You might not be aware of it but today is international Workers’ Memorial Day. It was established in the United States in 1970 to remember the hundreds of thousands of working people killed and injured while doing their work every year. The date, 28 April, was chosen to mark the Occupational Health and Safety Act which came into force on that day.
Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of people die from accidents at work or work-related ill health every year. Some of these incidents make the news, like the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013 which killed over 1,000 people, or the 1,200 construction deaths in Qatar as a result of stadium-building for the 2022 World Cup. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
We should not just see these deaths as something that are remote from us – many of the garments being sewn by exploited workers in Bangladesh ended up on sale in British retail outlets. The stadiums of Qatar are being built to cater for our demand and without proper agreements in place to protect the workers.
If you still do not think this is an issue for us, union research suggests that up to 50,000 workers lose their lives due to incidents at work or work-related illnesses here in the UK.
It may be easy for me to say, as someone who works for a trade union, but just imagine what our country would be like if we did not have trade unions to fight for better health and safety at work. And just imagine the impact of fewer or weaker representation of trade unions in our workplaces. It may seem obvious to you and me that workers and employers benefit from a collective voice making a reasoned argument to protect us from injury – but not everyone would agree with us.
In marking this day, we should remind people that so many of our protections have come from Europe-wide regulations that could come under attack in the event of Brexit. And also, let’s remind people of the value of being in a trade union. It is no coincidence that where unions are strong, workplaces are safer.
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Parmjit Dhanda works for a trade union, is a former Labour member of parliament, and is a candidate for Labour’s National Executive Committee. He tweets @ParmjitDhanda