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10 Pike Rivers since Key's "broken" promise - widow
10 Pike Rivers since Key's "broken" promise - widow
• Silent Vigil
with 291 crosses held on Federal street between Wellesley
and Victoria Streets today.
• Setup from 7am to
8am with pack down 10am to 11am.
A family will hold a silent vigil with 291 crosses as the Prime Minister gives his key-note speech in Auckland today.
John Key is speaking at the National Party annual conference at Skycity.
Deborah McMillan's husband Shane was killed at work in 2009. A branch fell on him while he was working in a forestry gang near Napier.
Their eight year-old daughter Skylar was three at the time.
Mrs McMillan says 290 of the crosses represent workers who have died at work since 2010.
She says Skylar will place her dad's work jacket and a helmet on the 291st cross.
"We've had ten Pike Rivers since John Key promised to improve work safety laws in 2010," she says. "Not only has he broken his promise, he wants to make it worse.”
The Prime Minister began a review of the Health and Safety in Employment Act after 29 miners died at Pike River.
The Government announced their proposed law changes last Friday.
McMillan says the National Party wants to exclude worker health and safety reps from small businesses.
“It’s an awful double kick in the guts for us. Shane died working in a small business.
"Many of the Pike River men worked in small businesses too."
The Department of Labour statistics show workers in small companies are 35% more likely to have an accident at work.
The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) is helping the McMillan family put up the crosses.
CTU spokesperson Strachan Crang says Business New Zealand and unions support retaining health and safety reps in small businesses.
“A minority of small businesses lobbied the Government to water down the bill," he says. "They included farmers and other industries with a terrible track record for workplace safety."
They are playing politics with workers lives, Crang says.
Deborah McMillan says it is hard for her daughter growing up without a dad.
“It's gotten harder as Skylar grows up and understands more of what happened. She's had to have counselling.”
Despite these difficulties, she says she won't stop fighting until work safety laws improve.
"No family should have to go through what we did. It's been horrible."
ENDS
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
Te Kauae Kaimahi
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi brings together over 350,000 New Zealand union members in 40 affiliated unions. We are the united voice for working people and their families in New Zealand.
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