Acciona Group marked Workers’ Memorial Day across Spain, the Philippines, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Panama, Peru, the Netherlands and Mexico through a coordinated global safety initiative linked to BWI campaigns. Activities included minutes of silence, workplace training, awareness sessions and safety campaigns focused on occupational health, psychosocial risks, mental health and heat stress. The company also developed materials supporting the “Too Hot To Work” campaign, reinforcing prevention measures and safety culture across projects and construction sites in multiple countries.
In Mexico, BWI affiliate CIT marked Workers’ Memorial Day through a social media campaign supporting BWI’s action on heat stress. The initiative highlighted the dangers extreme temperatures pose to workers and promoted awareness of the need for stronger occupational health and safety protections.
In Brazil, BWI affiliated unions including SINTRACOM Londrina, SINTRIVEL, Químicos Unificados, SINTEPAV-BA and others marked Workers’ Memorial Day through remembrance events, workplace training, demonstrations and safety campaigns involving around 1,000 participants. Activities highlighted the importance of occupational health and safety, workers’ rights and prevention of workplace accidents. A major protest at the Amanco plant denounced unsafe conditions following a serious injury in which a subcontracted worker lost his hand. Unions also carried out extensive worksite visits and awareness activities linked to the “Green April” campaign for safer workplaces.
In Panama, BWI affiliate SUNTRACS marked Workers’ Memorial Day with a nationwide programme of workplace assemblies, training sessions, videos and social media campaigns involving over 2,000 participants. Activities commemorated workers killed in past accidents while promoting occupational health and safety, mental health and stronger prevention measures. The union carried out on-site talks and risk prevention training across multiple projects, highlighting workers’ rights secured through collective bargaining and reaffirming its long-standing campaign for safer working conditions and reduced workplace deaths.
BWI affiliate UOCRA marked Workers’ Memorial Day with training, videos, workplace assessments and social media safety campaigns. Activities addressed heat stress prevention, psychosocial risks including stress and harassment, and safety measures for high-risk construction work such as working at height. The union also carried out workplace risk assessments and practical safety training, emphasising prevention, worker participation and the recognition of health and safety as a fundamental right.
In Peru, BWI affiliate, FTCCP marked Workers’ Memorial Day with a broad campaign of seminars, training sessions, videos and social media outreach focused on occupational safety and health in construction. Activities included the certification of the first 50 workplace safety promoters under the “I build health and safety” programme, alongside virtual training on risk assessment and fall prevention. Working with government bodies and industry organisations, the union emphasised prevention, worker education and stronger safety standards to reduce fatal and disabling workplace accidents.
In the Dominican Republic, BWI affiliates including FENTICOMMC, AMACOA, FUNTRACON and FETRACOM marked Workers’ Memorial Day through training, awareness activities and a candlelight ceremony honouring victims of occupational accidents and diseases. Events in San Francisco de Macorís and Santo Domingo focused on workplace risks, legal protections and prevention measures, with particular attention to heat stress and hazardous materials. The activities concluded with a candlelight ceremony attended by more than 300 construction workers.
Across Asia, members of the ANROEV network came together in different ways, but with one shared purpose: to remember workers whose lives were lost, and to keep fighting for those still at risk.
From tributes and testimonies to actions and collective calls for safer workplaces, these commemorations show that remembrance is not passive — it is a commitment.
Swipe through to see how each organization honored IWMD 2026 in their own countries.
Let these moments remind us: our work does not end with remembrance. We carry it forward.
On April 28, 2026, the Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD) marked this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day with Tinig at Tindig: A Workers’ Memorial Program. Through art and testimonies, workers, youth, and communities collectively commemorated the lives of occupational safety and health (OSH) rights victims.
The program, held at Iglesia Filipina Independiente National Cathedral, began with a liturgical service by Reverend Irma Mepico-Balaba. Bereaved families, workers, and leaders, testifying against the government and companies’ cultural negligence of OSH, reaffirmed their commitment to fight for accountability, safe and healthy workplaces, living wage, and workers’ right to organize.
The Philippine Labor Movement Archive (PLMA), through the Pagkakaisa ng Mamamayan ng Tundo (PAMATU)—an organization composed of community members of Tundo, also exhibited Manggagawang Tubong Tundo: Binhi ng Militanteng Paglaban ng Kilusang Paggawa (Workers of Tundo: Seed of Militant Struggle of the Labor Movement) to pay tribute to the rich history of Tundo as an important site of the Filipino working-class’s militant struggle.
Photo Courtesy: Mayday Multimedia
The memorial program was part of IOHSAD’s build-up activity for May Day, pushing mainly the criminalization of OSH Standards violations.
To mark 28 April the General Secretary of the Bangladesh Free Trade Unions Congress (BFTUC) Repon Chowdhury spoke on the the morning talkshow at ATN Bangla.
Photo Courtesy: Mayday Multimedia
