AMIEU Supports Health & Safety Reps

04 December, 2011

Changes to the Labor Party’s national platform will see Australia leading the way in the global campaign to eradicate asbestos, and strengthening its actions to force the Fijian military regime to respect human and labour rights, say unions.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT - Reporter: Matt Peacock

There’s no doubt asbestos is a dirty, deadly word. In Australia the scandals of Wittenoom and the long-running James Hardie saga have ensured a widespread awareness that asbestos kills often slowly and painfully. In a career uncovering the health hazards of asbestos, reporter Matt Peacock might have thought he’d seen it all. Then he went to India. In a global investigation, the ABC exposed a shocking trade and follow the dusty trail from the sub-continent back to another nation readily exporting the stuff it considers too dangerous for locals. Canada. See the toxic trade here. Then sign the Petition to the Indian Government seeking a National Asbestos Ban.

On 10 July 2011 Background Briefing on ABC Radio National covered the topic of Bullying at Work. The ABC said: "It's tricky territory. No one agrees on one definition, and what is bullying to one person is normal behaviour to another. But who investigates bullying, and is that process working? First-hand accounts from people who believe the system let them down. Reporter: Hagar Cohen"

Brodie Panlock

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Safe Work Australia put draft model regulations out for public comment in December. Comments had to be made by 4 April 2011. See what the AMIEU said.

Over a century ago, Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle exposed the dehumanizing labor conditions and unsanitary environment of the meatpacking industry. These hazards involved in slaughtering and processing meat and poultry for our food supply are well known and predictable.  Solutions that prevent these harms are feasible.