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Thursday, July 04, 2013

Food for thought

The collapse of the garment factory in Bangladesh put the spotlight fully on the garment industry and rightly so after so many similar tragedies there. However, this type of profit seeking with such blatant disregard for workers' lives has been going on for centuries and continues to this day. In 1991 in Hamlet, North Carolina, twenty-five people died in a fire at a poultry plant because of locked doors. Examples abound! Read on...
On April 28, The Brampton-Mississauga and District Labour council unveiled a monument honouring workers killed or injured in the workplace. According to Ontario' Workplace, Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), in 2012, 389 fatalities occurred. This included eighty Ontarians killed at work, 273 died from occupational diseases and thirty-six from work-related disabilities after years of suffering. Total injuries reported to WSIB for 2012 was 283, 323. Furthermore,
since 2000 11,000Canadians have died because their employers failed to keep their workplace safe. One SPC member went to see this impressive monument, but what would be more impressive would be a museum monument to the passing of capitalism and an end to lack of health and safety concerns! John Ayers.

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