The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) supports the global campaign by the Asbestos Victims Support Group Forum UK (AVSGF) to pressure global industrial services giant Altrad to contribute funding for cancer research on this year’s Action Mesothelioma Day.
Altrad is the parent company of Cape Pty Ltd, which was one of the biggest manufacturers of asbestos products in the world.
In 2019, the UK Supreme Court found Cape "provided misleading reassurance about the dangers of asbestos".
Exposure to asbestos increases the risk of developing the terminal cancer known as mesothelioma.
The UK has one of the highest rates of mesothelioma in the world, with around 2500 people dying of the disease each year from an estimated worldwide death toll of 38,000 deaths each year.
The AMWU supports a call for all those who profited from asbestos and the misery and death that followed, to be held to account and to fund proper compensation for negligently exposing people to the known carcinogen asbestos.
As such, we extend our solidarity to the Cape Must Pay campaign.
The AMWU supports calls for Altrad, who still profits from their subsidiary Cape, to donate AUD $19 million (£10 million pounds) towards medical research into mesothelioma, in light of its legacy.
Altrad continues to be awarded major public contracts by the UK government including in 2023 for a major AUD $58 million (£30.8 million) contract for decommissioning and asbestos removal at Berkeley Power Station in Gloucestershire.
Altrad’s founder and president, Mohed Altrad, has a personal wealth estimated to be AUD $4.9 billion (USD $3.3 billion).
The AMWU urges Altrad to use its profits to make a real difference in combatting mesothelioma.
The AMWU is a leader in championing work, health and safety matters around workplaces exposed to asbestos including our fight to hold asbestos manufacturer James Hardie to account. We continue to campaign for legacy asbestos in Australia’s built environment and plant and equipment to be removed so as to not burden future generations.
The AMWU represents members who work for Altrad Australia.
Media contact: Sonia Feng, +61 478 599 580