Thousands of construction workers protested against engineered stone by marching across Sydney.
Workers from the CFMEU union marched down Elizabeth Street, passing past Hyde Park and into Macquarie Street after leaving Belmore Park.
The country’s construction sites are using manufactured stone, which sparked the outrage.
Although the product is widely used for kitchen benchtops, the union’s Stop the Killer Stone campaign warns that cutting it can raise the danger of silicosis, a lung illness brought on by breathing in minute particles of silica dust, to workers.
Marchers called for the state and federal governments to immediately outlaw any engineered or man-made stone goods.
In a Facebook post, the CFMEU stated, “The high toxicity of the silica-based stone has delivered a death sentence on hundreds of workers, many of them very young.”
“Cheap imported kitchen and bathroom benchtops are not worth a human life.”
Premier of NSW Chris Minns promised to allay the union’s worries when a nationwide study on the issue is released tomorrow.
As early as fifteen, teenagers can begin an apprenticeship in the construction sector.
