The 'Green' Killing Fields

 

 Article from the uniteLANDWORKER 

Summer 2023 

 

The continuing carnage affecting workers in the agricultural sector was brought to life at the 2023 Workers’ Memorial Day event in Chorley, Lancashire. Organised annually since 2005 by Unite activist Steve Turner of Chorley Trades Council, it was attended by 35 people and all of whom were pleased to take away a copy of Landworker.

 

Landworker contributor Mark Metcalf told the audience that whilst construction topped the workplace deaths chart in 2019/20 at 37 workers, agriculture, with around a tenth of the numbers employed in construction, remained the most dangerous sector to work in with 13 deaths, mostly as a result of moving vehicles.

 

Deaths from moving vehicles doubled last year to 25 people killed. These included 3 members of the public, a child aged nine and ten labourers. The figures are likely to be higher as fatal tractor accidents on public roads involving the police will not be reported to the HSE.

 

To highlight why the green killing fields continue to exist, Mark highlighted the article An Endless Uphill Struggle in the Spring 2023 Landworker edition in which retired farmworker Matthew Belsey appealed for safety on farms to be taken seriously by the next generation.

 

Belsey highlighted the unwillingness of the authorities to take robust action with the HSE having very few resources to enable them to do so and whereas there used to be full health and safety meetings annually organised for safety reps by the HSE these have dwindled substantially. Little changes as a result.

 

HSE inspections have fallen dramatically and, in addition, the inspectors rarely have a safety background.

 

In the 90s the HSE worked with Unite to develop a safety rep scheme that visited southern farms in a pilot in 2002. It was jointly funded by HSE, NFU and UNITE’s predecessor union.  Around 75% of employers afterwards said they’d changed their safety practices as a result of the pilot. Lack of funding ended the scheme.

 

There has also been the ending of the AWB in England with its sharp reduction in dedicated agricultural courses such that if an agricultural worker went on specific courses on hedge cutting or any number of occasional courses then they got an increase in their pay. 

 

According to Unite activist Charlie Clutterbuck, Unite’s predecessor union, the TGWU, was also instrumental in creating vocational qualifications for agricultural health and safety levels. 

 

“As the union rep on the HSE executive I pushed for and they responded together with the NFU and 3 awarding bodies such as the Skills Councils to create sets of vocational qualifications on health and safety for agricultural workers.

 

“Out then national officer Chris Kaufmann he got them into the AWB agreements so for a few years if you did one of these qualifications then you got a rise in pay. There was thus a real incentive to go on and get properly trained and work more safely.”

 

Mark reported how Landworker had backed Littleborough shepherd Brenda Sutcliffe, who died in 2016, and her husband Harold, a Unite member, who became the unofficial spokeswoman for thousands of farmers and agricultural labourers who were poisoned, often with fatal consequences, by organophosphate (OP) sheep dip.

 

Brenda calculated that between 1995 and 2005 more than 1,000 shepherds ended their own lives because of OP sheep dip. Brenda fought tirelessly for families to be compensated.

 

Brenda's booklet 'Cause and effect — the search for truth' was first published in 2005. It became widely read right across the globe.

 

Brenda and other campaigners forced the HSE to issue health warnings and instructions on the use of OPs and bring to an end the compulsory order on sheep dipping. But the products — used to tackle sheep scab — remain on the market with the added requirement that anyone purchasing the dip must attend a course — costing in total £150 — to achieve the necessary 'Safe Use of Sheep Dip' licence.

 

Brenda was rightly proud of her considerable efforts and achievements but Mark told the audience that when she last spoke to him before her death she was, as always, forthright in expressing her views and had said "Justice has been denied to the likes of myself whose health was badly affected by OPs.

 

“We, with the help of people like Landworker, showed these were dangerous, deadly  products and we never hesitated to criticise the chemical companies who manufactured them.

 

“We damaged their sales but they have never sued us because our research backed up what we said publicly.  

 

"The government, whether Labour or Tory, public health bodies and solicitors who were supposed to help us ran away from the battle. People still need prosecuting for their roles. We have won a number of battles but OPs are still deadly, too widely used and many products containing them need banning.” 

 

OPs are present in many products and have created multiple health problems for soldiers who served in the Second Gulf War and commercial airline pilots, many of whom are with UNITE’s assistance taking legal action against their employers.

The talk proved popular and Mark, who appealed to the audience to encourage any farm workers they know to join Unite, has now agreed to speak to a local union branch about the issues he raised. Similar invitations from across Yorkshire and Lancashire would be welcome.

Amongst the other speakers were Janet Newsham of Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK), who said that “to be bereaved by work is to be a victim of crime. But to be made to feel like a lesser class of victim. One where you’re not placed at the heart of the justice process, but left to feel you exist somewhere on the periphery” and are constantly let down by the authorities.

“We FACKers pledge to you that we will continue to live the International Workers’ Memorial Day mantra each and every day, as we forever remember our dead, and do our damnedest to fight like hell for the living.”