People search for survivors after the Rana Plaza building disaster in Bangladesh. Photo: Qamrul Anam Coordinator, Industriall IBC

Rosa blogged last week about how the Dhaka textile factory collapse demonstrated the need for strong, independent unions in Bangladesh. Since then, there have been thousands of words printed and broadcast about the disaster and what caused it. A lot of the comments have been more or less anguished concerns that there is nothing we can do about the situation – or, indeed, attempts to blame heartless western bargain-hunters for the 382 deaths – so far – in Dhaka.

In fact, there’s a lot that we can do about what’s happened in Dhaka, even though the real action will be taken – is being taken, despite police brutality - by workers in Bangladesh, just as it was the action of workers in Britain and the USA that led to higher living standards and safer workplaces in our own countries.

You could protest about the companies in Britain and the USA who ultimately dictate the working conditions throughout their global supply chains and profit from them. You can back the call by unions in Bangladesh – textile unions that are part of the Global Union Federation IndustriALL - for stronger labour laws and freedom for trade unions. And, longer term, you can play your part in building union power around the world, persuading fellow workers and thus securing support from the politicians who seek their votes for Decent Work to become the norm rather than a dream.

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Posted on April 30th, 2013 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity

It is often said that the British care more about their dogs than their fellow humans and here are some statistics that seem to bear that out.

The RSPCA have just published their prosecutions statistics. Last year they secured 4,168 convictions against 1,552 people, with a conviction rate of 98%. This is a great achievement from a body that employs less than 1,700 people, and good luck to them.

Let’s compare this with the statistics for people who kill and injure workers. Across Great Britain, 680 cases were prosecuted for health and safety breaches in 2011/12. These cases led to 630 convictions, with a conviction rate of 93%. This is for cases brought by both the HSE and by Local Authorities. The HSE, which managed to secure 506 of these convictions, employs around twice the number of staff as the RSPCA.

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Posted on April 30th, 2013 by Hugh Robertson filed under: Rights at work

The European premiere of a new film about Detroit firefighters is being sponsored by the UK Fire Brigades Union. BURN captures a year in the lives of Detroit firefighters who are charged with the thankless task of saving a city that many have written off as dead.

Since 1950’s a vanishing industry has cut Detroit’s population in half from 1.8 million, leaving behind 80,000 abandoned structures, or kindling, as the firefighters call it. The result is a dying city with one of the highest arson rates in the world. BURN is about the men and women who risk their lives to battle those fires.  Their equipment isn’t up to the job, and their pay is disgracefully low – a starting salary of $30,000 and they haven’t seen a raise in 10 years.

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Posted on April 30th, 2013 by Anna Burton filed under: Union news

It’s an exciting time for the Young Workers Forum. The Forum met last week, for the first time under its new name, and chose the issues that it will address in its three priority campaigns for 2013/14: pay and employment, housing and promoting unions.

Our campaign focus on Pay and Employment will see the Young Workers Forum play its part in the national TUC campaign to spread the Living Wage and expose pay exploitation of young workers.  We’ll also be stepping up the youth unemployment campaign and in particular increasing support for the Charter for a Future That Works.

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Posted on April 30th, 2013 by Fern McCaffrey filed under: Unions in the community

Sunday is International Workers Memorial Day and people will be commemorating the dead in well over 100 events which are taking place up and down the country. In addition there will a minutes silence in many of the workplaces that are operating that day.

Events such as the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh earlier this week show that there is still a desperate need for such a day. First indications are that the factory was in blatant breach of safety laws, just as previous factory disasters have been caused by employers ignoring fire regulations.

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Posted on April 26th, 2013 by Hugh Robertson filed under: Health and Safety

Yesterday the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill received Royal Assent. This bill (now an Act) contains a number of off-the-wall proposals but one of the worst is the change to the ability of workers to claim compensation if they are injured.

At the moment you can claim compensation if you are injured because the employer has broken the law. Basically if you are injured because an employer has not guarded a machine that the law says should be guarded, you are entitled to compensation. Well not any more. Now you have to show negligence. It is a bit like if a burglar enters your home to burgle you, and when they are nicking your TV they knock over a valuable vase and the insurer demands that you prove that the burglar was negligent in knocking over the vase.

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Posted on April 26th, 2013 by Hugh Robertson filed under: Health and Safety

Collapsed building in Rana Plaza, Bangladesh. Photo: IndustriALL

‘Forty found alive after Dhaka building collapse’.

You know a situation is dire when the number that managed to survive makes the news. This is one of the latest headlines about the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh yesterday which has killed over 230 people, according to the latest estimates. Many of those killed were workers. The building contained six garment factories which, reports suggest, were supplying some of the largest Western retailers such as Primark.

These events prove the importance of trade unions to safeguard health and safety standards in the global supply chain, as I blogged yesterday morning.

IndustriALL, the global union federation, has reported that the day before it collapsed, cracks could be seen in the building – which had been built illegally. However, workers were so worried that they would have their pay docked for failing to turn up, that they continued to work in the factories on the 24^th April until the building pillars gave way, crushing hundreds under the rubble.

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Posted on April 25th, 2013 by Rosa Crawford filed under: Global solidarity