Wichita Area Unions to commemorate Kansas’s fallen workers at Workers Memorial Day Celebration
On Tuesday, April 28th, working families from the Wichita area will gather to
commemorate Workers Memorial Day in honor of workers who were injured or killed on the job in Kansas last year and to call for stronger laws protecting workers’ health and safety. The Wichita / Hutchinson Labor Federation will host it’s annual Workers Memorial Day Dinner to call on the new administration and the Kansas Legislature to enact critical changes to our nation’s health and safety standards. The event will be one of hundreds around the world as working families and union members commemorate sisters and brothers who have died on the job.
According to the AFL-CIO’s new Death on the Job report, 48,200 people were injured and 100 people were killed due to job-related hazards in Kansas in 2007.
“After eight years of cuts and rollbacks by the Bush Administration, workers’ safety and health is in serious danger” said Wichita Labor Federation President Judy Pierce, “We’re coming out here to raise our voices and call for a change in direction and action to strengthen our job safety laws and protections.”
Since 1970 when the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed, more than 390,000 workers’ lives have been saved due to improvements in job safety protections. Yet nationally, more than 4 million workers were injured and 5,488 workers were killed due to job hazards in 2007. Another 50,000 to 60,000 died due to occupational diseases.
WHO: Union workers, families and community members, with Keynote address by Kansas House Minority Leader Paul Davis, and representatives from OSHA
WHAT / WHEN / WHERE: Workers Memorial Day Dinner, Tuesday April 28th 7pm. At the Machinists Hall, 3830 S. Meridian.
The 2009 AFL-CIO Death on the Job report will be available on April 28 at http://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/
