Workers Memorial Day / Commemorate Workers Killed On The Job & Defend Injured Workers

April 28 is celebrated internationally as workers memorial day to commemorate those workers killed and injured on the job. This year in San Francisco on April 28, 2010 there will be an event to commemorate these workers and to take up the fight for health and safety protection and for proper healthcare and benefits for injured workers.

Workers Memorial Day April 28, 2010
Stand Up For Injured Workers
Commemorate Workers Killed On The Job

Workers in the bay area and nationally continue to get injured and killed on the job in the US including the recent deaths of 29 miners in W. Virginia at the Massey Company. In California, OSHA inspectors have been threatened and retaliated against for speaking out about the decline of the agency and the failure of the agency to do a proper job protecting injured workers and the public. Additionally all the OSHA doctors for California’s 17 million workers have also been terminated thereby threatening the safety of workers and the public. There are more CA Fish and Game Inspectors than Ca-OSHA inspectors and this needs to change.
Hundreds of NUMMI injured workers who have been on disability are also now being discriminated against by the company and treated as 2nd class workers in the compensation/retention plan. Is this fair? Many of these workers have given decades of their lives to the company yet they are now being punished for being disabled. This is cost shifting since their healthcare will now be paid for by the State and SSI when they go on permanent disability. This is yet another example of cost shifting by the corporations making the tax payer pay for their liabilities.
Workers Memorial Day is held every year to commemorate those workers killed and injured on the job. The deregulation of workers compensation in California has also allowed employers and the insurance industry to deny seriously injured workers prompt healthcare and also has cut the permanent disability payments by 50% as well as completely eliminating retraining.
There is a national struggle to strengthen OSHA protection called the Protecting America’s Workers Act H.R. 2067 needs to be supported and also to require that all injured workers are entitled to their exposure records on the job. Health and safety must trump privacy/secrecy laws.
We also support H.R. 635 which will create a US Commission on State Workers Compensation Laws and will study the affect of deregulation for injured workers in the U.S. At the same time, OSHA plans to remove chemical warnings on exposure limits for workers.
We need to educate and reactivate the labor movement to protect our lives and health and safety in the workplace. Please join with workers and their families at this memorial meeting and speak out and demand healthcare and justice for all workers and people in the community.
Wed April 28, 7:00 PM
ILWU Local 34 801 2nd St/Embarcadero San Francisco
Next To AT&T Ballpark

Injured workers, health and safety advocates and family members will participate
Speakers: Partial List
Shiela Davis, Executive Director Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition
Marcus Holder, ILWU Local 10 Education Committee Chair
Leuren Moret, Geoscientist who worked at the Livermore nuclear weapons lab
Carol Criss, SEIU-UHW Kaiser Steward Transcriptionist
Roland Sheppard, Retired BA Painters Local 4
Mike Daly, Ironworkers Labor 377 On The 9/11 First Responders
Dina Padilla, Injured Worker Advocate
Becky McClain, Injured Pfizer Molecular Biologist by telephone from Connecticut
Jack Thrasher, Worker Advocate and Toxicologist
California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day CCWMD
http://www.workersmemorialday.org