• National COSH network listing of events (National Council for Occupational Safety & Health)

The theme of this year's Workers Memorial Day is Good Jobs, Safe Jobs. Give Workers a Voice for a Change.   After eight years of neglect and inaction by the Bush Administration, the challenges are great. The economy is in shambles, major hazards remain unaddressed, and many workers lack basic protections and rights. But now we have the opportunity to change the direction of the country, to strengthen job safety protections and to make sure that workers' voices are heard.

As we remember those who have suffered and died on the job, we'll renew the fight for safe workplaces, and fight to make workers' issues a priority.

To assist you with your planned events or activities we have prepared a number of materials that are now available on the AFL-CIO Workers Memorial Day website, including:

· General Field Talking Points that can be used for speeches

· A sample letter-to-the-editor that can be sent to your local newspaper.

· A draft media advisory that you can use to bring your event to the attention of local media

· A chart outlining state specific information about job safety.  We are sending this to you in advance of releasing our annual report entitled Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect

· Facts About Worker Safety and Health, 2009  Please note, the fatality information in the state chart and Facts document is preliminary.  Final 2007 fatality data will not be released by BLS until next week.  We will update and post revised versions of these documents on the AFL-CIO website as soon as the final data is available.

Also posted on the website are brochures for the Workers Memorial that is being built at the National Labor College where unions will honor our brothers and sisters who have died on the job.

We have also posted a copy of the Workers Memorial Day event reporting form and would ask that you take a few moments to fill it out and return it by fax (202) 508-6978 or mail to the indicated address.

Additionally, please send us any press coverage your event receives.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at (202) 637-5367 if you have questions or need further information.

• Reprint from AFL-CIO blog 2/25/09

For many of America's workers, going to work can literally be deadly.  The most recent edition of the AFL-CIO's annual Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect shows that an average of 15 workers a day were killed on the job and each day, another 11,000 workers were injured or made ill in 2007.  Overall in 2007 (the latest figures available), 5,488 workers died from workplace injuries and 4.0 million were hurt or made sick by their jobs.

Recent studies have shown that the workplace injury reports may miss as many as two out of three workplace injuries, meaning that the real toll of workplace injuries is much higher than reported.

On April 28, to honor those killed and injured on the job and to call for improved workplace safety, workers in the United States and around the world will mark Workers Memorial Day.  The theme of this is Good Jobs. Safe Jobs. Give Workers a Voice for a Change.

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 (MSHA).

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.

Click here to read how health and safety experts from the labor, scientific and academic fields say OSHA can be rebuilt after the Bush administration spent eight years tearing down the safety agency. 

• OTHER RESOURCES
• United Support & Memorial for Workplace Fatalities (USMWF) - Weekly Toll
• Click here for the 14th annual Death on the Job Report (2008 edition)
• Click here for the 13th annual Death on the Job (2007 edition) or download complete report
• Workers Memorial Day flyer
• Workers Memorial Day poster
• Workers Memorial Day stickers
• Workers Memorial Day clip art
• Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living in English & Spanish
• Good Jobs, Safe Jobs in English & Spanish
• Workers Memorial Day proclamation
• Order materials from The Union Shop Online
• Here are some other ways we honor workers who have been killed or injured on the job:
• A Collection of Workers' Memorials
• Workers Memorial Day poems and tributes