Canadian Unions Say No to Sending Deadly Asbestos Overseas
5 replies, posted
[url]http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/11/canadian-unions-say-no-to-sending-deadly-asbestos-overseas/[/url]
[quote]Children protesting in the streets of Indian villages and outrage by physicians and human rights activists worldwide didn't seem to be able to stop Canada from shipping deadly asbestos to developing countries. But one of Quebec's most powerful unions says it will no longer support the province's lethal trade.
In a overwhelming voice vote today, representatives of the 300,000-member Confederation of National Trade Unions voted against the planned expansion of Canada's last asbestos mine in the town of Asbestos, Quebec, union communications director Michelle Filteau told AOL News.
"This is a truly historic moment that breaks the grip that the asbestos industry has held for so long over the Quebec trade union movement," said Kathleen Ruff, a leading Canadian human rights advocate.
"The CNTU is showing courage, integrity and, above all, solidarity in taking this public stand in support of the lives of workers in India and other countries where the cancer-causing fibers were being sold."
Last month, [URL="http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/17/will-canada-export-death-by-rejuvenating-its-last-asbestos-mine/"]AOL News reported[/URL] that at the heart of the current controversy is the Mine Jeffrey, the world's largest asbestos mine and the last of several exhausted asbestos pits clustered in Quebec's Eastern Township area. From this region, for more than a century, has come almost 90 percent of the world's commercial asbestos.
Baljit Chadha, a Montreal-based entrepreneur who is leading a consortium, Balcorp Ltd., of foreign investors that wants to purchase the mine, says that if he can buy Jeffrey, he can supply much of the world's asbestos market for at least 25 years.
But on Wednesday, at the beginning of the Confederation's annual meeting, CNTU President Claudette Carbonneau told the gathering: "Quebec, like many advanced industrial societies, has been shaken by the use of a resource which sows death.
"If health and safety conditions do not prevent these deadly illnesses in Quebec, it is difficult to pretend that there can be safe use of asbestos in developing countries."
Carbonneau said it was vital to take the action now as the Quebec government is deciding "whether to finance a revival of the bankrupt Quebec asbestos industry."
Chadha, who has been exporting the Canadian asbestos to developing nations for years, had said that would-be investors from Canada, Europe, Brazil and India asked the Quebec government for a $57 million loan guarantee to complete construction of the underground mine here. They said the mine will bring new life to this moribund asbestos-producing region, 95 miles east of Montreal, and create several hundred jobs.
Since the AOL News story ran, there have been demonstrations at several Indian villages and towns where factories are being built to turn the Canadian asbestos into concrete pipes, roofing and other building supplies.
One of the most evocative protests against a factory construction involved school-age children carrying signs saying they were scared about the health of their parents and themselves.[/quote]
[editline]11th March 2011[/editline]
I think this a great step forward for corporations. For once someone thinks of the well being of other people rather than making a profit.
good
i like how in canada unions are actually useful
[editline]11th March 2011[/editline]
except for those those assholes working the ttc
[QUOTE=Bryanrocks0;28553657]the town of Asbestos, Quebec[/QUOTE]
Ha ha, oh wow.
[QUOTE=Mingebox;28554354]Ha ha, oh wow.[/QUOTE]
There used to be a Uranium City in Saskatchewan, small places like to name themselves after the biggest industry in town I guess.
Well there still is a Uranium City but it's a ghost town now
[QUOTE=Zeke129;28554622]There used to be a Uranium City in Saskatchewan, small places like to name themselves after the biggest industry in town I guess.
Well there still is a Uranium City but it's a ghost town now[/QUOTE]
Maybe they can be sister cities with Agent Orange, Florida.
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