TUAC NEWS
28 April: World’s Trade Unions Demand Action to End Workplace Carnage
Brussels - Paris, 28 April 2008: More than 14 million people are expected to take part in some 10,000 activities across the world today, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers. Over 2.2 million workers die each year from work accidents and disease, and some 160 million more are injured or become ill.
28/04/2009
Brussels - Paris, 28 April 2008: More than 14 million people are expected to take part in some 10,000 activities across the world today, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers. Over 2.2 million workers die each year from work accidents and disease, and some 160 million more are injured or become ill.
According to the ILO, there is a clear trend in recent years toward increasing fatalities and injuries at work. More than 337 million accidents causing more than 4 days of absence from work were reported for the year 2003 alone, the most recent year for which global statistics are available. The recorded number of deaths caused by hazardous substances almost doubled in comparison with 2001.
“Negligence by employers who fail to ensure their workplaces are safe and healthy is the main cause of the appalling toll of death and disease, and we fear that the global economic crisis will only make matters worse, as employers seek to cut costs even further. Prevention is the only answer” said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder.
“On the one hand, in OECD countries, over 270,000 workers have fallen victim to work-related diseases” said John Evans, TUAC General Secretary. “On the other, we seem to have reached a peak when it comes to attaining decent, safe and healthy working conditions! Without stronger involvement and commitment on behalf of governments and employers, we will not only face a significant rise in this figure but, more importantly, in individual human tragedies”
Trade union organisations, governments, employers, and many other institutions are organising activities in countries around the world. The number and range of activities will exceed 2008 – itself a record – when hundreds of thousands of unions members and campaigners in over 120 countries were involved.
Many of the activities such as workshops, debates, rallies will focus on occupational accidents, cancers, chemicals and specific contaminants like asbestos, along with a wide-range of unhealthy working conditions, from damaging noise levels to musculoskeletal disorders, the effects of stress and concerns about nanotechnology.
To join the facebook group on 28 April, please click here: < http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=170025585213&ref=nf>
Visit the joint ITUC/Global Unions/Hazards 28 April webpage: <http://www.hazards.org/wmd/>