European
health and
safety
campaign
EACH year, 8,000 workers in the European Community (EC) countries die because of workrelated injuries. Around 10 million suffer from workrelated illnesses. This is according to official statistics - experience indicates the real figure is much higher and no country reports all cases. ANNE RICHTER
N this situation the launching of a European network for improved working conditions, supported by worker activists, unions and professionals, is to be welcomed. The network was initiated by 250 European work environment activists in Copenhagen in 1990. In September 1992 the Network organized a conference in Sheffield, Britain in which 400 safety representatives, union activists and environmental advisers took part from 11 EC and non-EC countries, plus a few representatives from the USA, Japan and
The conference focussed on the extremely bad working conditions facing immigrant and ethnic minorities. Besides the fact that this is the group that has been hit hardest by unemployment, they also have the hardest and
Surveys in a number of European countries show that bad health related to work is more than ten times as common among immigrant and ethnic minorities. The same is true of the USA and Japan.
Speakers at the conference also documented how, for the instance, the British government is avoiding and postponing the implementation of EC directives. The Danes informed their colleagues that gains in that country concerning organic solvents are under attack from the EC. Experiences were shared about how the introduction of new technology, increasing shiftwork, flexible worktime, seven-day shifts and increased contracting out are making union activity more
The conference supported a Danish initiative for an all-European campaign to substitute organic solvents. It is recognized that these substances are harmful to the brain, but this danger is not recognized either by the EC or the national governments.
Several sub-networks were set up, for instance on organic solvents and on work with computer screens. The next conference on the working environment is set for 1994, to take place either in the Netherlands or Italy.
At the previous conference in Copenhagen, a draft Charter on Health and Safety was submitted for discussion The Sheffield conference adopted a detailed charter.
Challenging the transnationals
The preamble to the charter explains that:
"Transnational and national companies have achieved their aim for a borderless Europe for the movement of capital. We believe that employers and their organizations will campaign for increased productivity, unrestricted access to contract labour and will marginalize the impact of safety and health legislation to improve competitiveness in the market places of Europe".
The charter put forward a series of demands aimed at strengthening the ability of workers to challenge this trend through legislation placing responsibility for all aspects of health and safety on employers, and the right of workers to organize and obtain adequate informa-
Point 18 of the charter underlines "the recognition that black, ethnic minority and migrant workers are frequently exposed to a greater extent than indigenous white workers, and that consequently, trade unions, government agencies, employers and other official bodies take whatever remedial action is necessary, including the translation of information into the appropriate languages".
Point 19, meanwhile, demands that "homeworkers in Europe have specific legal protection from hazards at work, that employers and suppliers of work be responsible for equipment and materials and any activities using substances harmful to the health of such workers and their families are banned".
For more information on the European Network for a Better Work Environment, or to make contact with participants in a specific country, write to:
Aktionsgruppen Arbejdere Akademikere, International Gruppe, Valby Langgade 55, Denmark. *
THIS year's presidential campaign has been a typical exercise in US-style bourgeois politics. The parameters of the public debate were set as usual by the needs of the bourgeoisie and consequently, the interests of the working class and its allies were not directly part of the public debate in a country where no mass party based on the labor movement yet exists. Nevertheless, many of the growing contradictions of US society as well as changes in the political landscape did find a distorted reflection in the
Appeal of "outsiders"