EACH year, we remember those who have been injured or killed at work usually because of inadequate safety protections. Of course we grieve for every injury and death and for all the loved ones who are left with an empty seat at the breakfast table.

But grief is not enough. We need to be both angry and resolute in order to resist an economic system which places the safety of workers as a relatively low priority.

The truth is that the right-wing mythology would have us believe that injuries at work are the consequence of unavoidable accidents. Of course there are some accidents but that is by no means the whole picture.

We can illustrate this viewpoint in recalling the problems caused by asbestos. As a young man, I worked as a manual worker in the building industry. We had little idea at that time just how dangerous asbestos is.

I regularly worked both drilling and sawing asbestos sheeting. Occasionally we were required to mix dry asbestos powder with water in order to make a paste in order to insulate hot pipes. The dust was everywhere, penetrated our clothes and overalls so that when we went home it would enter our domestic lives including possibly the lungs of our families.

A close relative of mine did the same work. He contracted an asbestos-related lung disease and subsequently died. It is a horrible wasting disease to witness and left his two young daughters first to witness its effects and then to grow up without a father.

It is not widely known that asbestos exposure is the single greatest cause of work-related deaths in the UK, with the authorities estimating that more than 5,000 people die from asbestos-related cancers every year. More than half of those deaths are from mesothelioma.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the UK has the highest rate of mesothelioma deaths per capita in the world.

Those involved in refurbishment, maintenance and building trades, such as electricians, plumbers, joiners, engineers and construction workers, are at most significant risk.

In 2014, it is shocking to learn  that  the HSE estimated that 1.3 million tradespeople were at risk of asbestos exposure, and that they could come into contact with asbestos, on average, more than 100 times a year.

In line with the prevailing right-wing ideology, the economy works best when the “free” market is left to its own devices, unregulated by the state. Driven by this outrageous ideology, the HSE has been cut back, leaving more workers than ever exposed at risk.

In 2019-20, there were 907 inspections of work by licenced asbestos inspectors. This was  40 per cent fewer than in 2012-13. There was a 60 per cent collapse in the number of asbestos enforcement notices from 2011-12 to 2018-19.

These statistics are scandalous. It is not the fault of the HSE that this is happening. It is the product of a twisted approach dating back to the Thatcher era. For the truth is that regulation of industry in past decades was designed to protect the wider public interest from the greed of private interests.

It cannot be right that the interests of the owners of companies should override the safety of the workforce. But this is precisely what happens too often.

In recent times, it has often appeared that the wider labour movement was on the back foot, in retreat, as a consequence of a lack of confidence. It is time that we regained our self-confidence and were bolder. There is no stronger case for our movement to promote than the protection of workers in their workplace.

This year something very interesting is happening. Just as the state, in the shape of the HSE, has been forced into retreat by the Tories, the trade unions are making a decisive move.

This Workers Memorial Day on April 28, more than 600 trade union reps are checking for life-threatening problems like Reinforced Autoclave Aerated Concrete (Raac), asbestos and fire hazards.

This ought to be the first phase of a renewed commitment to driving up safety standards in all workplaces, especially in my own industry of construction.

The workers are the source of all the country’s wealth. Yet they see their incomes in decline and their workplaces stripped of vital protections.

It’s long past time that the country heeded their voices, and that we built a new economy based on the interests of the working class.

Jon Trickett is Labour MP for Hemsworth.