SBS World News Radio: International unions
are calling for increased protection for what many are calling the world's most
dangerous profession - ship recycling.
Hundreds of workers spend months breaking up
the world's oil and gas tankers and cargo ships on the beaches of India,
Bangladesh and Pakistan. Many work bare handed, in hazardous conditions, with
little to no protective equipment.
International unions say it's time the world
stepped up and protected the workers.
Earlier this month several explosions tore
through a ship being recycled in the Gadani shipyard west of Karachi in
Pakistan.
Recent reports showed at least 26 people dead
and several more missing, with yet scores more injured in the blasts. The exact
cause of the blaze is still being determined.
IndustriALL is the global union body for 50
million workers across 400 unions and 140 different countries. It is lobbying
major world governments, including Australia, to ratify a convention it says
will save lives and protect those workers.
The United Nations' International Maritime
Organisation drafted the convention on ship recycling in Hong Kong in 2009.
Known as the Hong Kong Convention, 15 countries must sign it before it can be
implemented.
The director of IndustriALL's Ship Building And
Ship Breaking Sector, Kan Matsuzaki, says it lays out safety guidelines, hazard
awareness and how to protect the environment during the ship's dismantling.
"Every day, the ship-breaking workers
are facing a very dangerous situation, exposed to asbestos, toxic substance,
oil and gas, and, almost every year, we've found very serious accidents,
especially in the three countries, which is India, Bangladesh and
Pakistan."
Mr Matsuzaki says those three countries
account for nearly 80 per cent of the world's ship recycling.
He says he saw workers two years ago in the
same Pakistani shipyard where the explosion occurred wearing no protective
equipment.
"Sometimes, they don't have helmets, no
proper gloves, and no safety shoes. And when I went to Gadani ship-breaking
yard, I was a witness two years ago, some workers totally don't have the
gloves, they're just barehanded, and they carry the cut steel. And, every day,
they cut their hand by the cut steel. But when they go to the clinics in the
ship-breaking yard, there's no doctor at all. They have to wait. The doctor
comes to them, but they don't know when."
Mr Matsuzaki was in Perth recently for a
meeting with international union delegates to discuss worker safety and
environmental concerns in shipyards in south-west Asia.
Joining him on a panel was Indian union
delegate and vice chairman of the ship-breaking and -building sector VV Rane.
Mr Rane says the Indian union had fought hard
for protection for its workers and, with the help of the country's Supreme
Court, implemented laws to protect workers.
"(The) majority of the yards are having
ISO* certifications. ISO (International Organisation for
Standardisation)certification is, we can say, a pre-requirement of getting the
yards compliant with the Hong Kong Convention. And around more than 10 yards
apply the Hong Kong Convention requirements, and we are targeting 40 yards will
comply the requirement of the Hong Kong Convention very soon."
But Mr Rane says Pakistan and Bangladesh
still need world governments to sign the convention before it can be ratified.
He says the shipbuilders and their governments have a moral obligation to
ensure the ships are recycled safely and correctly.
Australian Manufacture Workers' Union
assistant secretary Glenn Thompson says the Australian government could be a
leader in the region by signing the convention.
"Well, this is an issue about workers
and worker safety. This is not about the politics of unions in Australia. This
is about what is the right thing for Australia to do to be a good global
citizen."
A Department of Infrastructure and Regional
Development spokesman says Australia has a relatively small ocean-going fleet
and does not recycle ships on such a large scale.
He says the government acknowledges the
concerns about ship recycling in various parts of the world.
He says, although Australia is not
considering signing the convention, it acknowledges the convention's
significance and will be monitoring its progress into force.
Source: SBS. 10 November 2016
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