plataforma en los Estados Unidos, que carecen de red de seguridad, continúan llevando a pasajeros y entregando comida y paquetes, aunque una sola interacción con un portador de coronavirus puede ser fatídica. Y en Bélgica, barrenderos como Ahmet Sener hacen su trabajo con una bufanda como único equipo de protección.
Every night, since the COVID-19 pandemic brought several European countries to a standstill, people confined to their homes have taken to their windows and balconies to cheer and applaud the health workers battling against the virus.
Doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals are on the frontlines of the fight against a pandemic that has already claimed more than 64,000 lives (at the time of publication) worldwide. And they pay a heavy price. In Italy, which so far has the biggest death toll from coronavirus, close to 90 health workers have died since the beginning of the outbreak (at the time of publication), while across the world, tens of thousands more have been infected and forced into self-isolation, putting many healthcare systems under incredible strain.
But there are many other categories of workers whose contribution to the global fight against the virus is essential. Workers who simply cannot perform their job with a laptop from their living room and now carry out their daily work with the added anxiety of deadly contamination.
Truck drivers worldwide have posted pictures of themselves on social media with the caption: “I can’t stay home, I’m a truck driver.” In Italy, a supermarket clerk died of the virus; in South Africa, journalists have tested positive for COVID-19; gig economy workers in the US, with no safety net to fall back on, continue to drive passengers and deliver food and packages, even though just one interaction with a coronavirus carrier could be fatal. And in Belgium, street cleaners like Ahmet Sener perform their work with no protective equipment other than a winter scarf.
The ITF has launched a