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Global Unions will kick off a world campaign to ban the use of asbestos on 8 June in Geneva, where some 4,000 worker, employer and government representatives from around the world have gathered for the annual conference of the UN’s 178-member International Labour Organization (ILO).
Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), will announce at a special event organised by Global Unions, the beginning of a country-by-country process that trade unions hope will bring an end to the death and destruction caused by asbestos, which continues to kill over 100,000 people per year throughout the world and inflicts suffering among millions more.
Global Unions have formally delivered a letter to every government attending the ILO Conference, asking them to become involved in nationally banning asbestos or in supporting a world ban on the commercialization and use of the product.
“Asbestos is a threat to everyone, not just workers”, Ryder said, “from children in schools, to young and old in private and public buildings where asbestos is present and to whole communities where it exists as a pollutant".
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