MELBOURNE — The Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry hosted a conference on construction industry safety on September 19 and 20. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Electrical Trades Union and other construction unions boycotted the conference, arguing that it was nothing more than a “tea-party between the commission and the bosses”.

Defending the boycott, Victorian CFMEU state secretary Martin Kingham said, “The royal commission sets out to… deny workers the right to say: `No, I won't work in an unsafe workplace.'”

Construction workers held a rally outside the “tea-party” followed by their own conference on workplace safety. Fittingly, the meeting was held in the Regent Theatre Ballroom, which was saved from demolition by construction union green bans.

At the rally, after a minute's silence, the names of the 70 workers killed on Victorian sites since 1994 were read out.

Just the day before the conference, Des, a Western Australian building site worker, was killed when an improperly bolted concrete panel gave way and crushed him. An emotional Kim Young from the WA CFMEU said: “We're gonna fix this. Even if we have to close the whole state down, there won't be another pre-cast concrete death.” He noted that, “[Commissioner Terence] Cole won't be going over to WA [to investigate the death]”. Accidents involving large slabs of pre-cast concrete were one of the major workplace hazards highlighted at the workers' conference.

Merilee Cox, from Headway Victoria, described the effects of workplace head injuries. “Minor [head] injuries can have a major impact on people's lives”, she said. “The frustrating thing is, most acquired brain injuries can be avoided.” Unfortunately, many non-unionised building sites do not even possess hard hats.

Wendy Railton, widow of a fatally injured worker, praised the support given to her by Incolink, an organisation supported by unions that provides counselling and material support to building workers and their families.

Doctors Helen Sutcliffe, from the Occupational Health Centre, and Tony LaMontagne, from the Monash Medical Centre, highlighted the dangers of air-borne hazards in the workplace. Workplace hazards account for 10% of cancers, mostly from asbestos, and 15% of heart attacks, caused mainly by workplace stress. A Finnish study revealed that almost one third of lung cancer deaths in men were caused by asbestos.

From Green Left Weekly, September 25, 2002.
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