Workers' Liberty

Q: There is a poster in Euston station, saying, 'this passage has been closed due to the safe removal of asbestos'. When enquiring, we were assured there was nothing to worry about. But can we trust them?

A: There are two types of work which deal with asbestos: complete removal, where the material is removed from the structure and disposed of; and encapsulation, where the asbestos is treated and completely sealed.

Victoria station needs asbestos removal, and management's plan is that the ticket office should be relocated to a Portakabin outside the mainline station upstairs for the duration of the works.

By Jill Mountford

Environmental issues also affect us in the workplace and one of the things that illustrates this most clearly is the question of asbestos.

At Victoria - London Underground's busiest station - Supervisors have been cut to the bone. Control room assistants are currently unlicensed and undergoing training.

Asbestos needs removing from the track area at Bounds Green. Fair enough, you'd think, safety systems exist to ensure that staff are protected from the lethal fibres. At the very least, staff would be told about it. Or maybe not, since it seems that local management decided that there was no need to consult stations safety reps. Or to tell the staff. Hey, don't mind us - we only work here.

This is no joke. This stuff kills, and if management ignore the basics, we could all be at risk.

In 2003 there were 235 deaths and nearly 160,000 non-fatal injuries from accidents in UK workplaces. Deaths from asbestos are likely to reach 150,000 over the next 30 years.

Started off 'British', now carries international articles too. Quarterly journal distributed to victim support groups, researchers, lawyers etc

Homepage for Rob Dawber, AWL member, RMT activist and writer of the film 'The Navigators' , who died in February 2001 from mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos while working on the railways.

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