Category Archives: 28 April / WMD

28 April / WMD, media

FACK statement for International Workers’ Memorial Day

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FACK Statement

International Workers Memorial Day 28 April 2026

“It will never happen to us.” So we thought. So you might think. It’s sure as hell what all we FACKers thought. First time around at least. Though for some of us, the proverbial lightning has struck twice. And for so many of us, it continues to strike time and time again for reasons we’ll explain.

What is it that’s happened? Our loved ones died because of work. Whether in incidents that would never have happened had safety been given the priority it deserves. Or because of illnesses, which were entirely avoidable had the right precautions been put in place. Or because the pressure of excessive work demands, hours, deadlines; lack of control, resources and support, bullying, sexual harassment, insecurity, low pay – these work stresses accumulated, got all too much and a loved one made their final decision: to end their own life.

When we say it’s happened to us, we’re not speaking in the past tense. It continues to happen to us.

As a shadow is cast over every missed birthday, when the dread sets in as Mother’s and Father’s Day approaches, and every anniversary of their death looms large. As family traditions are abruptly ended; the shared laughter is silenced; the major milestones can no longer be shared with the person who would have been proudest of all.

Family holidays, checking into a hotel for work, approaching our retirement missing the soulmate we planned to share it with, first drinks in the pub, the walk down the aisle. Countless ways in which our loved one’s absence will continue to reverberate throughout our lives. Especially for those who lost someone to a work death when they were very young.

And the intensity of those reverberations are made all the stronger because of the way we are treated after our loved one dies.

We have to fight when we are at our lowest. We’re not treated as victims of crime. Yet that is what we are. We face intolerable delays waiting for answers: as to why our loved one is dead and who will be prosecuted for the failures which resulted in their death. More than 6 years so far for John Mackay’s wife and sister. More than 10 years for the families of the 4 men who died in the Didcot power station demolition collapse, 6 years for the 4 men, one a boy of 16, killed in an explosion at Wessex Water. Others feel investigations are poor and rushed.

For others, the trauma is deepened by their quest for answers being ended before it has even begun. The families of loved ones who have died by suicide, are faced with the HSE determined not to look. A regulator which chooses not to investigate, even where clear evidence points to work being the cause of the decision to end life. So causes of work-related suicide are not being addressed in a systematic way and future such deaths are not being prevented.

Every time we hear a news story about another work-related death, this compounds our suffering. Joyce Davies lost her dad in a fire at his workplace approaching 60 years ago. She wrote movingly recently: “We developed so much empathy, we drown in it every single day. Every other person’s suffering affects us. We pick up on tiny signs and we feel it deeply. The path back to our own suffering is fast, furious and frightening. We can’t ignore injustice. We can’t ignore the pain of a stranger. We put ourselves at risk to help other folk and we speak up for the voiceless.”

The voiceless Joyce speaks of…they were the lights of our lives. The ones who were the life and soul of the party. Our someone oh so special. The ones who lit up the room simply by their presence.

But all now snuffed out. Why?

Because employers neglected their duties: risk assessments were not done or haphazard, rather than addressing the hazards; a blind eye was turned in the pursuit of profit; cutting of corners was condoned to get the job done; trade unions and their safety reps were not engaged with; the concerns of workers who knew there was an “accident waiting to happen” were stifled; or the dangerous phrase “but we’ve always done it this way” was subscribed to.

And they got away with it. Until they didn’t. And our loved ones didn’t come home.

And sadly, almost unbelievably the lightening of work-related death can strike twice, break hearts and devastate family lives all over again.

Linzi Herbertson was a young woman in her late twenties when her husband Andy ‘Herbie’ Herbertson was killed by his employer’s negligence in a scaffolding collapse in Oldham in January1998. Devastated and heartbroken she fought for what justice she could get, which at that time was an insulting slap in the face, and then fought for others not to go through what she had experienced. She became a campaigner and a founder member of FACK. She brought up their young son and daughter on her own without the love of her life but with love and strength, and had another son later while never giving up the fight.

About 13 years ago she found the second love of her life Pete Percival. They were happy and surrounded by their large families creating joy and love and enriching the lives of the many people who knew them But sadly a work-related illness took Pete’s life in January this year and Linzi is once more back in the hellish wasteland of the grief and loss journey she knows only too painfully, and which she is facing with enormous bravery, honesty and love.

We wish beyond measure that this had never happened to us. The fact that it has is what gives us a strength unmatched, and we vow to continue to advocate for and support other families who find themselves on this hideous journey, speaking truth to power and giving voice to our voiceless.

We remember all of our dead. And renew our commitment to continue to fight like hell for the living.

For more information Hilda Palmer 0729800240 hild.palmer52@gmail.com

 

—————————————————————————————————————-FACK was established in July 2006, by and for families of people killed by the gross negligence of business

employers, https://gmhazards.org.uk/index.php/fack/

 

Founder Members of FACK:

Dawn and Paul Adams – son Samuel Adams aged 6 killed at Trafford Centre,10th October 1998

Linzi Herbertson -husband Andrew Herbertson 29, killed at work on 30th January 1998

Mike and Lynne Hutin – son Andrew Hutin 20, killed at work on 8th Nov 2001

Mick & Bet Murphy – son Lewis Murphy 18, killed at work on 21st February 2004

Louise Adamson – brother Michael Adamson 26, killed at work on 4th August 2005

Linda Whelan – son Craig Whelan 23, (and Paul Wakefield) killed at work on 23rd May 2004

Dorothy and Douglas Wright – son Mark Wright 37, killed at work on 13th April 2005

***********************************************************

For more information and to support FACK, contact Greater Manchester Hazards Centre:

Tel: 0161 884 4229 or the Scottish Hazards Centre: 0800 0015 022.

FACK c/o GMHC, Unit 2, The Wesley Centre, Royce Rd, Manchester M15 5BP (UK) Telephone: 0161 884 4229 mail@gmhazards.org.uk Web: https://gmhazards.org.uk/index.php/fack/

28 April / WMD, Action, Blog, media

News release: Hazards Campaign warns HSE’s deregulatory plans will weaken chemical safety and harm workers

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Hazards Campaign news release -13 March 2026 [No embargo]

The Hazards Campaign is sounding the alarm over the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) plans to use its Retained EU Law Powers to introduce significant deregulatory changes to Great Britain’s chemical regulation system with little transparency and limited scrutiny. Hazards Campaign is concerned these plans will lead to a weakening of protections and the emergence of a two-tier system of chemical safety compared to the better protected EU workforce.

The HSE’s response to concerns raised during the consultation on the deregulation proposal largely ignored the issues highlighted by many key stakeholders, reinforcing its commitment to a deregulatory approach HSE Chemicals Legislative Reform Consultation Response. Under the proposed route, the changes will be subject to only minimal parliamentary debate, making it extremely difficult to challenge or prevent them becoming law.

At the heart of the proposals is the plan to de‑link Great Britain’s chemical hazard classification system from the EU’s. The Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) framework is the foundation of the UK’s chemical safety regime: hazard classifications determine legal controls across around 19 other regulations, including the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) which govern workplace exposure to harmful chemicals

Under current law, the HSE must act on new EU hazard classifications—especially for carcinogens and mutagens—within a set timeframe. The HSE now proposes removing this obligation and replacing it with a discretionary system that could draw on any international source. This is likely to increase regulatory divergence from the EU; GB has already diverged in around 15% of cases, typically with weaker classifications

Despite these risks, the HSE argues the current duty is “burdensome” and restricts its ability to prioritise domestic work. Meanwhile, the UK has already chosen not to adopt new EU hazard classes for endocrine disrupting‑ chemicals (EDCs). As a result, EU workers will receive stronger protections from EDC exposure, while GB workers will not — creating a two-tier‑ system of chemical safety.

Hazard Campaign’s Assessment

The proposed changes would:

  • Reduce protections for GB workers, leaving safety standards below those of the EU.
  • Slow and weaken updates to hazard classifications, diminishing the system’s scientific robustness.
  • Increase regulatory divergence, creating inconsistencies for industry and enforcement.
  • Undermine the legal framework that governs control of exposure to high‑risk chemicals.

The Hazards Campaign calls for the HSE and Government to:

  1. Withdraw the deregulatory proposals that remove mandatory alignment with EU hazard classifications.
  2. Retain a science based‑, precautionary, mandatory updating process for chemical hazard classifications.
  3. Adopt EU classifications for carcinogens, mutagens, and EDCs to protect workers from recognised harm.
  4. Stop the creation of a weakened, divergent GB chemical safety regime that undermines COSHH and other worker protections.
  5. Engage meaningfully with unions, safety bodies and NGOs, as urged in your own call to action text.

Call to Action

 Stakeholders—Unions, NGOs and safety activists —are urged to raise concerns with the HSE, political representatives and internal structures, and to press for reversal of this deregulatory shift, particularly around GB CLP and the regulation of carcinogens, mutagens and endocrine disruptors.

 Press enquiries

Marie Monaghan

Hazards Campaign Lead and Joint Co-ordinator of the Greater Manchester Hazards Centre

Email: Marie@gmhazards.org.uk

www.hazardscampaign.org.uk

28 April / WMD, Blog

28 April: The Hazards Campaign calls on the Government to increase HSE funding

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News release, 23 April 2025 [No embargo]

Every year globally, on 28 April, trade unions, workers, and families hold remembrance events marking International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD) because each year work continues to kill millions. In the UK alone the Hazards Campaign calculates 50,000 deaths a year, that’s 137 daily. (1)

IWMD is our opportunity to ‘Remember the Dead and Fight for the Living.’  This year’s theme is AI and digital platforms and their impact on workers health and safety.

‘Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be used to mitigate monotonous work, AI at work is increasing work intensification, monitoring and surveillance, generating negative impacts on mental and physical wellbeing, as workers experience the extreme pressure of constant, real-time micromanagement and automated assessment.’ (ITUC)(2)

 

AI is already prolific in our working lives, it is used to allocate tasks and track workers but also has been used to negate workers’ rights, for example restricting appropriate breaks leading to work related stress and mental ill health. AI in many circumstances, is leading to unacceptable pressures through pervasive monitoring and target-setting technologies, serious injuries and ill health.(3)

Workers need more than strong words to ensure AI doesn’t increase the pressure on workers.  Workers need robust Government policies and also health and safety enforcement authorities with the teeth to control the risks to workers.

Decades of underfunding and under resourcing with increased responsibilities means HSE is running on empty.

The HSE’s own data shows enforcement is stagnating, it is not making impact on fatal and major injuries at work and is conducting far fewer inspections.  Work related ill-health is stuck at an all-time high of 1.7-1.8 million workers, an increase of almost 40 per cent since 2010. With working time losses of 34 million working days in 2023/2024, an increase from 22 million in 2010.  (4)

If Stephen Timms, the Minister of State for Social Security and Disability responsible for the HSE, and the Government are serious about keeping people in work, they must also be serious about making sure that work is of a decent standard. Jobs should not harm workers or push disabled and ill people out of the workplace—or into an even worse situation.

There is both a moral and economic case for holding employers accountable for managing occupational risks faced by workers. Enforcement authorities must ensure that employers are meeting their legal duties. The Government must guarantee transparency from regulators and provide them with the resources they need to do their job properly.

The Hazards Campaign challenges the Government to invest in the health and safety of workers by resourcing the enforcement authorities and that only then, will work pay and not by workers lives.

For more information Please see:

 

  1. Hazards Campaign The Whole Story – https://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/The-Whole-story-2024.pdf
  2. ITUC – https://28april.org/?p=7125
  3. Hazards, number 168/169 double issue, 2025 – CODE RED| AI and digitalisation – technology shouldn’t be the boss of you  https://www.hazards.org/AI/codered.htm
  4. Hazards, number 168/169 double issue, 2025 – FLATLINING | Work hurts more, but bosses have never been less accountable – https://www.hazards.org/deadlybusiness/flatlining.htm
  5. https://gmhazards.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/International-Workers-Memorial-Day-general-circular-2025.pdf
For more information, press only:
Contact: Janet Newsham
Tel: 07734317158

The Hazards Campaign is a UK-wide network of resource centres and campaigners. The Hazards Campaign supports those organising and campaigning for justice and safety at work.

Contact details:
The Hazards Campaign
c/o Greater Manchester Hazards Centre
The Wesley Centre
Royce Rd
Manchester M15 5BP
ENGLAND
twitter @hazardscampaign
28 April / WMD, Blog

“Far too little” – FACK Statement – International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2025

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FACK Statement
International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2025

Far too little

That is what we FACK families encounter all too often when it comes to achieving justice – or should we say, what passes for justice – when a loved one dies because of a work-related incident.  We say “what passes for justice” because, over a 12 year period, in England and Wales there were 40 cases brought under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act.

Only 29 of which resulted in conviction. And we are unaware of any cases having ever been brought in Scotland.

Yet, when the new legislation was being considered, the Government’s Regulatory Impact Assessment estimated that there would be between 10 and 13 cases per year.  So, by now, we should have expected the number of prosecutions to be in three figures.  If only it were a reduction in the number of fatalities that had resulted in the much lower figure.  It is not.  The number of people who lose their lives because of work remains stubbornly, heart wrenchingly, high. So, it is the inadequacy of our laws and their enforcement which  is to blame.

Companies do not make decisions that result in deaths. Individuals within companies and organisations do, So if a law is to serve as a deterrent, that can only be achieved by framing offences in such a way that those responsible are held accountable, that prosecutions will be brought, prosecutions will succeed and punishment then fits the crime.

As things stand, what passes for justice is far too little, and comes far too late.

We’re sure Natalie Woods McKeown would add to that “if at all”. She posted on Facebook less than 2 weeks ago about the 23rd anniversary of her dad’s death on a site where he became entangled in faulty machinery, making the heartbreaking point that she and her sister still have no answers to fundamentally important

questions.  They feel they have had more than 2 decades of being let down, by the Police, prosecution authorities and the HSE. She heartbreakingly ends her post saying:

“Dad, not having you in our lives does not get any easier…23 years of injustice just adds to the pain.”

Ken Cresswell, John Shaw, Michael Collings and Christopher Huxtable left home to go to work on the demolition of Didcot Power Station.  On the 9th anniversary of their deaths, Thames Valley Police issued a press release stating: “…we are confident that we are moving towards the latter stages of our enquiries.”

“Moving towards the latter stages”??  What exactly does that mean in an investigation which has already taken nearly a decade?  These families have, absolutely understandably, lost all confidence in the authorities and their ability to deliver justice.

As have the wife and sister of John Mackay, who died in 2019, alongside Tommy Williams, during demolition works at a former steelworks in Teeside. When the case was handed from the police to the HSE more than 3 years on, the HSE pledged that: “our investigation will be a thorough one, while also recognising the desire for a speedy conclusion.”

Now a further 18 months down the line and Ann and Magi remain in a state of not knowing why John and Tommy died, or whether any individual or company will face criminal charges. So much for recognition of the desire for a speedy conclusion.  We have said it before, and we will continue to say it until someone with the power bring about change listens and takes action:  this interminable wait for answers leads to justice being delayed and denied; and the trauma of loved ones being extended and compounded.

Far too little. Far too late.  Causing far too much pain.

Please let it not be thought that these injustices are faced only by the families of those who worked in high hazard environments.

85 year old June Harvey was at home in the summer of 2020, when a tower crane from a nearby construction site collapsed and devastatingly crashed through the roof and beyond, killing her. Her family still waits for answers as to why.

Simon Midgley and Richard Dyson were enjoying a weekend at Cameron House Hotel in 2017 the week before Christmas, when a fire tore through the building and tore them from their families.  Recommendations for improvements to fire and hotel safety were finally made more than 5 years after their deaths.  Now, a further 2 years later, Simon’s mum and sister have yet to see these recommendations turned to positive preventative action for others, only serving to deepen their distress.

0n a spring morning in 2018 Michaela Boor was walking her young son to nursery when masonry fell five storeys. The next day was her 29th birthday. The day after that, her family had to make the decision to turn off her life support machine.  Michaela’s mum now walks her grandson to school, past the very spot where his mum’s, her daughter’s, life ended. He asks: “why can’t we walk past the building, nanny?” Because she always tells him to cross the road.  Seven years on, no answers, and no justice, for that wee boy.

Far too little. Far too late. Causing far too much pain, that could and should have been avoided.

It could and would have been avoided if all employers cared enough about their health and safety responsibilities, preventing these “accidents waiting to happen”, which are not “accidents”.

It could and would have been avoided had our enforcement authorities – police, the HSE and local authorities – been provided sufficient resources to investigate with the necessary expediency, and wherever possible, undertake proactive preventative work to avoid incidents occurring in the first place.

It could and would have been avoided had our laws served as effective deterrents in the first place, and our justice systems been able to provide meaningful justice, swiftly.

Instead, far too many loved ones continue to lose their lives in incidents which could, should and would be prevented if only everyone cared as much as we FACKers do. We cannot and should not need to keep repeating ourselves.  We are exhausted by the need to say the same thing in a different way every year. For every FACK family that comes after us, we feel we have failed them, because, despite all that we do, all that we say, history continues to repeat itself.

We need you to add your voices to ours, to influence those who can effect change, to turn platitudes into action, and to ensure that no other family ever has to go through what our families already have gone through, and what we are forever going to continue to go through.

So, as we remember the dead, we pledge to continue fighting like hell for the living.

FACK was established in July 2006, by and for families of people killed by the gross negligence of business employers, see https://gmhazards.org.uk/index.php/fack/

Founder Members of FACK:  

Dawn and Paul Adams – our son Samuel Adams aged 6 killed at Trafford Centre,10th October 1998

Linzi Herbertson – my husband Andrew Herbertson 29, killed at work on 30th January 1998

Mike and Lynne Hutin – our son Andrew Hutin 20, killed at work on 8th Nov 2001

Mick & Bet Murphy – our son Lewis Murphy 18, killed at work on 21st February 2004

Louise Adamson – my brother Michael Adamson 26, killed at work on 4th August 2005

Linda Whelan – my son Craig Whelan 23, (and Paul Wakefield) killed at work on 23rd May 2004

Dorothy & Douglas Wright – our son Mark Wright 37, killed at work on 13th April 2005

For more information and to support FACK, contact Greater Manchester Hazards Centre: Unit 2, The Wesley Centre, Royce Rd, Manchester M15 5BP (UK)Telephone: 0161 884 4229  Email: mail@gmhazards.org.uk

Web: https://gmhazards.org.uk/index.php/fack/

Or the Scottish Hazards Centre: 0800 0015 022.

28 April / WMD, Blog, media

Hazards Campaign reveals the tragic price of work hazards

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Press Release for International Workers Memorial Day to remember people killed by work

For immediate release

On International Workers Memorial Day, Friday 28th April,  workers globally will hold workplace and community events to remember work colleagues, who have died because of their work.  Every year the Hazards Campaign produce ‘The Whole Story’ (1) which is an analysis of the occupational injuries, illness and deaths statistics.

In the last 12 months alone, it is estimated by the Hazards Campaign, that more than 53,000 people died because of work and this number doesn’t include the hundreds of workers who have died because of Covid infections they contracted in the workplace, because there is no obligation for employers to report them to the enforcement agency, or for them to be investigated or employers to be prosecuted.(1) and they not recorded.

The Hazards Campaign includes an estimate of the number of workers who have died from work-related suicide, which is estimated to be as high as 10% of all suicides. (2)  Again, the employer is under no legal duty to report, or investigate these deaths and this estimate is based on numbers recorded in other countries where suicides are reportable.  The Hazards Campaign believes there is a moral obligation to do this, and are campaigning for there to be a legal obligation for work-related suicides to be reportable, investigated and employers prosecuted if they are negligent.(3)

UK Hazards Campaign spokesperson Janet Newsham, said it’s shocking that worldwide, work kills a minimum of 2.9 million people every year.

She said: “Last year safe and healthy work was adopted as a fundamental right by the ILO.  This means that occupational health and safety must be central to all work.  This should also mean that our Government, employers and enforcement authorities must double their efforts to eradicate unsafe and unhealthy work activities.  It should be no longer acceptable that work drives people to take their own life, or that workers are subjected to air pollution and other airborne viruses, toxic chemicals and hazardous substances, that will eventually kill them. It should mean that these are not an optional extra but are fundamental to safe and healthy work.’

‘No-one should lose their life for just going out to work to earn a living. Too many people die because of their work activities.  On International Workers Memorial Day we will remember all those who have died because of work, we will wear purple ribbons in their memory, we will tell their stories(2), and try to hold those responsible for their deaths are held to account.  We don’t want to hear about lessons learnt, that means that someone else has died.  We need all work to be safe and healthy, preventing deaths, diseases and injuries and on April 28th we will ‘Remember the dead and Fight for the Living!’’

Note to editors:

More details on the theme can be found here:

  1. The whole story: https://sway.office.com/0SEVenHS9yTFFJqs?ref=Link
  2. Families against corporate killers 2023 statement: https://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/blog/uk-fack-statement-international-workers-memorial-day-28-april-2023
  3. Suicide:
  4. Further information:

For more details please contact Janet Newsham on 07734 317158.

28 April / WMD, Blog, media

UK: FACK Statement – International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2023

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FACK Statement

International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2023

 

We FACK families are eternally grateful to each and every person who has come together today to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day.  A day when we remember all of those bereaved by work. And renew our commitment to fighting like hell for the living.

Because, just what is it to be bereaved by work…?

It’s to start a day like any other. And end it like no other. To not have known that was your last goodbye. To be left to rue the denial of so many tomorrows and still feel the ripple effects decades on.

It’s to be let down, time and again.  By the employer who had a moral duty and a legal responsibility to look after our family member, and failed in both respects in the worst possible way.  By those politicians who erroneously believe health and safety protections to be burdens on business, and seek to slash and burn where they should be seeking to safeguard and bolster.  By the enforcement authorities who seem so often incapable of effecting proactive preventative inspections.  And by our prosecution bodies, who take far too long to bring negligent employers to, what passes for, justice.

Because, to be bereaved by work is to be a victim of crime.  But to be made to feel like a lesser class of victim.  One where you’re not placed at the heart of the justice process, but left to feel you exist somewhere on the periphery.  To have to garner the strength time and again to face another battle against a justice system, which is meant to be on our side, but which all too often serves to further deepen our trauma.

It’s to question whether you yourself have done enough.  Whether you could have done more to get answers sooner.  To get action quicker. To ensure changes are implemented to prevent the heartbreak of other families like your own. But having to come to terms with the fact this is never within our own power, but reliant on others.  Others who have let us down.

The loss of our loved one’s life set off a chain reaction of change, where the lives we thought we were going to lead are no longer possible.  The wedding day that didn’t happen.  The child who didn’t survive their apprenticeship.  The future mapped out with your partner of 28 years now a solo challenge, rather than a team adventure.  The sibling you can no longer call for advice, or look to for support.

It’s also about facing poverty through the loss of a breadwinner’s income or losing your own job, house, livelihood, as you grieve for your loved one and are unable to work to sustain yourself and your family. Compensation is often not made at all, or is too little, and the benefits system is very harsh and support very scarce. The effects of a work death can resonate painfully through generations.

It’s to feel a devastation you never thought possible.  And other times to feel numb, a nothing-ness, a lack of hope.  When you see another news report of a death due to a so-called “accident” at work, it’s to not just understand what that actually means, but to feel it.

What else is it to be bereaved by work….?

It’s to find lifelong friends you will cherish, all the while wishing you had met in altogether different circumstances.

It’s to find the voice you never knew you had.  The one which, though it may occasionally tremble, steadies itself to assertively speak truth to power. To find that strength you never ever expected to need.

And though you are let down at too many turns, you are lifted by the fortitude and support of others. Like those who work and volunteer in the Hazards movement, Hazards Centres, and charity Scottish Hazards.  Like the trade unionists who help ensure their workplaces are safer and healthier. And like those individual politicians, enforcers, prosecutors and others who do get it, who do understand what we are going through, and who want desperately to bring about the changes we need to see.

We need the employers who do care to guide, educate and cajole those who need woken up to their responsibilities. Laws to be protected. An end to the odious practice of blacklisting. We need enforcement before the fact.  Lessons to be learned, communicated and actioned before loss of life occurs. Penalties that fit the crime. Those bereaved by work to be placed at the heart of the justice system.  And for no other family to have to walk in our families’ shoes.

So, we will continue to tell our loved ones’ stories. We will continue to lay bare our reality.

All in the desperate hope and eternal expectation that we’ll be able to prevent others going through the turmoil of those of us left behind.  Our loved one went to work to make a better life.  Instead, there was loss of life and lives forever altered.

We FACKers pledge to you is to continue to live the International Workers’ Memorial Day mantra each and every day, as we forever remember our dead, and do our damndest to fight like hell for the living.

FACK was established in July 2006, by and for families of people killed by the gross negligence of business employers, to sit with families in the darkest hour and help them speak truth to power, see www.fack.org.uk  https://gmhazards.org.uk/index.php/fack/      Facebook:  Families Against Corporate Killers

Founder Members of FACK:

Dawn and Paul Adams – son Samuel Adams aged 6 killed at Trafford Centre,10th October 1998

Linzi Herbertson – husband Andrew Herbertson 29, killed at work on 30th January 1998

Mike and Lynne Hutin – son Andrew Hutin 20, killed at work on 8th Nov 2001

Mick & Bet Murphy – son Lewis Murphy 18, killed at work on 21st February 2004

Louise Adamson – brother Michael Adamson 26, killed at work on 4th August 2005

Linda Whelan – son Craig Whelan 23, (and Paul Wakefield) killed at work on 23rd May 2004

Dorothy & Douglas Wright – son Mark Wright 37, killed at work on 13th April 2005

For more information and to support FACK, contact Hilda Palmer, Facilitator for FACK: Tel 0161 792 1044

c/o GM Hazards Centre/Hazards Campaign, Windrush Millennium Centre,

70 Alexandra Road, Manchester M16 7WD Tel 0161 792 1044

mail@gmhazards.org.uk  www.fack.org.uk https://gmhazards.org.uk/index.php/fack/

28 April / WMD, Blog, Graphics

Posters, ribbons and more – get your 28 April campaign gear!

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International Workers’ Memorial Day on 28 April 2023 – the biggest event on the trade union safety calendar – is just over a week away. Essential resources, including 28 April purple ribbons, car stickers and ‘Organise!’ posters, bags, t-shirts and hi-vis jackets, are available from the national Hazards Campaign.

RESOURCES
Hazards Campaign 28 April #iwmd23 resources

  • Organise! 28 April posters, specify A4 or A3, free plus cost of postage.
  • Purple ribbons, £50/100.
  • Car stickers, single £1, 2-10 50p each, 11-100 30p each.
  • Bags, £5 plus postage.
  • Organise v-neck t-shirts or Hi-viz gilets (sizes S,M, L, XL), £10.

Contact the campaign for discount rates for larger orders. Further details, email Janet Newsham or phone 07734 317158.

Print off order form.  Return order form to: iwmd23, 177 Watling Street Road, Fulwood, Preston PR28AE.

Cheques made payable to ‘Greater Manchester Hazards Centre Ltd’.

BACS payments
Account Name Greater Manchester Hazards Centre Ltd
Sort Code 60 83 01
Account Number 20090443
Bank Name and address Unity Trust Bank,  Nine Brindley place, Birmingham B1 2 HB.

28 April / WMD, Blog

The Whole Story – 28 April statistics briefing and information

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UK Hazards Campaign tells the whole story on work related injury and death – the real statistics and the real stories behind those statistics.

Each year the Hazards Campaign tells the stories behind the statistics of those workers who have died because of work. And also  also provides an estimated number of workers who have died because of work – giving complete evidence-based estimates of work-related harm, including estimates of people who die by suicide.

This year, for the second year, Hazards Campaign has also included the estimated number of workers who have died because of Covid-19.  More than 60,000 workers are now estimated to have died last year because of work-related harm. https://gmhazards.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/The-Whole-story-2022.pdf

International Workers Memorial Information sheet – What are you doing for International Workers Memorial Day? The information sheet explains what Workers Memorial Day is all about and provides suggestions to raise the issue in your workplace, union or community.  Finally it provides links to more resources and information.   https://gmhazards.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/International-Workers-Memorial-Day-general-circular-2022.pdf

28 April / WMD, Blog, Graphics

Workers’ Memorial Day resources from the Hazards Campaign

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The Hazards Campaign has produced a wide selection of resources to help  you mark International Workers’ Memorial Day effectively and visually including ribbons, car stickers, posters, bags, fabric face masks and t-shirts.

Download the order form here

Below is the poster – other resources can be viewed in the order form.

 

28 April / WMD, Blog

UK: FACK Statement – International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2021

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Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) Statement

International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2021

  • It is fundamentally wrong that a wife should need to write heartbreakingly about her 6th year on the grief rollercoaster, missing her beautiful angel husband so much with every passing hour of her life.
  • It is fundamentally wrong that a mum should be marking the 18th year since her 17-year-old son was taken from her, the pain she feels, never healing, instead festering like an open wound.
  • It is fundamentally wrong that a daughter should wish her dad a happy 56th birthday, while lamenting that he will be forever 37.
  • And it is fundamentally wrong that a fiancée should go from choosing wedding cars to instead sitting in
    a funeral cortège.

We FACKers are therefore at a loss to understand why we are even having to seek to convince the International Labour Organisation that health and safety should be recognised as a fundamental right at work…!?

Because of course it should!

Read the full statement here

#iwmd21