ONLY 100% union membership can guarantee anything approaching a safe
working environment on the North Sea oil rigs and prevent another Piper
Alpha disaster, Mr Ronnie Webster, chairman of the Scottish TUC, claimed
yesterday.
Speaking in Aberdeen at the opening session of this year's congress,
he called for the election of independent safety committees with legal
powers to crack down on unsafe practices offshore.
He added: ''Nobody can say that had such legislation been in force the
Piper Alpha disaster would not have happened.
''But there is no doubt that more effective and rigorous policing of
offshore health and safety legislation will reduce fatalities and
injuries, and that a greater emphasis on health and safety at every
stage of the design process will also significantly minimise risk to
life.
''The hard fact is that to maintain safety standards costs money. And
in an era of unbridled pursuit of profit, things which cost companies
money tend to be unpopular.''
He said the Norwegians were now specifying that accommodation modules
should be on separate structures from production facilities. This would
obviously increase greatly the cost of developing an oil field.
''But had that provision existed at Piper Alpha it is certain that a
large number of lives would have been saved. We do indeed live in a sick
world when the cost of human lives is counted in pounds.
''It will be impossible to achieve anything approaching a safe working
environment offshore until we have 100% trade union membership. I think
the rig workers have heard that message loud and clear.''
Mr Webster went on to describe Government moves to privatise Scottish
schools via the opting out system as a shameful farce.
The Scottish Tories had stood on an election manifesto which precluded
any such moves, and with the honourable exceptions of Alick
Buchanan-Smith and Sir Hector Monro, ''they have now exposed themselves
as a bunch of unprincipled liars,'' he said.
But it was the poll tax above all which demonstrated Tory contempt for
democracy in Scotland. It had been imposed despite a massive rejection
by the Scottish people at the 1987 General Election.
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