Coal Mine Deaths Make Workers Memorial Day April 28 Especially Timely

by Mike Hall, Apr 26, 2006

Across the nation and around the world, workers and job-safety activists are remembering their colleagues and the thousands of other workers who have been injured or killed on the job on the 17th observation of Workers Memorial Day April 28.

The worker death rate was up in 2004 for the first time in more than a decade, according to the just-released AFL-CIO report Death on the Job, The Toll of Neglect—and this year, the U.S. coal mine death toll is higher in the first four months than in all of 2005.

In Riviera Beach, Fla., union members will pay special honor to the coal miners killed on the job, including the 26 who have died so far this year. While in Clarksburg W.Va., the West Virginia AFL-CIO is staging a special event to raise funds for children whose parents have died or become disabled on the job.

Honolulu union activists will follow their memorial ceremony for fallen workers with a special forum on building the political power to elect lawmakers who will fight for strong workplace safety programs.

Political strength is especially important, in light of the Bush administration’s record on job safety—a record that includes blocking dozens of important workplace protections while shifting its focus from strong workplace safety enforcement to voluntary employer-compliance programs.

Workers Memorial Day, which began in 1989, marks April 28, 1970, when the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect. Job-safety experts estimate that the lives of more than 300,000 workers have been saved since the 1970 law was enacted.

However, in 2004 (the latest year for which figures are available) in the United States, more than 5,700 workers were killed on the job, and another 50,00 to 60,000 died from occupational diseases. In 2004, more than 4 million workers were injured or made ill.

At nearly 200 observances of Workers Memorial Day—including religious ceremonies, candlelight vigils and other solemn events—union members and their allies will mobilize for stronger workplace safety standards and new coal mine safety laws. They also will demand that the laws now on the books be enforced, not weakened, as the Bush administration has done since 2001.

You can click here to send your senators and representative a message urging them to pass new, strong coal mine safety legislation.

For a downloadable copy of Death on the Job, Workers Memorial Day fliers and job-safety fact sheets and other workplace safety materials, visit the AFL-CIO’s special Workers Memorial Day site.

For a sobering look at the day-by-day, worker-by-worker death toll in the United States, visit Confined Space, where Jordan Barab reports on workplace deaths in his “Weekly Toll” column.

Globally, hundreds of events are scheduled, and a list by country is available at the website. The global safety magazine also has a Workers Memorial Day page with background information, materials and other resources.

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