The Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development Iohsad Phils will hold its Workers’ Memorial Day activity on April 26, Wednesday morning in front of the Department of Justice. We will join the Kentex workers and their families to demand justice for all the victims of the workplace fire that claimed the lives of more than 72 workers almost two years ago. We will post other updates on our WMD activities in the coming days.
#IWMD17 #WorkersMemorialDay2017 #SafeWorkplacesforAll
The 2017 Workers Memorial Day materials are ready. The theme this year is “Safe. Jobs. Every Worker’s Right.” The materials have been posted on the AFL-CIO website.
Multiple copies of materials are available for ordering (order form available on the AFL-CIO website). I urge you to distribute the materials widely and to organize or participate in Workers Memorial Day events. (A website for posting and listing events will be available shortly).
After years of struggle we won new rules to protect workers from deadly silica dust and beryllium, a tougher coal dust standard for miners and stronger anti-retaliation protections for workers who report job injuries. But these hard-won gains are now threatened. The Trump administration has launched an all-out assault on regulations. The president has ordered that for every new protection, two existing safeguards must be removed from the books. At the same time Republicans in Congress have moved quickly to overturn new rules issued by the Obama administration. Agency budgets and enforcement programs are on the chopping block. The safety and health of workers and the public are in danger.
We need to organize and fight back. Please get involved and organize actions, activities, or observances in your workplaces and communities to highlight the toll of job injuries and deaths. Demand that elected officials put workers’ well-being above corporate interests. And demand jobs that are safe and healthy and pay fair wages. Make it clear that the labor movement will defend the right of every worker to a safe job and fight until that promise is fulfilled.
For additional information and to order copies of materials, please contact the AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department at 202-637-5366, or visit the AFL-CIO website at: www.aflcio.org/WorkersMemorialDay.
In Solidarity,
Peg Seminario
Safety and Health Director
AFL-CIO
Dear friends,
Thanks a lot for your positive feedback on the theme for 28th April 2017. This time, and always under the broad umbrella of “unions make work safer”, we are inviting trade unions to consider addressing all actions needed to protect the health and safety of the most vulnerable in our workplaces, due among others, to gender, origins, class and/or sexual orientation. We’d be very pleased to get any background documents/research on these issues you might have developed in your union to help elaborating the international background document for the day.
Here are some suggested taglines:
We have already received confirmation from the TUC UK on their willingness to take on this issue calling to “protect those hidden from safety” and focus on the hidden and new GIG economies, the risks faced by migrant workers and the issue of gender.
The AFL-CIO in the US has already released a poster that refers to our common theme as well:
Social media: you can start using #iwmd17
in Twitter and posting news in the Facebook Group
Please ensure you send me details of your planned activities, any resources and artwork you produce for 28 April 2017. And please remember to give us your email to be included in the 28th April e-list.
28 April mailing list: Subscribe to our mailing list
Thanks again to you all for your commitment!
Rory, Jawad and Anabella (the 28th April team)
This year’s International Workers Memorial Day will focus on inequalities in occupational health and the role unions play in narrowing the inequalities gap.
The TUC says this theme for the world’s largest health and safety campaign, held on 28 April each year, will allow unions to raise discrimination based on gender, race, origins and class, which have all been linked to higher rates of occupational disease and injury.
It also allows unions to emphasis the unacceptable risks facing workers in the ‘gig’ economy, where the combination of poor conditions and job fear can amplify risks.
International Workers’ Memorial Day – TUC and ITUC/Hazards 28 April webpages. The main twitter hashtag will be #iwmd17