Category Archives: 28 April / WMD

Hazards Campaign reveals the tragic price of work hazards

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.

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

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 Herbertsonhusband 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 Murphyson Lewis Murphy 18, killed at work on 21st February 2004

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

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

Dorothy & Douglas Wrightson 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/

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

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.

The Whole Story – 28 April statistics briefing and information

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

Workers’ Memorial Day resources from the Hazards Campaign

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.

 

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

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

28 April: Remember the dead fight for the living – Hazards Campaign

Hazards Campaign news release 27 April 2020

Tuesday 28 April is International Workers Memorial Day #IWMD20

Remember the Dead Fight for the Living

Fighting for hearts and minds of all workers

Every year on 28 April all over the world trade unions, workers, families mark International Workers Memorial Day because work still hurts, makes ill and kills millions globally every year, and over 50,000 in this country, 140 a day before the pandemic arrived to make things worse. Bad jobs can break your heart, leaving us HEARTBROKEN. Whether the threat at work is another new virus, dangerous substances or heart-breaking demands, your life should not be on the line. Unions can make it better.

The Hazards Campaign brought Workers Memorial Day to the UK in 1990s with twin aims, to Remember the Dead but also to Fight for the Living and has marked it every year since then. This year as Coronavirus rages through the world it is more necessary than ever to honour both those aims so no more workers will die needlessly.

We will remember all those low paid, insecure and exploited workers who are now recognised as essential: NHS workers, social care workers, cleaners, bus drivers, delivery drivers, taxi uber and other transport workers, food chain workers, cleaners, supermarket and other shop workers, postal, education, civil servants, border and prison guards, social & call centre workers etc.

Unions and workers are organising, fighting back and winning sick pay, site closures, pay for all laid off workers and PPE.

There will be action all across the UK, online meetings and physically distanced outdoor meetings and demos in essential workplaces, and #CoronavirusWalkouts in the UK and across the world

Hazards Campaign supports the 11am one minutes silence

to Remember the Dead – those dying from Covid19 and all work hazards.   At home hold up a Heartbroken poster, stand by your door, gate or in the street. At work hold a safe physically distanced outdoor vigil.

In Fighting for the Living, we call for Government and employers to ‘Stop the pandemic at work’ by:

Closing all non-essential workplaces

Paying every worker living wage, liveable sick pay from day 1 to #StayHomeSaveNHSSaveLives

Providing correct PPE for all essential workers #PPENow #NoKitNoCare

No release from ‘lockdown’ or any return to work unless based on highest level of precaution, prevention and protection of all workers.

Testing, tracing and quarantining

The Covid pandemic has made clear that workers health is public health. Workers health is public health, if the workforce is not protected then the public cannot be protected in a pandemic. We need good workplace health and safety to prevent work-related Covid infections, deaths or transmission, and any other preventable work-related illnesses, injuries or deaths either.  See Hazards Campaign Full #IWMD20 Briefing  FACK Statement for #IWMD20

The Hazards Campaign has worked with Greater Manchester Hazards Centre and Families Against Corporate Killers to produce three  new #IWMD20 films: Lean on Me – Families against corporate killers supporting families of those killed at work, and.

Hazards Campaigner talking about IWMD means to them. Fallen tears https://youtu.be/HdXlCUM9IBI

Manchester IWMD20 Zoom Meeting 12 noon https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10222588758448393&set=gm.3224181100960432&type=3&theater&ifg=1

For more information contact Janet Newsham 077343 17158  or Hilda Palmer 0161 792 1044  079298 0024,

Notes:

Hazard Campaign Call to Action, Posters, Social media graphics and full Briefing: http://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/

The Whole Story – real figures on total deaths at work  http://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/thewholestory.pdf

TUC RISKs newsletter summary of Trade Union Action on IWMD 28 April
https://www..tuc.org.uk/news/risks-944-22-april-2020

Hazards Magazine Issue 149 Exposed  http://www.hazards.org/index.htm

FACK Statement for #IWMD20 http://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/blog/28-april-fack-statement-if-you-do-not-protect-the-workforce-in-a-pandemic-you-do-not-protect-the-public

Hazards Campaign Windrush Millennium Centre 70 Alexandra Road Manchester M16 7WD

content/uploads/2018/08/thewholestory.pdf

TUC RISKs newsletter summary of Trade Union Action on IWMD 28 April
https://www..tuc.org.uk/news/risks-944-22-april-2020

Hazards Magazine Issue 149 Exposed  http://www.hazards.org/index.htm

FACK Statement for #IWMD20 http://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/blog/28-april-fack-statement-if-you-do-not-protect-the-workforce-in-a-pandemic-you-do-not-protect-the-public

Hazards Campaign Windrush Millennium Centre 70 Alexandra Road Manchester M16 7WD

28 April: FACK statement – If you do not protect the workforce in a pandemic, you do not protect the public.

Statement: Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK)

International Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April 2020

In the weeks leading up to this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day, our FACK hearts have collectively felt the heaviest they have for quite some time, many of us having already lived for a decade or more with the heartbreak currently being inflicted on those losing loved ones to COVID-19.

Like them, we didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. Like them, we know that the deaths of our loved ones could and should have been prevented. Like us, they know there will be no justice for their grandparents, mums, dads, siblings, or children. And we all know that we will never know The Whole Story.

And so, as we sought the words to give voice to our thoughts today, we worried that it was just too big an ask…until it struck us: we have said all that needs to be said before!

While our words have previously been said in challenge to work-related incidents and illnesses, there are chilling parallels to the pandemic crisis which engulfs us.

We FACKers remember ALL of the dead, having repeatedly implored that each and every work-related fatality should be recognised, counted and be made to count! And the very same is true of COVID-19 deaths.

The HSE figure of 147 fatalities last year doesn’t include those who die in maritime or air incidents, who die on our roads while working, or those who die by work-related suicide.  It doesn’t count members of the public who die as a result of work-related activities, nor the huge numbers killed by occupational illness.  When all those lost loved ones are counted – as they should be – we reach nearer 1500 who die in work-related incidents, and a further 50,000 who die each and every year as a result of work-related illness! But unless this true toll is set out in plain sight, depth of impact cannot be measured, lessons cannot be learned, and future needless loss of life cannot be prevented.

So it is for COVID-19 fatalities. As Professor Andy Watterson has stated: “If you do not protect the workforce in a pandemic, you do not protect the public.” And so, to stop the pandemic at work, we need to understand where ALL of the deaths are occurring. Government advisers said at the outset that if deaths in the UK could be kept to under 20,000, that would be a “good” result. Utterly disgusting then. And even more disgusting now as The Whole Story we estimate to be approaching twice that number!

We FACKers have been clear that the work a person does often results from inequality, and that it often results in health inequality. The lower your pay grade, the higher your health and safety risks, whether from overwork, exposure to cancer-causing substances, the inability to turn down overtime and shift work, or the worry about speaking up on health and safety for fear you lose your job.

So it is for COVID-19 fatalities.  The lower your pay grade, the more likely you are to be exposed and the less likely you are to be able to remove yourself from harm without losing your income or your job. Nurses, porters, care workers, bus drivers, retail assistants, delivery drivers…keyworkers who all deserve so much better from the government and enforcement authorities, just as our FACK lost loved ones did.

But we FACKers remain resolute, principally because the precious memories of those loved ones fuels us in our fight for the living.

And so it is for those bravely speaking out about the threat from COVID-19 in their time of overwhelming grief. Who could fail to be moved by 16 year old Bethany Pearson, who laid bare the pain felt on going to bed knowing her beloved dad was feeling 5 out of 10, only to wake in the morning to find he was gone?  She said the saving grace for her family is that it still feels unreal. And we know only too well that that lack of reality is lasting.

Because, we FACKers, our hearts break all over again at repeatedly hearing that a work-related fatality was an “accident waiting to happen”.

And on COVID-19, so many preventable deaths are occurring. So we weep for Dr Abdul Mabud Chowdhury’s family. He is the consultant urologist who wrote a post on Facebook, directed at Boris Johnson, warning that healthcare workers urgently needed more PPE. He said they had a human right like others to live in this world disease-free with their families and children. He lost his life 5 days later. His son Intisar says: “my father would not be afraid to point out what was wrong. Because he cared, about people, co-workers, colleagues, family, people he’s never even met.”

We FACKers know just who it is that does care: those who operate our Hazards Centres and the Hazards Campaign; those trade union safety reps who fight with every ounce of their being for hearts and minds, and to prevent loss of life. We know that trade union workplaces are safer workplaces, whether that be day-to-day, or when battling a pandemic.

We FACKers said that “life and limb will be lost…life and limb are being lost…as a result of the continued denigration of health and safety by politicians and also vast swathes of the media.” To hear those who have so denigrated  and demolished health and safety protections over the past couple of decades implore us all to “stay safe”…well, it sticks in the craw.

Because…we FACKers have said all that needs to be said before!!

So, until such time as people, not profits, are paramount; until lives are prioritised over livelihoods; until abject carelessness is replaced by exemplary care, we FACKers will continue to fight for your right not to walk in our shoes.

Remember ALL of the dead. And please, 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, see www.fack.org.uk .

Founder Members of FACK:

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

Linzi Herbertsonhusband 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 Murphyson Lewis Murphy 18, killed at work on 21st February 2004

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

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

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

For more information and to support FACK
Hilda Palmer, Facilitator for FACK
c/o Hazards Campaign,
Windrush Millennium Centre,
70 Alexandra Road,
Manchester, M16 7WD.
Tel 0161 636 7557

mail@gmhazards.org.uk  www.fack.org.uk

28 April: Hazards Campaign call to action

Workers’ Memorial Day 2020

Normal public events for April 28th won’t be possible because of measures to contain Coronavirus/Covid-19. But marking International Workers’ Memorial Day has never been more important for workers’ lives and health and those of our families and communities.

Some workplace events may still go ahead but we are taking #IWMD20 online, developing a social media campaign that we want everyone to join in. This will keep the day and its perennial aims on the public and political agenda with the twin slogans to ‘Remember the Dead and Fight for the Living’. This year’s international theme has been changed by ITUC to ‘Stop the Pandemic at work’.

The Hazards Campaign is going ahead with: ‘Unions fighting for hearts and minds’ incorporating the fight against Coronavirus.

Hazards Campaign – Final briefing and call to action document

  1. WINDOW DISPLAYS Put up a Heartbroken poster – order or print one off- make a window display! See below.
  2. POST SELFIES Post a selfie with Heartbroken poster, or your window poster display, add a message, post on social media #IWMD20 or send to us
  3. ORGANISE A MEETING Organise a meeting – on-line or in the workplace if it can be done safely.
  4. USE OUR FIGURES NOT HSE’S Use ‘The Whole Story’ on death caused by work not HSE partial statistics [Updated April 2020]
  5. MAPPING ACTION Mapping #IWMD20: tell us what you are doing and about workers memorials near you and we will map them.
  6. CAMPAIGN ON SOCIAL MEDIA Create a huge wave of #IWMD20 tweets and posts on social media – download sample graphics here
  7. HAZARDS FILM Watch and send out the Hazards Campaign Film for #IWMD20 ‘Fighting for Hearts and Minds – forthcoming.
  8. LIGHT A CANDLE Light a candle in the window on 28th at 9pm to remember all workers killed by #COVID and other work hazards – but be safe.
  9. MEMORIALS ONLINE Online memorials—post photos and details of those killed at and by work to us or direct to Twitter and Facebook.
  10. GLOBAL SOLIDARITY Use the #IWMD20 for national and international solidarity with our union colleagues all across the world. And check out the ITUC/Hazards magazine global hub for international activities.

Resources to print out for your window display 

Hazards Campaign 28 April 2020 resources order form

The Hazards Campaign has released an International Workers’ Memorial Day resources order form which includes, stickers ribbons and posters. You can download the form here.