Asbestos action pays off

The CWU communication workers’ union has negotiated an agreement with telecom giant BT, following complaints that the company was not informing or consulting safety reps about asbestos removal or contamination incidents.

BT’s asbestos policy already states that safety reps should be consulted, and the company has now accepted a CWU proposal that the union’s relevant point of contact for asbestos issues is the branch health and safety co-ordinator. This will allow the CWU to monitor asbestos more effectively.

Meanwhile, a successful day of action on 27 February highlighted the risks from the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma.

Protests and conferences organised by the Clydebank Asbestos Group, the Greater Manchester Asbestos Victims Support Group and the Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group each attracted hundreds of attendees.

Officially there were 1,874 deaths from mesothelioma in 2003, but the annual death toll is estimated to rise to 2,450 within the next decade.

Bob Blackman, the T&G general union’s national secretary for construction, said days of action were necessary to“raise awareness in every workplace of the need to treat asbestos as a killer”.

He added: “The dangers are still with us today – many people will not realise that Artex, widely used in home decoration, contains asbestos. That’s why the T&G has been so vocal in pushing the Health and Safety Executive not to relax regulations on disposal.”

More than 13,000 people have already signed the British Lung Foundation’s Mesothelioma Charter, calling for better treatment and care (see last month’s Workplace Report).