Check Out Workers Memorial Day Via Facebook

by Mike Hall, Mar 5, 2009

Workers Memorial Day is April 28 and as part of the preparation for the events and ceremonies to honor workers who have been killed or injured on the job—and to demand improved workplace safety—the AFL-CIO has set up a special Workers Memorial Day Facebook page.

On the just-created page, you can connect with other workplace safety activists, learn about Workers Memorial Day events in your area, or reach out to others to help organize actions where you live. The page also has a gallery of Workers Memorial Day posters from previous years.

If you are not are not already a Facebook member, it’s a simple, free process to register. If you are a Facebook member or have your own page, don’t forget to post the Workers Memorial Day information in your profile or on your page. That will help generate a community of people concerned about workplace safety.

If you are organizing an event, be sure to visit the AFL-CIO Workers Memorial Day website. You will find materials to help you stage your event with this year’s theme, “Good Jobs. Safe Jobs. Give Workers a Voice for a Change.” The materials include:

• Workers Memorial Day flier.
• Workers Memorial Day poster.
• Workers Memorial Day clip art in English and Spanish:
  • Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living and
  • Good Jobs, Safe Jobs. Give Workers a Voice for a Change.
• Workers Memorial Day stickers.
• Workers Memorial Day events form.
• Workers Memorial Day proclamation.
• Safety and health update (February 2009).

The 2009 edition of Death on the Job, set for release in April, will examine workplace death, injuries and illness by occupation, state and cause. It will analyze trends and examine the federal government’s track record on developing workplace safety standards. It also will look 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.

The AFL-CIO Workers Memorial Day online tools include links to a collection of workers’ memorials in the United States and around the world and poems and other tributes to workers killed on the job.

The first Workers Memorial Day was observed in 1989. April 28 was chosen 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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