health and safety
Articles about health and safety, and struggles over health and safety in the workplace.
Death sparks building worker riot in Delhi
After a fatal accident on the Commonwealth Games construction site more than thousand building workers destroyed company offices, cars and trucks.
The aggravating global crisis imposes a new social frame-work for incidents like this: the daily deaths and legal murders become explosive.
The cops shooting a fifteen year old became the trigger of social unrest in Greece, the fatal accident of a building worker sparked the simmering unrest.
Shack Fire Summit, Kennedy Road settlement, 22 September 2008
A statement by the Poor People's Alliance following the shack fire summit called by Abahlali baseMjondolo
Wednesday, 08 October 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo (KwaZulu-Natal & Western Cape)
Landless Peoples' Movement (KwaZulu-Natal & Gauteng)
Rural Network (KwaZulu-Natal)
Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign (Western Cape)
South African National Civics Organisations (eThekwini region)
Metronet climb down on activist victimisation
Metronet have backed down from attempts to fire RMT militant Andy Littlechild
As previously reported here, Metronet have been victimising militant RMT rep Andy Littlechild. Andy had been suspended for 3 weeks for following Metronet agreed health and safety policy against the wishes of a manager.
Building workers on strike in Trinidad
Contract workers hired for the construction of the continuous catalytic reactor (CCR) and the alti-acid plants at Petrotrin, Pointe-a-Pierre, yesterday downed tools for the second time in three days.
On Saturday, the workers at the CCR plant walked off the site in protest against what they described as unfair treatment of women employees by management.
Bitter death in a chocolate factory
Factory puts profit over safety.
In May 2008, Krzysztof Pruszewicz would have been 21. He was killed on April 16 in an industrial accident in the Vobro Chocolate Factory in Brodnica, Poland.
Wildcat strike in South African mines
Workers at the Everest mine in South Africa have gone on wildcat strike about health and safety issues.
On 28 May, 42 load-haul-dumper operators stopped unprotected work at the Everest mine, and the rest of the underground workforce, numbering around 1,300 employees, stopped work in sympathy the following day.
Coca Cola plant goes up in flames
Three persons died and several others were injured when the multi-million naira Coca Cola plant at Eyean, near Benin City, Edo State, on Tuesday went up in flames during an explosion that causes extensive damage to the facility.
The development had prompted the management of the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) to suspend operations at the plant.
The dead workers were said to have been taken to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) morgue while the injured were reportedly receiving treatment.
Tube strike suspended after safety guarantees won
Three days of strikes by more than 7,000 RMT station staff, signallers and drivers have been suspended by the union after lengthy talks this week yielded guarantees on a raft of safety and staffing issues.
Faced with the prospect of three days of strike action from 18:30 on Sunday, London Underground has abandoned plans that the union had described as a fundamental attack on Tube safety standards and casualisation of safety critical work.
RMT and TSSA vote for joint strike action
RMT station staff and train operator members voted Thursday by a margin of five to one for strike action in defence of safety on the London Underground.
The strike ballot saw 1,673 members vote for action with 333 voting against. The ballot result opens the way for joint action with fellow Tube union TSSA, whose own members voted for action earlier this month. The unions are opposing management attacks on safety standards and the casualisation of safety-critical work (details in notes below).
Strike brings Brussels public transport to a halt
Public transport in Brussels was almost entirely halted on Wednesday, as bus and tram drivers went on strike for improved safety, after a bus was attacked with a molotov cocktail.
Starting at 6.30, citywide buses and trams were completely shut down. Metro services were reported to be overcrowded beyond capacity.
