April Newsletter: Honoring the workers who have lost their lives on the job

Dear friends:

Today is Workers’ Memorial Day.  Each year, more than 5,000 workers die from job injuries and 135,000 more from occupational diseases. That’s nearly 340 workers every single day.

Across Illinois today, working families will gather to honor the fallen and renew the fight for safe jobs. This Workers’ Memorial Day, we also honor the life of AFFI Local 2 member Captain/EMT David Meyer, who died last week while fighting a garage fire in Chicago.

But we’re not just remembering those we’ve lost — we’re demanding action to protect the living. Most workplace deaths are preventable, and our leaders must be empowered to do whatever is possible to prevent them.

Instead, the federal government is failing us.

Last month, the Trump administration took a sledgehammer to worker safety by gutting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)—laying off more than 1,000 employees, shuttering research centers, and stalling life-saving rules. This is a direct assault on the American workers who rely on these agencies to enforce safety standards to ensure that they return home to their loved ones after a hard day’s work.

NIOSH keeps workers safe by studying workplace health concerns, from chemicals to machinery. NIOSH’s work has saved countless lives: their research into 9/11 first responders has improved protective equipment for all firefighters and other first responders. Its data supports OSHA and MSHA regulations — the very rules that ensure you aren’t breathing in asbestos or losing your hearing to unsafe machinery.

We’re seeing the consequences. The Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) paused a new silica dust rule vital for coal miners because NIOSH no longer has the resources to help implement it. Make no mistake, these cuts will cost lives.

Today, on Workers’ Memorial Day, you can take two quick actions to fight back.

First, you can call your members of Congress to demand the restoration of NIOSH’s funding and staff. 

Second, the Illinois AFL-CIO worked with State Senator Robert Peters to introduce SB1976, the Illinois Workers’ Rights and Worker Safety Act. This bill would ensure that no matter what reckless decisions are made in by the Trump administration, Illinois will uphold the hard-fought federal workplace protections that have existed for decades. More than that, it allows our state to raise the bar on safety, not lower it.

E-mail your state representatives and demand they support SB1976 here.

Here’s the truth: a safe job isn’t a luxury. It’s a right. And when that right is stripped away, working people die. Illinois can lead the nation by saying no to dangerous deregulation and yes to real, enforceable worker protections.

We owe it to every worker who never made it home and to every worker still fighting to stay safe on the job. Because we are not just fighting for better laws. We are fighting for our lives.

In solidarity,

Tim Drea and Pat Devaney

Read the rest of the updates from our April newsletter here