May 2, 2006 – Friends and family gathered at Workers’ Memorial Park on the grounds of the William W. Winpisinger Center in southern Maryland to pay tribute to deceased IAM members whose names were added to bricks circling the monument.
Eight names of IAM members were added to the memorial this year, including; Tom Blasi, Local 18; Kenny Carroll Local 2793; Arthur McDonald, Local 18; Dan Miltimore, Local 18; Scotty Spray, Local 2386; Ernest Woodall, Jr., Local 656; Val Asuncion, Local 1782; Yolanda Corbett, Local 1759.
Meanwhile, yet another memorial to workers killed at work was unveiled last week in Henderson, KY, during a service commemorating Workers’ Memorial Day.
The carved granite monument shows one worker carrying a mortally injured co-worker in a vivid image that captures sadness, loss and anger. “It’s a bold statement, but it depicts how we feel… when a worker is killed on the job,” said Ray Horton, President of the Tri-County Council of Labor, which proposed and built the monument with help from Kentucky’s Machinists and Steelworkers.
“For too long, workers who are killed and injured on the job, or who die from long and painful occupational illnesses, are accepted by an industrial society as a price of doing business,” said GST Warren Mart in remarks at the dedication. “This memorial forces us all to look at the true cost of that calculation and reminds us that for every victim, there is a family left behind.”