HEALTH AND SAFETY IS A CLASS ISSUE

12 RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2011 :: RMTnews This year’s RMT health and safety conference assembled in Doncaster against a background of attacks on regulation and enforcement driven by a right- wing campaign to denigrate the concept of a safe working environment. Nearly 200 RMT delegates and visitors from across the country, and from all grades and services, attended this highly- successful annual event and the fighting spirit was there right from the off in the opening comments from conference chair Greg Hewitt. Greg called the conference to order with a minutes silence to mark the anniversary of the Tebay disaster in February 2004 where four rail workers lost their lives before launching a full on attack on the ConDems systematic attempt to undermine workplace safety inspections and enforcement: “We have a battle on our hands. Laws that are there to stop workers from being killed are called “red tape” by a Government following an agenda driven by the Institute of Directors and the rest of the business organisations. “The proposed cuts to the Health and Safety Executive will mean a massive fall in inspections, enforcement and prosecutions and it’s the derogatory comments from the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, designed to mislead, that are setting the pace.” Greg was followed by RMT president Alex Gordon who picked up the theme - homing in on Tory grandee Lord Young who had been hand-picked by the Government to lead the assault on workplace safety: “Lord Young is an old-school, privatisation-obsessed Thatcherite with roots right back into the darkest days of her administration and the fact that he has was dredged up to front the assault on workers safety rights should come as no surprise. Lord Young’s consultation document “Common Sense - Common Safety” was branded as a charter for corporate killing before Alex turned his fire on the British Safety Industry Federation - outriders for the Lord Young attack: “The British Health and Safety Industry Federation - a bosses club for the safety industry - is supporting the proposal to cut RIDDOR reporting, the recording of incidents that lead to a member of staff being logged off work, from three days to seven days in the name of cutting red tape. “That proposal - which would totally compromise the monitoring of workplace health and safety - has nothing to do with a “common sense approach” and everything to do with the Daily Mail and their parody of “’elf and safety” as some kind of joke rather than a life saver.” Alex went on to talk about the importance of the Trade Union Co-Ordinating Group’s week of action on health and safety, which RMT is playing a major role in and the need to put the fight back on this issue right at the heart of the campaign against the ConDem cuts agenda. After hearing from former Metronet Director Ian Prosser, now a Chief Inspector at the HMRI, and Hugh Robertson from the TUC, conference was addressed by Hilda Palmer from the Greater Manchester Hazards Centre. Pulling no punches, Hilda opened up by explaining why the business sector are serial killers and why health and safety is a class issue: “The attack on workplace safety is just another front in this government’s class war against working people. “They attack on us from cradle to grave and all in the name of deficit reduction. HEALTH AND SAFETY IS A CLASS ISSUE RMT’s annual Health and safety conference discussed big business attacks on hard-won health and safety laws