Photo, film and interview opportunity

Wed 13 October
6pm – 9pm
Conference Room E
7 Millbank SW1P 3JA

Speakers:

John McDonnell MP
Avril Grant who has had two partners die from asbestos cancer
Liliana Alexa, Battersea Crane Disaster Action Group
Steve Hart, Unite London
Tony O’Brien, Construction Safety Campaigning

Campaign event to launch the book “Construction Safety Campaign: Over 20 years fighting for workers’ health and safety“ and to call for workers to organise against killer construction employers.

The Construction Safety Campaign, during 22 years of fighting for building workers’ health and safety, succeeded in improving the situation which existed in the 1980s under Thatcher. During 1987, 158 building workers were killed. The average fine for a death was often less than £1, 000, and there was no prospect of any building employer (no matter how culpable) facing a prison sentence.

The book is a time-line history of campaigning to help families of those killed on site to get justice from the courts and government. Alongside this work was campaigning for healthier work including for a ban on asbestos, better controls on hazardous chemicals including solvents in paints right up the most recent decision to call for a ban on the use of lead in construction. The book is well illustrated with photographs of protests, campaign banners, artwork, leaflets and other campaign materials.

Tony O’Brien, National Secretary of the Construction Safety Campaign, said: “New Labour embraced the creed that profits were more important than building workers’ lives. We now face a Coalition government which embraces far greater deregulation of health and safety than ever before. The Construction Safety Campaign says - no return to the Thatcher’s construction deaths of 1987!“

For further information contact:

Tony O’Brien, Secretary Construction Safety Campaign (CSC) – 077 477 95954

[email protected]

Construction Safety Campaign: Over 20 years fighting for workers’ health and safety - £10 + p&p available from CSC, PO Box 23844, London SE15 3EA.