Workers Memorial Day Materials Include McCain’s Voting Record on Job Safety

by Mike Hall, Apr 21, 2008

New and updated materials are now online and ready to download to help you prepare for Workers Memorial Day on April 28 and to help you get the message out to the media and your community.

Every year, thousands of workers are killed on the job and millions more are hurt or become sick because of their work. Next Monday, on Workers Memorial Day, workers, union activists, religious and community leaders and elected officials are expected to take part in more than 10,000 memorial services, rallies and marches to honor workers killed and injured on the job. They also will call on lawmakers to improve workplace safety standards.

One of the new items, especially important in this election year, is a flier that outlines Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s pattern of votes in Congress against stronger workplace safety laws.

The new McCain flier shows that the Arizona senator’s votes against strong workplace safety laws date back to his time in the U.S. House when he voted against a bill to set field sanitation standards—including clean drinking water—for farm workers. Since then, he has voted against mine safety laws, workplace ergonomic standards to prevent millions of repetitive stress injuries a year and stronger penalties against employers who violate workplace safety rules. (Click here to download the flier.)

Other new or updated Workers Memorial Day materials include:

• Facts About Worker Safety and Health

• State-by-State Profile on Safety and Health

• Workers Memorial Day Talking Points

• Sample Media Advisory

• Sample Letter to the Editor

• Sample Newsletter Article

• Workers Memorial Day Background

Later this week, we will release the 2008 edition of the AFL-CIO annual report, Death on the Job, which examines workplace deaths, injuries and illness by occupation, state and cause. It analyzes trends and examines the federal government’s track record on developing workplace safety standards. It also looks at the enforcement—or lack of it—of current safety laws by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

The first Workers Memorial Day was observed in 1989. The date April 28 was chosen for the annual observance because it is the anniversary of the creation of OSHA in 1971 and the day of a similar remembrance in Canada. Trade unionists around the world mark April 28 as an International Day of Mourning for workers killed.

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