Asbestos fears for Alcoa workforce
Thursday, July 16 2015 By Jane Goldsmith ALCOA has been hit by allegations that its workforce was exposed to asbestos in two separate incidents in the past eight weeks. WA’s three largest workers’ unions – the Electrical Trades Union of Australia, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union – called for an urgent asbestos audit of Alcoa’s WA operations, after workers discovered a covering they were grinding at Alcoa’s Pinjarra refinery, south of Perth, was partially made of asbestos. The incident followed a similar situation at the company’s Kwinana refinery, when a welder noticed a white powdery substance on some insulation tape in a tank roof. The substance tested positive for asbestos. Alcoa…