More than 370 delegates registered for our first ever zoom conference which was held on Saturday 1st August, 2020. Doug Russell the National Health and Safety Officer at USDAW chaired the opening plenary session and was joined by international speakers from Nepal, Hong Kong, Australia, US and Denmark after Louise Taggart spoke from FACK and also Shelly Asquith the newly appointed TUC health and safety policy officer. This provided an international and national picture of how Covid-19 pandemic was impacting on workers and how they were responding.
A recording of the plenary session can be found here or view below:
After the plenary session , there were four different workshops with a plethora of fantastic, engaging, interesting and inspiring speakers – notes from some of those presentations are available below.
Opening plenary
Covid-19 – Denmark, Janne Hansen, 3F
ANROEV response to Covid-19 , Ram Charitra Sah, ANROEV co-ordinator
Health and safety organizing during Covid-19, Peter Dooley, US National COSH.
Workshop 1 -Safety Reps taking the lead – during and after Covid-19
Workshop 2 – Fighting Inequality in Health and Safety
Why women are not the default male, Helen Lynn, Alliance for cancer prevention
Workshop 3 – Mental Health and Covid-19
Mental health and young workers, Janet Farrar, UCU
Deaths of workers by suicide should be reportable, Sarah Waters, University of Leeds
Workshop 4 – Toxics Out! Air pollution, just transition after Covid-19
Toxics out of work, Hilda Palmer, Hazards Campaign
Chemical bans, Ted Smith, ICRT
Over 500 people participated in the different meetings during the day. The event was a brilliant opportunity to continue the Hazards Conference tradition of grass root activism which brings together trade union safety reps and officers, academics and health, safety and environmental activists and campaigners.
Useful links, resources and other shared information that were posted in the Zoom chat box, can be found in the Hazards Conference 2020 Report.
Many thanks to all those who spoke, chaired, participated and encouraged. It wasn’t our usual Keele event but it was an inspiring and unique event and I hope to see many of you next year in person at Keele.
Janet Newsham (On behalf of the Hazards Conference Organising Committee)