“Can I say in my own personal capacity that having seen that ad yesterday,I thought it was a disgrace,and an attempt at misinformation and misdirection worthy of James Hardie and the worst of their tactics as they fought to stop the regulation of asbestos,” he said.
James Hardie was the manufacturing company commonly associated with asbestos,which causes lung diseases,after it used the substance in many of its building products. In 2005,the company signed an agreement with the NSW government to pay out $4.5 billion for asbestos victims.
Construction,Forestry,Maritime,Mining and Energy Union national secretary Zach Smith described the ads as “the most blatantly evil corporate campaign I have ever seen”.
“No one needs Caesarstone. It is a product that kills people. And it kills them young,” he said,adding he would be pushing federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke to ignore the company’s “bullshit letters” after it wrote to the minister.
Caesarstone Australia chief executive David Cullen denied there was anything misleading about the advertising campaign,which was run on behalf of several manufacturers under the banner of the Australian Engineered Stone Advisory Group.
“Despite the rhetoric from the unions,the reality is that a ban on only one product containing silica will not solve silicosis,” Cullen said.