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| Family and friends of IAM members who perished from work-related injuries gather at the William W. Winpisinger Center for a service on Workers’ Memorial Day. |
Each year, the labor movement sets aside April 28 as Workers’ Memorial Day to honor the thousands of workers killed, injured or sickened on the job each year. It is also a day to resolve to take action to ensure workers everywhere are as free as possible from workplace hazards.
The IAM has its own Workers’ Memorial on the grounds of the William W. Winpisinger Education Center in Southern Maryland.
Click here to view a photo gallery of the service.
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| IAM General Secretary-Treasurer Robert Roach, Jr. speaks at a commemoration to fallen IAM members on Workers’ Memorial Day. |
“The IAM has a long history of fighting for workplace protections and seeking compensation and justice for our members and their families who have suffered,” said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. “As trade unionists we have a responsibility to be our brother and sisters keepers and do what we can to help raise safety standards for everyone.”
On April 28, friends, family and fellow brothers and sisters gathered to honor 14 men and women who died in work-related incidents, including: Philip Snodgrass, NFFE-IAM Local 2; Jason Crisp, NFFE-IAM Local 5300; Willie Stevenson, IAM Local 2424; Norene Lentz, Robert Paulson and Joseph Waltemyer, IAM Local 175; Jeremy Philbrook, IAM Maine Lobstering Union Local 207; John Wynn III, IAM Local 2665; Justin Simons, IAM Local W246; Geoffrey “Craig” Hunt, IAM Local 946; George Strother, IAM Local 2518; Robert Limon, TCU-IAM Local 6713; Jason Honaker, IAM Local 6731; and Kevin Eskew TCU-IAM Local 6185.
Also honored were those who have passed away in non-work related causes including retired Canadian General Vice President Val Bourgeois, IAM District 725 Assistant Directing Business Representative Gladys Mason and former Winpisinger Education Center employee Peter Rivers, IAM Local 193.
Each member’s name was read aloud and their names were inscribed on bricks that surround the Workers’ Memorial Lighthouse.
The first Workers’ Memorial Day was observed in 1989. April 28 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the day of a similar remembrance in Canada. The IAM’s Worker Memorial was dedicated in 2001.
