Time to Start Planning for Workers' Memorial Day April 28

Order Workers Memorial Day materials at www.aflcio.org or click the above picture.

With unions under vicious attack in many states, the annual Workers' Memorial Day commemoration April 28 is especially critical this year, and CWA is urging locals to begin planning events now.

The 2011 theme is "Safe Jobs Save Lives: Our Work's Not Done." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and their GOP allies in Congress are trying to make sure of that, as they fight new safety proposals and try to roll back existing rules.

Despite the vigilance of CWA and other unions, more than 5,000 workers are killed on the job every year, tens of thousands die from occupational diseases and literally millions suffer workplace injuries.

CWA lost three members, all AT&T technicians, to preventable workplace fatalities in 2010:

• Local 3212 member William Britt Hunt was killed in Georgia in January while working alone on a job that should have been assigned two technicians. Hunt was winding telecommunications cable onto a winch when his feet got caught in the cable. He was dragged into the winch and fatally injured.
• Local 4100 member Kevin James was killed in Detroit in April when an overhead electrical wire fell on him while he was in doing aerial repairs on a telephone pole.
• Local 4320 member Bryan Green was killed in Ohio in September when his company truck slipped out of gear and pinned him while he was repairing a telecommunications pedestal.

Workers' Memorial Day flyers and materials to help you plan events are available online from the AFL-CIO. Click here or go to www.aflcio.org. CWA Health and Safety Director Dave LeGrande asks locals to let CWA know what they're planning by filling out a form, available here. Email the form, and any questions, to legrande@cwa-union.org.