Volunteer Activists Are the Heart of the Health and Safety Movement

"Volunteer activists are the heart of the health and safety movement," CWA President Larry Cohen told 1,500 union members who gathered in Pittsburgh this week for the CWA-Steelworkers Health, Safety & Environment Conference.

CWA President Larry Cohen holds up a photograph of Katherine Rodriguez, the daughter of Ray Gonzalez, who died with his coworker Maurice Moore in a tragic on-the-job accident at a former British Petroleum refinery in 2005.

Below: Katherine Rodriguez won the Community Service Award by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health for her work to memorialize victims of workplace fatalities.

Cohen spoke about Ray Gonzalez and his coworker Maurice Moore, whose tragic on-the-job deaths in the Fall of 2005 at a former British Petroleum refinery revealed weak federal oversight in chemical plants.

Gonzalez's son-in-law, Randy Rodriguez, a CWA Local 6222 steward and safety and health chair, has taken a lead role in organizing for workplace safety in the labor movement. So has Gonzalez's daughter, Katherine Rodriguez, who would later receive a Community Service Award by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health for her work to memorialize victims of workplace fatalities.

"We will stand with you until we make sure no more dads die in refineries," Cohen said.

CWA activists are gearing up for April 28, Workers' Memorial Day, when workers and unions remember those workers who have been killed, injured and made sick on the job, and step up the fight for safe workplaces.

Across the country, union members will hold candlelight vigils or a moment of silence for those who have been killed on the job. Many locals will have a short ceremony at a memorial that's been established in their communities and follow up with a public forum or workshop on workers' rights on the job.