There have been several recent protests about the number of workers who have died or been injured while working on tower cranes.
The UK is one of the worst countries for tower crane accidents with 60 crane accidents, nine deaths and 25 serious injuries to date.
The Battersea crane disaster in September 2006, when a tower crane collapsed, led to the death of two people.
The inquest revealed that the wrong manual was being used to erect the crane!
The Canary Wharf disaster in 2000 cost three lives.
The crane register was introduced to ensure that these cranes had regular MOTs but the Con-Dem government is carrying out the wishes of big building companies by tearing up health and safety guidelines, including stopping the crane MOTs.
These only cost the building industry £61,000 a year.
The government has declared that ‘unnecessary’ workplace safety regulations are a barrier to economic growth.
Trade unionists need to keep up the pressure to ensure that health and safety is not rolled back while fighting for a new workers’ party which will campaign against deaths in the workplace.
Author; Jane James
Source:
