Call to ban deadly material
The CFMEU will ban the use of engineered stone like Caesarstone if the Federal Government fails to do so by mid-2024.
CFMEU ACT Secretary Zach Smith, who will take over as national secretary next year, has launched the Stop This Killer Stone campaign - which urges the Federal Government to ban engineered stone products by July 2024 - at the union's national conference.
Mr Smith moved a resolution at conference for CFMEU members to:
* Ban the use of engineered stone from 1 July 2024
* Ban the importation and manufacture of engineered stone products from 1 July 2024
This is an extremely rare form of industrial action not seen since building and construction unions banned asbestos decades ago.
Modelling by Curtin University estimates that 10,000 workers in Australia across all sectors will develop lung cancer and up to 103,000 will be diagnosed with silicosis as a result of their current exposure to silica dust at work. "Australian workers will keep dying unless we ban engineered stone," Mr Smith said.
"These morally bankrupt overseas companies have no social licence to sell this deadly product - and they know it. They know it is killing Australian workers but simply don't care. Engineered stone is the asbestos of the 2020s. That's exactly why we're taking this extremely rare step of flagging a ban on CFMEU members working with this killer stone.
"Australia has one of the world's most voracious cheap bench top habits and it could claim thousands of lives unless we quit. Any modest cost increase for consumers will save lives. In NSW alone, almost one-in-four engineered stone workers who've been in the industry since 2018 were suffering from silicosis or another dust-related disease. If the Federal Government doesn't ban killer stone, the CFMEU will."
