EH Bildu and the Spanish Government agree a fund of EUR 25 million for asbestos victims
- The PSOE and United Nations Coalition We Can Commit in the 2022 budget negotiations to compensate asbestos victims. This is the first agreement that EH Bildu has reached with the Spanish Government in the debates on Spain's budgets.
This is the first agreement that EH Bildu has reached with the Spanish Government in the Spanish budget debates: to set up a fund of EUR 25 million to compensate those affected by asbestos. This is the call for years by the asbestos victims' association Asviamie, and according to EH Bildu, "at last" they have managed to get ahead.
Today, 18 November, we will vote for the acceptance of this amendment tabled with ERC and, as it is expected to be supported by the PNV, which had already made a similar proposal, it should proceed smoothly.
EH Member Bildu Oskar Matute explained that they have responded to "an historic claim" and stressed that this step was possible "thanks to Asviamie's tireless struggle". In the words of MATUTE, the fund will serve to "pay off the historical debt" and in particular to remind those affected by asbestos in industrial areas of the Basque Country.
ARGIA published in 2018 a monograph on asbestos damage, and Urko Apaolaza performed an in-depth report, which can be read here. Apaolaza also interviewed Otsanda Tolosa, a young fighter in recent years, to demonstrate the responsibilities of asbestos and CAF in the death of her father: "We call for the moral recognition of CAF, for its father and for all asbestos victims coming," he added. In December last year it was known that CAF had agreed to reverse and compensate the family of Celestino Tolosa.
Fortunately, most industrial companies start to understand, after the many convictions, that a small exposure to asbestos fibres, without adequate respiratory protection, is sufficient to cause a serious lung disease that causes ten times more deaths than accidents at work, even... [+]
