Where: Latin America (on-line)

When: September - November 2012

Trade Union action on chemical risk. ¿What are the main challenges? ¿What are the biggest barriers?

The online course is addressed to trade unionists from the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Nicaragua. It is conducted by Sustainlabour as part of the project with the United Nations Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and counts with the collaboration of TUCA and ISTAS-CCOO. The course is conducted in SPANISH.

In Latin America there are thousands of chemicals substances used for industrial and domestic use, not only in the chemical industry itself, but in many other productive activities, such as the metal industry, paper mills and pulp, mining, agriculture, fertilizer plants, plastics or rubber.

- 438 000 workers die every year worldwide from exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace

- 125 million workers are exposed to asbestos, resulting in more than 90 000 deaths a year

- 10% of skin cancers can be attributed to exposure to chemicals in the workplace

- 37% of Latin American miners experience some degree of silicosis

- 2 million rural workers and farmers are poisoned each year from exposure to pesticides

Prevention is the best antidote to chemical risk, but for prevention to be possible, not only legislation and governmental control are needed. The participation of workers, from the workplace to national policy level is crucial, because they are among the groups most vulnerable to chemical exposure, and because they are at the core of production, where concrete prevention actions could be taken.

Sustainlabour aims to know what the main challenges and what are the biggest barriers to advance related trade union action. We have started to look at the situation in different countries and research which are the major concerns for workers and the existing union capacities to cope in some of the sectors most exposed to risks. We are determined to improve union capacity in the subject and to train workers for action.

The online course on chemical risk for trade unionists of the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Nicaragua (40 hours) is conducted within the project that Sustainlabour carries out with the United Nations Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and counts with the collaboration of Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) and ISTAS-CCOO. The course is conducted in Spanish.

Registered people can log in here. (Spanish only)