health and safety
Articles about health and safety, and struggles over health and safety in the workplace.
Direct action victory on health and safety at Starbucks, 2006
Making work safer through direct action - Daniel Gross and Joe Tessone recount the actions of workers winning a small but significant victory on health and safety at a Chicago Starbucks outlet in 2006.
Requests have been routinely made and ignored for the purchase of a stepladder. It is vital for our safety that we have a stepladder available to use for such tasks as changing light bulbs, reaching boxes on high shelves, and cleaning ceiling tiles. Currently, we are forced to balance ourselves on unstable café tables to accomplish tasks in hard to reach places.
Cancerous computers
Following the clearing in 2004 of IBM in a lawsuit alleging they knew about carcinogens found in their computer chip factories, a new scientific study has been brought out confirming that workers in computer facilities have a high risk of developing cancer.
A new report published by online science journal Environmental Health (ehjournal.net) has found that US workers in the computer manufacturing centre have a significantly greater likelihood of contracting a wide range of cancers than the rest of the population.
Halemba mine tragedy: the high costs of greed and outsourcing
No worker should not have gone into the mine that day. But Halemba sent in some unqualified contractors. Laure Akai reports.
Previous libcom.org coverage here.
Polish miners killed, trapped in massive blast
8 miners have been killed and 15 more remain trapped following an explosion in a deep coal mine yesterday in Ruda Slaska, Southern Poland. Reports suggest the miners were knowingly put at risk to recover company property.
Update 23/11/06: The death toll has now risen to 23, with no survivors.
Health and safety - the basics
Health and safety is important, this page is to help you know your rights.
Every year, over 1,000 workers are killed at work. 7,500 are seriously maimed and 750,000 are injured or become ill due to their employment1
All employers should:
▫ Provide safe and healthy working conditions;
▫ Provide proper information and training for everyone in all types of workplaces;
- 1. Source: TUC, 2004 - http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-7946-f0.cfm
China: Capitalism works you to death - literally
Following another worker's death, Ret Marut examines the conditions in China's factories.
Every year, 8.5 million Chinese peasants move into cities. Yang Xixiang left her village and family in the Chongqing area of central China in 1992 to find work in the city. She needed to support her husband's hepatitis B treatment.
Safety on the railways?
Health and safety campaigners have welcomed the jailing of a rail boss, found guilty of killing four maintenance workers who died when a runaway wagon ploughed into them. Mark Connell, 44, had deliberately dismantled the brakes on two of his wagons in order to save money.
He received a nine year sentence for each of the four counts of manslaughter, to run concurrently. However the jailing of Connell, though welcome, is perhaps not quite the victory it first seems. As the construction giant Carillion plc, who subcontracted Connell to carry out the work, and as such should take some of the blame, was never prosecuted.
Asbestos - the silent killer in schools
Some 15 teachers a year are dying of asbestos related cancer.
The Health and Safety Executive released figures stating that between 1991 and 2000 147 teachers died from the untreatable cancer mesothelioma. When it took into account education assistants, nursery nurses and university lecturers the figures doubled. These figures could even be higher if other support staff, such as caretakers, maintenance staff and cleaners, are taken into account.
UK: Health and Safety Executive cosy with bosses 'shock'
A report brought out by the Hazards campaign has shown that the government’s Health and Safety Executive have been deliberately not prosecuting offending companies and culling records of offenders from its website.
A series of 20 Freedom of Information requests have shown that the number of prosecutions by the government watchdog has dropped by a third over the last year since the executive brought in a new ‘business-friendly’ strategy.
HSE brought 712 prosecutions in 2004/05, down from 928 in 2003/04. It secured just 673 convictions, down from 887 the preceding year.
Tube strike update: new offer criticised
RMT and ASLEF arrange joint ballot over health and safety, harrassment and breached agreements.
Bob Crow announced new offer yesterday before members or union organisers knew anything about it.
