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Crews Break Ground on Memorial for Fallen Workers

Falling scaffolds. Dangerous elevator shafts. Toxic chemicals. Poor line insulation.

Each year, more than 5,000 workers lose their lives in on-the-job accidents. Another 50,000 die annually from medical complications related to hazards at work.

As unions continue to press for safer workplaces, they are building a memorial to those who have died at work.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis joined union officials and other activists last month to break ground on a new memorial to fallen employees at a Workers Memorial Day ceremony at the National Labor College’s campus in Silver Spring, Md.

"It is appropriate that we dedicate this memorial at the National Labor College,” Solis said at the April 28 ceremony. “Not only will this calm and quiet spot serve as a gathering place to pause and remember the men and women who have lost their lives while pursuing their livelihood, but it will serve as a reminder to future labor leaders about the importance of workplace safety.”

The memorial will consist of thousands of bricks in a circular pattern, each displaying the name, union information and date of death of each deceased worker. Other installments – including granite memorial benches and slate borders of the exhibit – are planned for the future.  One bench will honor the IBEW’s founding president, Henry Miller, who himself died on the job as a result of a fall from a pole.

Private contributions will fund the memorial and provide general support to the school’s work, which includes spearheading health and safety programs.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka laid a brick in homage to his father Frank, a Pennsylvania coal mine worker, who died of black lung disease in 1999.

Trumka said his brick represents a warning tale “of broken lives, of a man who went out every day to work in the mines and brought home a piece of illness every day.”

The memorial is housed in the center of the college’s campus, just a few miles away from the location of workers’ rights champion Mary Harris “Mother” Jones’ death in 1930. College officials say the bulk of the memorial will be completed this September.

NLC President William E. Scheuerman, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney, United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts, Trumka and Solis joined with hundreds of union leaders and members, college faculty, students and staff at the event.

To hear excerpts of Solis’ Workers Memorial Day speech, click here.

To learn more about the memorial, click here.