Crane campaigners’ HSE demonstration

Construction workers and safety campaigners demonstrated outside the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) last month to highlight the continuing hazards involving cranes.

The protest – involving the Battersea Crane Disaster Action Group (BCDAG), the Construction Safety Campaign and reps from the UCATT and T&G unions – took place on 13 December, just two days after another crane collapse in Forest Hill, south-east London.

“We really do not understand how these incidents can keep on occurring,” said BCDAG secretary Liliana Alexa, whose son died in the Battersea collapse (see Workplace Report, October 2006). “We will be telling the government and the HSE how disgusted we are.”

In 2006/07, there were 77 deaths in the constuction idustry – the highest figure for five years. The first four months of 2007/08 have already seen 28 deaths.