Although decades of struggle by workers and their unions have resulted in significant improvements in working conditions, the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths remains enormous.
Each year more than 56,000 workers die from job injuries and illnesses and another 6 million are injured. The unions of the AFL-CIO remember these workers on April 28, Workers Memorial Day.
On April 28, 2016, the IAM will remember those members who died on the job during a ceremony at William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center located in Hollywood, Maryland. The IAM Workers’ Memorial Lighthouse was dedicated during the 2001 Annual Safety and Health Conference and has a special place on the grounds at WWW’s Memorial Park. Names of fallen workers are immortalized in a brick barring their name and date of death around it’s base.
The AFL-CIO website (http://www.aflcio.org/Issues/Job-Safety/WorkersMemorialDay) contains more information about Workers Memorial Day. Such as, articles and order forms to purchase posters, clip art, stickers, WMD kit, and death on the job report (all information is available in both English & Spanish) The first Workers Memorial Day was observed in 1989. April 28 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the day of a similar remembrance in Canada.
Every year, people in hundreds of communities and at worksites recognize workers who have been killed or injured on the job. Trade unionists around the world now mark April 28 as an International Day of Mourning.