Workers Solidarity Movement

The number of workplace related deaths in the north has increased by 50 per cent in the past year, according to latest official figures produced by the Health & Safety Executive’s annual report. To the end of March this nine people tragically lost their lives with six in agriculture, one in construction, one in general manufacturing and one due to carbon-monoxide poisoning. The increase in a casual and flexible labour force, the global erosion of workers rights and conditions are all the end product of a system which places profit before human need.

This Northern Ireland figure is tragically multiplied globally with the International Labour Organisation reporting this year that estimated 337 million workplace accidents and 2.3 million deaths occur every year across the globe as a result of occupational injuries and work-related diseases. 

These are shocking findings but is there any bit of surprise considering we the working class who produce the wealth in society and have (officially) little control over our lives and workplaces‘; we have no say over how our labour is produced, distributed and consumed.

In the short term, we need to organise in our workplaces’ for better conditions and wages where health and safety is paramount and not just cast aside to suit the profits of our bosses.

In the long term we need to build a type of society which will abolish the social and economic structure of capitalism that produces the social conditions which gives rise to workplace deaths and injuries. A future where we control our lives, communities and workplaces’. This is a future worth fighting for and not just another official statistic.