The Guardian 30 November, 2005
Asbestos: an emerging epidemic
Wayne Peppard, Executive Director of the British Columbia & Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council, was in Sydney last week at the invitation of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) NSW Construction Division. During his visit in Sydney he was invited to speak to building workers and asbestos victims.
I am very pleased I have been invited to come to Sydney by the CFMEU to speak to you. The issue that I speak on today in particular is the issue of compensation for the victims of asbestosis and asbestos related diseases.
In my country, and in my province in particular, we have statistics that indicate that more than half of the construction workers that die each year die are dying from asbestos related diseases. That’s appalling. It is decimating the membership of our unions.
But Asbestos is not only an issue for us [as workers].
It’s in our hospitals and our schools, it’s in the residential industry, it’s in the high-rise industry. And it’s only after that latent period of between 20 to 40 years that we will know how serious that exposure to asbestos really was. We are finding that many, many of our retirees are dying very quickly as a result of that mere exposure very early in their working careers.
And I am sure that the spotlight will be on this issue because it is an epidemic. It’s an emerging epidemic and we’re fast reaching that point where a large number of people are going to be dying from it.
In our country we have a compensation system that isn’t perfect, but at least it does take care of the victim of the exposure to asbestos from the period from which they find out that they do have or were in contact with asbestos through to their death. We are seeking greater compensation than that.
But here I find in your country a person who works for any industry with those products has to go to the courts. This is 18th Century law in labour relations.
The use of asbestos has been banned in our country, however, we do have a problem in that it is mined as well and that is an issue that we have to take on ourselves.
There are still countries that use asbestos and we have to stop the use of asbestos as well and put the pressure back onto the market place and on the companies that reap the profits.
My hope is to put pressure on the shareholders — that’s where we’ll have our success. We get the shareholders to put pressure back onto their company to resolve that conflict and come to an agreement with their victims, with the union, with the government so that everybody can walk away from this with a big win.
Victims
However, there really is no winning for the victims. This is a completely devastating disease. There is no better result than prolonging your life for a period of time.
In the province of Ontario there is a Doctor Jordan working at St Mary’s College Hospital who is working on early detection and diagnosis and is in fact prolonging people’s lives by performing operations.
What we need to do also is to get into early detection so that we can prevent the losses to asbestos victims and also to their families.
My heart goes out to the victims here. I myself have lost my father to mesothelioma and many of my brothers and sisters in the union movement. I may expect myself to be diagnosed in the very near future after 35 years in the industry.
I take to heart what’s happening here. I will pledge to you to take this campaign back to my little province and try and expand that throughout North America where James Hardie has 80 percent of their business.
I do hope that I will be able to effect in North America the kind of pressure that is needed to go back on this company and make them come to the table and get a good result for everyone involved. Thank you.
Speech edited due to space constrictions