by Mike Hall, Apr 28, 2011
Today, in hundreds of ceremonies across the country, working families are honoring workers who died or were injured on the job in the past year. In a Workers Memorial Day proclamation, President Obama says the nation must:
recommit to keeping all workers safe and healthy [and] make sure the full force of the law is brought to bear in cases where workers are put in harm’s way.
He also says the safety and health laws that protect today’s workers “were won by generations of courageous men and women, fighting to secure decent working conditions.”
Organized labor has continued to give voice to millions of working men and women by representing their views and fighting for good working conditions and fair wages.
Click here for the full proclamation.
In Huntington, W.Va., the West Virginia AFL-CIO will honor the 50 West Virginia workers killed on the job in 2010, including the 29 coal miners killed in the explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine. Says President Kenneth Perdue:
As vividly demonstrated by the Upper Big Branch mine disaster and other worker safety disasters that recently occurred, too many workers remain at risk and face death, injury or disease as a result of their job.
In Kansas City, Mo., Ron Hayes, whose son Patrick was killed in a grain silo accident in 1993 on his first day working in a location and job for which he hadn’t been trained, will join Workers Memorial Day services.
After his son’s death, he founded the group Families in Grief Hold Together (The Fight Project). He tells the Kansas City Star:
We help families speak with and learn from other families who have had loved ones killed or hurt at work.
Visit the Fight Project’s Facebook page here.
At a Las Vegas Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) union hall today, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will join workers and families whose loved ones have been killed on the job. In a column this morning in the Las Vegas Sun, Solis writes:
Our nation and especially our workers are facing big challenges and making big sacrifices every day. But one sacrifice they should never have to make is trading their lives for their livelihood.
She notes that while workplace deaths and injuries have fallen dramatically since the Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted 40 years ago and the Mine Safety and Health Act shortly after:
there’s no question, we still have more work to do. Although the numbers may seem overwhelming, for me on this day, their message is quite clear: One workplace-related death, injury or illness is one too many.
Click here for a list of other Workers Memorial Day events around the country.
