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National Memorial Dedicated to Fallen Workers |
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| On Workers Memorial Day, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka take part in a dedication for a national workers memorial at the National Labor College. |
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| Taking part in the groundbreaking are, from left, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, Flight Attendants President Pat Friend, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, NLC President William Scheuerman, UMWA President Cecil Roberts, Plasterers and Cement Masons President Patrick Finley, UFCW President Joe Hansen and BAC President John Flynn. |
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| Workers are remembered by their co-workers, family and friends with a named brick in their memory as part of the workers memorial to be built at the National Labor College. |
The names were repeated in a chorus of tragedy. Conrad Johnson, a bus driver killed by a sniper while taking a rest break. Linda Redman, a factory worker who died a slow, painful death from “popcorn lung” disease. An elevator operator killed when an elaveator crushed him on the job. Thirteen coal miners killed by an explosion when they went into a mine to rescue injured co-workers.
Today, on Workers Memorial Day, these and dozens more workers were remembered by their co-workers, family and friends who placed bricks in their memory as part of the groundbreaking ceremonies for the new national workers memorial at the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md.
Hundreds of people who lost a loved one who was killed on the job have sponsored bricks for the memorial, which will be constructed in the center of the NLC campus.
The first brick was dedicated by Bricklayers (BAC) President John Flynn to BAC member Louis Mitchell, who died in 2007. The second, sponsored by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, honored his father, Frank, a Pennsylvania mine worker, who died in 1999 of black lung disease.
His brick tells the story, Trumka said, “of broken lives, of a man who went out every day to work in the mines and brought home a piece of illness every day.”
Find out more about the National Workers Memorial and how you can help support its construction by clicking here.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who spoke at the groundbreaking, used the occasion to announce that the Labor Department is moving forward to develop two new major safety rules to protect workers from combustible dust explosions—such as the one that killed 13 workers at a Georgia sugar refinery last year—and from a dangerous chemical that causes a respiratory condition known as ”popcorn lung.” The rules could take up to two years to finalize. Listen to Solis’s remarks here.
Solis also dedicated a brick for the memorial soon to be engraved in honor of Gary Jensen, a Mine Safety and Health Administration inspector killed in a 2007 mine collapse and all the workers of the Department of Labor who have died trying to make workplace safety and health and workplace justice a reality for all workers in our nation.
Thousands of workers are killed each year on the job. This Workers Memorial Day, the AFL-CIO’s 18th annual “Death on the Job” report reveals that in 2007—the year with the latest available figures—5,657 workers lost their lives on the job and more than 4 million others were hurt or made ill.
“Death on the Job” reports that another 50,000 to 60,000 workers died due to occupational diseases. On average every day, 15 workers lose their lives as a result of workplace injuries and disease, and another 10,959 are injured. Yet little has been done in recent years, says the report, to improve job safety and protect workers.
Solis told the crowd of about 300 at the Labor College there is no doubt that knowledgable workers have a safe workplace and there is no more knowledgeable group than union workers.
It is appropriate that we dedicate this memorial at the National Labor College. Not only will this calm and quiet spot serve as a gathering place to pause and remember the men and women who have lost their lives while pursuing their livlihood, but it will serve as a reminder to future labor leaders about the importance of workplace safety.
Solis also announced the creation of a severe violators enforcement program to penalize employers who willfully endanger their workers.
We will not be controlled by ideology. When workers are in danger, we will act.
The new memorial is important, said Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts, who chairs the AFL-CIO Safety and Health Committee, because it is the only place where we can recognize all those who have fallen on the job. Roberts laid down a challenge to those who oppose tougher regulation of workplace safety rules.
We just come to work here. We don’t come to die here.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who dedicated a brick to the memory of Santiago Rafael Cruz, an organizer for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), said the memorial is a “lasting tribute to those workers who lost their lives simply trying to make a living.”
NLC President William Scheuerman added that the memorial
comes from all of our desires to see that the memories of all fallen workers are forever honored and remembered by each generation of union members, leaders and activists who walk these grounds every day as they have for decades.
Patrick Findley, president of the Plasterers and Cement Masons (OP&CMIA), and Joe Hansen, President of the Food and Commercial Workers, also participated in the groundbreaking.
A unique part of the program included a theatrical treatment of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The dramatic presentation was written by NLC student and Machinists member Eric Kaufman for his senior project. The crowd also lit candles in honor of those who lost their lives at work and from occupational illnesses and disease.
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