UCATT calls day of action on site safety

Delegates at construction union UCATT's annual conference last month voted for a day of action on site safety. The union wants tougher penalties for negligent employers, including jail sentences, and greater powers for safety reps, to stop what it calls the "carnage in the industry". Every year, more than 70 construction workers are killed on UK building sites.

Two accidents on building sites have claimed the lives of six construction workers in the space of two months. In April, a derelict warehouse in Hull collapsed, killing three men working inside. And in May, another three workers were killed when the crane they were working in on the HSBC Bank site in the Docklands, east London, crashed to the ground.

Local union representatives from UCATT and the T&G general union in Hull joined together after the tragedy to call for unionised sites with a safety representative on every job and the legal right to stop the job when faced with danger.