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Australia: Unions Tasmania to host International Workers’ Memorial Day service, opens completed Workers’ Commemorative Park

Media Release and alert: Unions Tasmania hosts International Workers’ Memorial Day service, opens completed Workers’ Commemorative Park

 Unions, workers, families, community members, and political leaders will gather early tomorrow morning to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day, a day of remembrance observed across the globe on the 28th of April each year.

Unions lead services, vigils, and other observances to remember those workers killed or injured because of their work, and to renew our commitment to fight for healthy and safe workplaces.

 Monday’s service will take place at the Workers’ Commemorative Park (often referred to as the Workers’ Memorial Park) in Launceston. This years’ service will be particularly meaningful with the park having recently undergone significant works to complete it to its original design. After many years of campaigning for government funding, Unions Tasmania was proud to finally secure funding from the Federal and State Governments to allow this development to occur.

“IWMD is deeply important to unions because it is a day that reflects the very heart of what we stand for: protecting workers so they can make it home safely. The day is a solemn reminder that for every safety campaign we run, there is a worker who did not make it home,” said Unions Tasmania Secretary, Jessica Munday.

“This year, we are pleased to be holding the service in the Workers Commemorative Park which sees most elements of the original design complete. Alongside Guy and Karen Hudson, who conceived of this park after their son Matthew’s tragic death at work, we have worked together to see this park made into an important space for reflection, remembrance, and as a powerful reminder to the broader community to put safety at work first.”

Tragically, over the last five years Australia has recorded on average 191 workers killed each year on the job.

When it comes to progress, Ms Munday said, “We have come a long way in improving safety on the job, including winning industrial manslaughter in Tasmania last year. But we’ve not come far enough. In Tasmania, serious workplace injuries are rising – especially from psychological injury and body strain. Behind every statistic is a person, a family, a community affected. Today is an important day to not just remember workers, but to act for safer workplaces.”

Memorial service details

When:                   8:00AM Monday 28 April 2025

Where:                 Workers’ Commemorative Park, Elizabeth Gardens Invermay (near UTAS Stadium)

Speakers:            Jessica Munday, Secretary, Unions Tasmania

                                Guy Hudson, Workers’ Commemorative Park founder

                                Senator Helen Polley

                                The Honourable Felix Ellis MP

Global: International Workers’ Memorial Day 2025: Remember the dead, fight for the living – ITF

Every year, thousands of transport workers are killed while doing their jobs. Millions more suffer preventable injuries and illnesses due to dangerous working conditions. 

On International Workers’ Memorial Day, we honour their memory — and reaffirm our commitment to fighting for the living. 

From aviation to fishing, railways to the streets, docks to the seas – workers are still paying the price for a transport industry too often driven by profit, not safety. And in every corner of the industry, ITF unions are demanding change.

A union movement built on safety

Protecting lives and demanding safe, healthy workplaces has always been at the heart of the trade union movement — and always will be. At the ITF, we believe that no job is worth a life.  

At the 2024 ITF Congress, affiliates unanimously passed a motion that makes clear: every transport worker has a fundamental right to a safe and healthy working environment. That means protection from the hazards that cause stress, fatigue, injury, illness or death.

Safety is not optional — it’s a right

Every transport worker has the right to come home safe. But across our industries, employers and governments are still failing to take that right seriously. We’re raising our voice to say: enough is enough.

We’re calling on governments to ratify and enforce international safety standards, including: 

  • ILO C152 (Dock Work)

  • ILO C155 (Occupational Safety and Health)

  • ILO C161 (Occupational Health Services)

  • ILO C187 (Promotional Framework)

  • ILO C188 (Work in Fishing) 

  • ILO C190 (Violence and Harassment)

These aren’t just conventions. They’re lifesaving protections that every worker deserves. 

What we’re demanding from employers

Employers must take responsibility for workers’ safety — across every transport sector, every border, and every shift. 

We are demanding action now:

  1. Guarantee a safe and healthy working environment for all transport workers – whether directly employed, subcontracted, or working informally across global supply chains.

  2. Work with unions: Safety policies must be developed through negotiation with workers and their representatives.

  3. Make safety inclusive: That means a gender-responsive approach that protects not just physical safety, but also workers’ mental health, wellbeing, and freedom from violence and harassment.

  4. Invest in safety: Employers must provide adequate resources to implement safety measures and ensure all workers – including apprentices, cadets and trainees – have equal access to high-quality OSH training.

  5. Address the full spectrum of risk — including those linked to climate change, cross-border transport, and the introduction of new technologies.

  6. Recognise the commute as part of the job: Safe transport to and from work is a workplace issue, and employers must extend their duty of care beyond the worksite.

No more negligence. No more exploitation. No more silence.

Occupational safety and health is a fundamental right, and we will keep fighting until every worker, in every corner of transport, is safe.

https://www.itfglobal.org/en/news/international-workers-memorial-day-2025-remember-dead-fight-living

“The climate crisis is no longer a distant threat; it’s a present danger to workers around the globe. It’s imperative that we demand robust policies and practices to protect our working people from the hazardous impacts of climate change. Our call to action is clear: we must integrate climate risk assessments and emergency preparedness into our occupational safety and health standards.”

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle

Britain: UK Hazards Campaign welcomes the new Workers Guide to action on indoor workplace air pollution produced by TUCAN (Trade Union Clean Air Network) and Greener Jobs Alliance

On April 28th, International Workers Memorial Day this year as we remember all those who have died because of work (1) workers across the UK will also be campaigning on how the climate crisis is making their work unsafe and unhealthy putting lives and livelihoods in jeopardy.  A climate crisis that is doubly impacting on workers lives by creating suffocating  and deadly air.

In the UK more than 40,000 people a year will die as a result of air pollution.  And it’s not just about traffic fumes but workers are exposed to toxic indoor air as well.    The guide provides workers with concrete actions they can take to work with their employers to reduce the air pollution they are exposed to.(2)

“No-one should be exposed to polluted air, be injured, develop occupational diseases or die because of work.  The vast majority of these are foreseeable and preventable.  Workplace harm is a blight on our society and for our families and loved ones.”

The Hazards Campaign calls for more urgent action to ensure that workers are not exposed to unsafe and polluted air inside and outside the workplace.  (3)

The Workers Guide provides detailed information on what employers should be doing to prevent exposure to polluted air, how ventilation and air filtration can be improved, practical actions which show what workers are being exposed to, and finally what actions workers can take to clean the air and reduce pollution at work.

‘ We make the invisible visible through air monitoring and then put in place solutions to reduce pollutants and clean the air.  This is a win win situation because, healthier workers have reduced sickness and absence, there is less disruption to services and production and it helps towards achieving net zero carbon targets.’

For more information Please see:

 

www.hazardscampaign.org.uk

England/UK: A moving and original approach to marking International Workers’ Memorial Day in St Helen’s

St Helen’s Workers Memorial is based on a glass worker playing with their child in the open air.  Attendees pin purple forget-me- knot ribbons to the coat each year. Very beautiful and moving.

Nigeria: National President of CCESSA addresses construction workers on 28 April – #iwmd23 [Video}

Ayodeji Adeyemo the National President of CCESSA addresses construction workers on 28 April

“Every working person has the right to expect to return home at the end their day’s work. No one should die just to make a living.”

ITUC Deputy General Secretary Owen Tudor.

Global: CSI 28 de abril Infografías y recursos de redes sociales

La CSI ha publicado una gran cantidad de infografías y recursos de redes sociales en español para su uso en la promoción del 28 de abril. Puede ver ejemplos más abajo en esta página y el conjunto completo aquí.

Spanish Infographics

International Workers Memorial Day #IWMD23

The majority of work-related deaths and accidents in the world happen in #ASIA. This must be stopped. Workers must be guaranteed safe and healthy working conditions. This #IWMD22, we say, “Recognise #OSH as a fundamental ILO right at work!”

ITUC Asia-Pacific

 

“Today, we commemorate International Workers Memorial Day #IWMD22. 3 million workers die of work accidents and diseases each year. Occupational health and safety must be at the centre of fundamental rights”

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary.