anada’s Landmark Asbestos Decision is Hollow Without Justice to Canadian Workers and Asbestos Health Victims

[ALU Associated Labor Unions-TUCP]

ALU Statement                                                                         Contact: Alan Tanjusay +63 906 410 2134         
Released on: 25 September 2012                                                                Email: atan...@yahoo.com                                                                                          

                                    

Canada’s Landmark Asbestos Decision is Hollow Without Justice to Canadian Workers and Asbestos Health Victims

 

The following is a statement issued today by ALU National Executive Vice President Gerard R. Seno in relation to newly elected Canadian government decision to rescind government loan to Jeffrey asbestos mine and from backing down from its hard line position in forbidding the listing of chrysotile as a hazardous material in the trade watch list amid mounting pressure from local and international activists:

 

The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) today congratulates the selfless, passionate, and persevering efforts exerted by many civil society groups and individuals, non-government organizations, trade unionists and cause-oriented groups led by human rights activist Ms. Kathleen Ruff in creating the critical pressure required in causing Canadian government to cancel its loan intended to revive the asbestos mine in Quebec and to force Ottawa to relinquish its unpopular opposition to  the listing of chrysotile in the trade watch list in the forthcoming Convention of Parties next year.

 

            The extraordinary solidarity and wise activism exemplified by Ms. Ruff and other various groups and individuals throughout the campaign is a template the ALU-TUCP is proud to share within ALU family, with the Filipino workers and other unions in the Philippines who are currently encumbered by similar advocacy campaign challenge.

 

            This measure of team victory for social and environmental justice to which ALU is grateful to take part of is phenomenal. However, as an inflection point for the campaign, our quest for justice is incomplete without taking the Jeffrey Mine workers’ into a just transition.

 

As we turn to the next page of the campaign, we urge our fellow campaigners to elevate and strengthen our thrust towards the upliftment of the plight of hundreds of Canadian asbestos workers and their families. While they are about to be disenfranchised as a consequence of an eventual closure of the mine, we should not forget that most of them are potential victims of primary exposure to asbestos fibers.

 

We also have in our thoughts on other victims— the families who are living within the mining community specifically those whose health may have been likewise compromised due to the indirect exposure through ambient air that have carried the deadly fibers during the active operation of the mine.

 

There is this inconvenient necessity, therefore, for us stakeholders to bolster our rank and press on with the campaign.

 

It is on this breath that we also extend a particular call to the Canadian government to bring its environmental, social, economic, and political decision into a responsible conclusion by attending to the perceived needs of asbestos health victims and by providing concrete economic support to aid workers and mining communities shift to safer jobs and alternative economic livelihood.

 

There is also an urgent need for Canadian government to concretely prove its political will and show cause for the genuineness of their landmark decision by imposing, as soon as possible, an unconditional permanent ban on mining and export of asbestos. This is unquestionably the right thing to do not just for the sake of Canadian people but as a responsible member of a community of nations. Canadian workers doesn’t deserve any response lesser or otherwise. ###

[Gerard Seno]

thanks

Sent from my iPad

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