Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

International Workers Memorial Day

Peter Marshall | 28.04.2006 17:34 | Health | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | London | World

Workers Memorial Day was marked in London by a demonstration, march and rally organised by the Construction Safety Campaign. Over a quarter of all workplace deaths are in construction.


Outside a building site in Southwark
Outside a building site in Southwark

At the HSE
At the HSE

A short silence outside the HSE
A short silence outside the HSE

At CIty Hall
At CIty Hall


Workers Memorial Day is observed around the world on 28 April to commemorate those people who have been killed at work. Most accidents at work result from employers giving profits a higher priority than the safety of their workers; the great majority would not happen if proper precedures were taken to reduce or eliminate hazards at work.

One of the industries with the worst record is the construction industry, and although there is more emphasis on safety than before health and safety regulations came into force, far too many still die. In the last 25 years in the UK, 2,800 people have been killed on construction sites or died as a result of construction activities. Over a quarter of all workplace deaths are in construction. According to the HSE, "Between April 2004 and March 2005, 71 workers died and thousands were injured as a result of construction work."

The memorial day is to "remember the dead: fight for the living". The Construction Safety Campaign organised a morning of events starting at Canada House to protest at canada's continued promotion of the killer mineral asbestos. I joined them for the main event, a march starting by Tate Modern, first to the offices of the HSE at Rose Court on Southwark Bridge Road, where there were short speeches, and then along to the Greater London Authority offices beside Tower Bridge where there was a rally.

The march route led past several large construction sites, where speakers urged workers to join in the demonstration. Some came out and joined the marchers in a minutes silence remembering victims killed at work, removing their hard hats, though most just stopped work to watch, looking down from the tops of buildings.

Speakers at the GLA 'Scoop' included Tony O'Brien of the CSC, and representatives of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) and Transport and General Workers Union(TGWU). Ken was abroad, but Joanne McCartney, Chair of the GLA Health and Public Services Committee came. She said that the authority wanted the 2012 Olympics to be an opportunity to promote workplace safety, with contractors being obliged to have proper safety committees and cooperating with the unions. MP Jeremy Corbyn also spoke well, although it was perhaps surprising that no other politicians came to address the meeting.

More pictures on MyLondonDiary web site shortly.

Peter Marshall
- e-mail: petermarshall@cix.co.uk
- Homepage: http://mylondondiary.co.uk

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Thanks for the report! — Pete
  2. Workplace Bullying — Kit
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech