The following details have been supplied by the TUC:
In over 50 towns and cities and hundreds of workplaces people commemorated International Workers’ Memorial Day, the TUC has said. In an update on the TUC’s health and safety facebook page on the 28 April activities, the union body noted that London saw hundreds of building workers assembled at Tower Hill where a group of apprentices released balloons recognising those killed in building sites in the capital.
Hundreds also braved sometimes atrocious weather to attend events in Manchester, Sheffield and other towns and cities around the country. In Lincoln, trades council secretary Nick Parker said: “We will redouble our efforts to put safety before profit, and encourage all workers to join a trade union and organise to protect themselves and their colleagues from harm.” According to the TUC facebook update: “However it was often in workplaces where the biggest effect was held, with many workers holding a minute’s silence at noon to remember the dead. At the same time the Labour front bench used the opportunity to reiterate their plans for health and safety after the election, and, at the same time, praised union health and safety representatives”.
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady, writing in the Morning Star and referring to this year’s 28 April hazardous substances theme, noted: “Without stronger regulation and, more importantly, proper enforcement, people will continue to die needlessly from being exposed to hazardous substances. It is time ministers woke up to this reality and looked at the bigger picture. Health and safety in our workplaces doesn’t just protect workers, it protects those in the wider community.” She said the Conservative-led government “did all it could to weaken health and safety legislation and make it harder for victims, including those who have been to exposed hazardous chemicals, to pursue claims against employers.”
