Workers Memorial Day
‘Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living’

Illinois Rep. Lane Evans tells participants that environmental standards and labor laws are currently under attack.

Autoworkers, ironworkers, carpenters, letter carriers, and many other union members in the Peoria, Ill., area came together on the evening of April 27 to honor those who had lost their lives on the job in the past year.

The event began with a march from Peoria’s Labor Temple to the Workers Memorial Park adjacent to City Hall. After an invocation by Dan Silverthorn, executive director of the West Central Illinois Building Trades Council, leaders from several unions read the names of their members who had been killed on the job.

Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., noted that this is the 30th anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. He reported that the recent rollbacks by the Bush administration on environmental and workplace safety issues are the largest since the Department of Labor was founded.

Mike McNally, president of the West Central Illinois Labor Council, announced that it only took 100 days for the Bush administration to kill the ergonomics standards bill that has taken 10 years to bring into existence. He said this is further evidence of the need for greater involvement in the political arena.

UAW Local 974 President Dave Chapman reads the names of UAW members killed in workplace accidents in the past year.

McNally also talked about the more than 50,000 AFL-CIO members in Illinois chapters, suggesting that if you add spouses, older children and family members, that huge block of votes would make a significant difference in the priorities of this state.

Democratic State Senator Patrick Welsh recalled the death of his grandfather after being told by his employer to leave his sick bed and return to work or be fired. He told the crowd of over 200 that the current safety regulations are due largely to the efforts of organized labor, and that it will take a great deal of effort to keep them in place. He said that these days many employers expect “King Kong labor for Hong Kong wages.”

The evening was closed by a march led by Rep. Evans, to a courtyard across from the local Holiday Inn. There, management is fighting employee’s efforts to join Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 16. The employer is using familiar tactics, including mandatory captive audience meetings to scare workers.

Rep. Evans reminded those gathered that fear and intimidation are the employer’s favorite weapons against workers trying to organize. He congratulated the Holiday Inn workers for their courage and said, “The grassroots of democracy is the beginning of all change.”

Rick Corbin
Local 974

Local News:  1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5

Region 4

Local News

Other Regions

Solidarity Home

Home | News | Search | E-mail | Solidarity