Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1121/32031
From The Socialist newspaper, 17 February 2021
Covid workplace safety
'If you want to stay healthy - you've got to fight back!'
Workplace safety. Something this government knows little about nor cares about. That's why there have been over 3,500 reported Covid outbreaks in workplaces since the start of the pandemic, affecting tens of thousands of workers.
What's the use in having a lockdown if Covid infections are allowed to spread through workplaces unchecked? Workers are being forced either directly or indirectly to go into work or risk losing their livelihood.
At the same time, there's no pressure on bosses to ensure full PPE, social distancing, or any other Covid safety measures. Not a single employer has been prosecuted for Covid safety failings since the start of the pandemic. This is hardly surprising since the so-called workplace safety regulatory body, the HSE, has decided not to place Covid in its highest risk category - with government approval!
The Tories and bosses have long derided HSE inspectors as 'interfering busybodies' and decried workplace checks as 'health and safety gone mad'. And to ensure the HSE is a toothless watchdog, successive governments have slashed millions in funding from it. The Tories and bosses are interested only in ensuring profits for the few, at the expense of the many.
It's clear we can't depend on employers, the government or the HSE to secure our safety at work. We can only rely on our collective strength, through the trade unions, to defend our interests. Groups of workers have already demonstrated this point in action.
At the start of the year, after much campaigning by Socialist Party members and others, the National Education Union leadership bowed to rank-and-file pressure and told the government that an early return to mass schooling was a no-no. And much to the chagrin of the Daily Mail and the rest of the capitalist media, this pressure forced the Johnson government to back down.
If the Tories press for an unsafe early full reopening of schools, education workers will have to organise to take action again.
On 14 February, the National Shop Stewards Network of trade union activists convened a well-attended online meeting and heard reports from frontline workers about pressing Covid safety issues. Importantly, it discussed a clear strategy of fighting within the trade unions for action to defend the health, lives and livelihoods of workers.
The lesson about Covid safety at work is clear - if you want to stay healthy you've got to fight back!
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 17 February 2021:
News
Tory consultation on home-use abortion pills
Tory cladding money will not make us safe
Sham inquiry into 'progressive extremism' will not stop movements against capitalism
Cumbria mine: How can we fight for jobs and stop climate change?
Cryptocurrency bubble: Insanity of capitalism
NSSN meeting
Online workers' rally: Taking fight to the bosses
Scotland
SNP's independence referendum 2 'roadmap'
NHS
NHS white paper: no solution to failed Tory policies
Boot private companies out of our NHS
Workplace safety
Derby Toyota plant Covid crisis
Workplace News
Hackney teaching assistants strike against cruel and unnecessary job cuts
Manchester Go North West bus drivers in all-out strike over fire and rehire dispute
London bus drivers set to strike over pay and conditions
Socialist Students
Strike back for free education
Socialist Students conference - Sunday 28 February
Campaigns
Socialist Party Black and Asian caucus
Remembering Mohamud Hassan - continuing the fight against police brutality
How you can amplify the Socialist's voice - Help us build subscriptions to the Socialist
Swarming the London Mayor's question time
Southern new members meeting - a vivid illustration of the appetite for socialist ideas
Doing all we can to fund the anti-cuts stand at the ballot box
Readers' Opinion
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