A decade of fighting for workers harmed by asbestos

Yet across the North East workers are still being diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases. For many families, the consequences are devastating. A diagnosis can arrive decades after exposure, long after a worker has left the shipyard, the school, power station or public buildings where the damage was done. 

This year marks a decade of the TUC Asbestos Support and Campaign Group, a partnership between trade unions, Hartlepool based West View Advice and Resource Centre, specialist law firms and funders like McMillian and the Alex Ferry Foundation. This group was set up to help workers and their families navigate the difficult journey that follows an asbestos-related diagnosis. While this is a milestone worth celebrating, it is also a reminder of a lasting injustice. 

Our region helped build modern Britain. The North East's industrial workforce powered the economy through shipbuilding, construction, engineering and energy generation. But many workers paid a terrible price. Between the 1930s and 1980s, asbestos was widely used across industry, construction and in public buildings despite growing evidence of the risks it posed. Workers often handled it daily, unaware of the consequences that would emerge years later. 

The cruel reality of asbestos-related diseases is that they frequently develop decades after exposure. Someone exposed at work in their twenties may not become ill until retirement. By then, companies may have disappeared, records may have been lost, and families can be left struggling to understand what support is available. 

This is why specialist advice matters. 

Over the last decade, the TUC Asbestos Support and Campaign Group has helped thousands of people access compensation, benefits and practical support, securing more than £17 million in compensation and benefit payments for workers and families across the region. 

But these figures only tell part of the story. 

Behind every successful claim is a person seeking answers, recognition and justice. Families facing uncertainty about the future. Workers who spent years contributing to our economy only to find themselves dealing with a life-changing diagnosis because their workplace failed to keep them safe. 

The compensation secured cannot undo the harm caused. But it can provide dignity, financial security and a sense that responsibility has finally been acknowledged. 

What makes this work especially important is that unfortunately asbestos exposure is not just a thing of the past. Although it was banned in the UK in 1999, it remains present in many workplaces and public buildings, including schools and hospitals and shockingly, continues to be the country's biggest occupational killer. 

This is why trade unions continue to campaign for the identification and removal of asbestos, stronger protections and better support for those affected. And it is why services like the Asbestos Support and Campaign Group remain so vital. 

Ten years on, we are proud of what this partnership has achieved. But our goal has never been to celebrate the number of people needing our support. Our ambition is a future where no worker faces an asbestos-related disease because of on-the-job exposure.  

Until then, we will continue to stand alongside workers and their families, fighting for the justice, support and recognition they deserve.