Today (28th April) is International Workers Memorial Day, where we remember the workers killed, injured or made unwell by their work. This is the day where we mourn those who have died and pledge to fight for the living.
I was in Christchurch today at the memorial service, and there were others around the country, including on the West Coast, in another sad remembrance of the 29 miners killed at Pike River Mine last year.
In Christchurch, workers killed and injured were just going about their daily jobs and were the innocent victims of a cataclysmic event.
We can’t say that about Pike River. This was no unavoidable accident and we must know what caused it, how it could be prevented in the future and what a government’s responsibility for that should be. I will be in Blackball on Saturday for another commemoration – where I will have the chance to hear directly from those most affected.
Unfortunately, today Brash’s coup dominates the media, so you won’t read about these memorial events. You won’t hear about the workers who lost their lives last year in workplace accidents, including the Pike River MIners. You won’t hear about the 700 workers who die prematurely from work related illness or disease every year. You won’t hear about the 200,000 workers who suffer serious harm in the workplace each year.
If these were crime statistics, it would be leading the news and the Sensible Sentencing Trust would be calling for blood.
Despite decades of action by unions, workers and pro-worker governments which have resulted in significant improvements to safer working conditions, the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths in New Zealand workplaces remains too high. Many of these deaths and injuries are easily preventable, but the relentless pursuit of the bottom line costs workers in more than pay and conditions.
Tight economic conditions mean some businesses take shortcuts and workers bear the consequences. Most at risk are those who work on their own account, or as dependent contractors, where the struggle to make ends meet is tougher than it’s been in years. It’s no accident that the construction, fishing, forestry and agriculture industries have a much higher percentage of accidents in New Zealand workplaces.
New Zealand’s history of workplace health and safety also has a legacy we must face up to. The workplace injuries didn’t just happen in the last year. There are hundreds of thousands of workers who suffered injuries on the job in their former working lives. I meet them all the time – the old factory workers, the forestry workers, the labourers, who suffered harm at work as younger men or women, and now are bewildered to find that the support they were receiving from our world-class ACC system has been cut.
Try explaining to someone whose worked hard all of his life, who lost his hearing because of workplace conditions and lack of prevention, that he should no longer qualify for ACC funding to upgrade his fading hearing aid, because Nick Smith has decided his injury is due to “degenerative” conditions.
Today, on Workers Memorial Day, we remember those who have been lost or injured at work. We can only imagine what it is like to say goodbye to a loved one at the beginning of the working day and not have them return at the end. It shouldn’t happen.
It’s a day that we join with others to renew our determination to work together for safer workplaces.
That’s what I’ve been doing today.
Congratulations Darien. Not only do you work hard but you are not afraid to put your money where your mouth is. Such qualities are sadly lacking in our govt. counterparts. Do you know if any National Party politician attended any of these memorial services? We can forget ACT of course. They are too busy saving their own skins to worry about anyone else.
Yeah great job Darien!
Hi Anne!
Man, I wish they would stop mutilating our employment laws!
“We can’t say that about Pike River. This was no unavoidable accident”
Good to know that we don’t need any Royal Comnmissions or other inquiries because you know that it was “no unavoidable accident”.
Darien I agree the level of workp place issues is too high – 1 unnecessary injury or death is 1 too many.
However I wonder if the union / Labour movement is ever going to ask how their broader policy platform is contributing to the issue. In tight economic times the costs of compliance, pressure on things like minimum wage levels and the pushing back on the 90 day trial periods all impact on lower business confidence to employ and in some cases cause the loss of jobs or reduction safety procedures (by employers and employees worried about jobs).
This is not intended as a cheap shot but a hope for the beginning of rational, ideology free debate on an issue critical to the countries future. It must be time for pragmatic debate and a willingness to look at life from the other side for all involved surely?
great post darrien. thank you for this.
@Hurrican Col, if it looks like a fish, and smells like a fish, it probably is a fish.
The thing that disgusted me about the West Coast memorial was how the memorial unveiled had the EPMU logo prominent, in fact right at the top and larger than anything else. The appropriate place would have been at the bottom, if at all.
Remembrance should not be politicised.
@darrenw : “However I wonder if the union / Labour movement is ever going to ask how their broader policy platform is contributing to the issue.”
Yep, Darren, we talk about that the complexities for business all the time. But I don’t accept that reducing workers’ rights is contributing to worse health and safety. I do accept that tight economic times will lead to employers and contractors taking short cuts, but one analogy of your argument could be road safety. You could raise an economic argument there as well, and that compliance with road safety laws contribute to the road toll, because of economic pressure – therefore people are taking more risks and speeding more. I don’t think it would be acceptable to weaken the law – in fact this government has brought in even more road safety laws and the public by and large accept them because of the risks to other road users, their families and communities.
You raise for example, the 90 day trial period. Under the law as it now is, a worker could raise concern about a health and safety issue with their employer and be sacked if they were in a 90 day trial period. There is no redress. I have already had a couple of examples come to me of that and those workers have nowhere to go.
Watch out for my next post : you won’t like it, but welcome your input, as always.
Hi Anne, in response to your earlier question, regarding any National politicians attending any of these memorial events – I have been to several over the past few years, and have never seen one.
Any National MP attending would instantly go up in my estimation. So far, not a sighting. (anyone else out there seen one at a workers memorial?)
In Christchurch yesterday, Darien was joined by Ruth Dyson and Lianne Dalziel – Darien giving a genuine and well-received speech. So, three Labour MPs present.
Palmerston North also had a good, well-attended ceremony, with Labour MPs again obvious in their attendance (good coverage in the local paper).
Maybe if TV cameras were present at these events, we might see a few National politicians pretending to care. But no cameras, so we got only those MPs who actually do care.
What measures if any were being taken by the last Labour government to address the mining safety regime and what level of representation was there from mining workers or their unions about safety concerns in the mining industry.
There is obviously an opportunity to campaign on the issue of safety which seems to have been not of concern to present Natioanl government and this whole thing with the Commission sitting this week could do significant damage to the government,