28 April, 2010Global Unions commemorate Workers' Memorial Day with delegation visit to the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations calling on Canada to halt promotion of asbestos exports to the developing world.
GENEVA: Global unions united to send the government of Canada a strong message that Canada cannot continue to lend support to the asbestos industry lobby on April 28, 2010.
The delegation of global union representatives met with Joanne Hamilton, Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations and reminded the government of Canada that current UN policy is to ban asbestos, including chrysotile asbestos. The delegation included representatives from the Council of Global Unions (CGU), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and the sectoral global unions most affected, the Building Workers' International (BWI), International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) and International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union (ICEM).
The backdrop to this delegation visit is the role played by Canada: as advanced industrialized nations forge forward with a ban on asbestos, the asbestos industry lobby-lent the scientific, political and organizational leadership of the industry in Canada with support by the Canadian government and missions abroad-has tried to counteract efforts to educate about the dangers and ban asbestos by expanding exports of this known killer to the developing world.
Citing figures that 93 per cent of the chrysotile asbestos imported by the Philippines is from Canada, BWI General Secretary Ambet Yuson raised the concern that it is the very countries least equipped to handle an epidemic of asbestos-related diseases are the very ones targeted by the industry.
IMF Assistant General Secretary Hiroshi Kamada emphasized that owing to the long latency period of asbestos-related disease, even if we banned it today we will still see people dying in the future and contrasted this with the poignant case of shipbreaking workers in India and Bangladesh, who are often "young boys with less access to education and who should have a future".
ICEM Health, Safety and Sustainability Officer Brian Kohler, who saw colleagues die of asbestos related diseases when he worked as a health and safety officer of the CEP in Canada, also told the Permanent Mission that 60 per cent of occupational deaths in Quebec is related to asbestos and of the cost to Canada in stature in the world should Canada continue to support the asbestos big business lobby.
Meanwhile in India a one day mass hunger strike was jointly organized by the IMF and BWI at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. Hundreds of workers belonging to the All Escorts Employees' Union and Building Workers Unions assembled to make their protest in support of a ban on the use of asbestos, stating that it is not safe in any form or colour.
A delegation of IMF and BWI representatives also delivered a memorandum to Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India demanding an immediate ban on all asbestos imports, noting that industrialized countries such as Canada have stopped using asbestos but continue to dump it on countries like India.
In Australia the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) joined the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia in a visit to the Canadian embassy on April 28 also demanding an end to the production and distribution of asbestos.
"While Canada can proudly claim to be at the forefront in many areas of social and economic responsibility, it is certainly a very dark stain on the country's reputation that the Canadian asbestos industry, supported by their Government, has been aggressively targeting the world's most vulnerable people for its poisonous products," said AMWU National President Paul Bastian.
http://www.amwu.org.au/read-article/news-detail/471/Rally-calls-for-end-to-Canadian-asbestos-trade/