Pray for the Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living

CWA Local 4900's Joe Alvarez read the names of workers who had died on the job in the South Bend, Ind., area.

In the immortal words of Mother Jones, "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." CWA members took to the streets for stronger workplace protections in honor of Workers' Memorial Day on April 28.

Workers' Memorial Day is held on the anniversary of the passage of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the federal law that made safe workplaces the right of all workers. More than 4,600 workers were killed on the job in 2011, the latest year for which the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health has complete data. Immigrant worker fatalities were particularly alarming; more than two Latino workers, many of whom were immigrants, were killed on the job every day in 2011.

Together with families, community members, union leaders, faith groups, and health and safety activists, CWAers attended vigils and rallies to remember and honor those who have been hurt or killed on the job.

Ann Converso, a registered nurse and member of the CWA Healthcare Coordinating Council, was a keynote speaker, alongside Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY), at a memorial service in Buffalo, NY. CWA Local 1168 also took part in Workers' Memorial Day activities with WYNCOSH.

CWA Locals 1101, 1103 and 1109 participated in activities conducted with NYCOSH. At one event, activists gathered at 92 Laight St. in Lower Manhattan, the site where Anthony Nahr, a parking attendant and IBT Local 272 member, drowned during Hurricane Sandy.

CWA Local 4900 participated in a ceremony in South Bend, Ind., where a CWA member read off the names of workers in the area who had died.

CWA Local 9003 joined the Los Angeles Federation of Labor and LACOSH in highlighting cases where workers died because safety guidelines were not followed.

CWA Local 9412, together with UC Berkeley's Labor Occupational Health Program and WORKSAFE, participated in a program about the ongoing struggles for workplace health, safety.

And in Houston, Texas, injured workers and their families gathered to share their stories at the event at CWA Local 6222, as well as push for increased regulatory measures in Texas workplaces. The Houston Chronicle reported:

Adriana Martinez wept as she reflected on the death of her husband, Orestes Martinez, who was crushed in a construction accident near the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in 2009.

The 29-year-old's picture was featured at a remembrance Saturday for 56 Houston-area workers who were fatally injured in workplace accidents in 2012. The vigil, which also honored other Texas workers killed, was held in recognition of Worker's Memorial Day, an international day of remembrance observed on April 28.

Three years removed from the tragedy, Martinez now aims to help raise awareness concerning worker safety in Texas.

"I will never be the same," Martinez said. "I don't want this to happen to anyone else."

United Support & Memorial for Workplace Fatalities spokesperson Katherine Rodriguez said the ceremony is especially poignant given the recent fertilizer plant explosion in West Texas, which claimed more than a dozen lives.

"Our hearts goes out to all the men and women affected in West," Rodriguez said. "Many more (workers) died in incidents that never made any headlines."