On this National Day of Mourning, we remember all workers who lost their lives on the job, who were injured or who were made ill by workplace hazards. We honour these fellow workers, not only through our remembrance but also with our commitment to the fight for workplaces that are safe and healthy. No one should have to sacrifice their well being or life for their job.
The Day of Mourning was created by CUPE members more than 40 years ago. For many years, we worked with allies in the labour movement and with the New Democratic Party to win official recognition of April 28 as a national Workers’ Day of Mourning.
This year we commemorate in particular the loss of two CUPE members: a member of CUPE/Power Workers’ Union Local 1000 who died in March; and a member of CUPE 5167, City of Hamilton, who died in April and whose fellow roads operator was also seriously injured in the same roadside accident.
The loss of these CUPE members will further inspire our work to prevent work-related deaths, illnesses and injuries.
The federal Liberals chose to hold the federal election on the same day as the Day of Mourning. This marked disregard for workers has inevitably meant the day being overshadowed. Still, a greater challenge may come in the new government’s response to the tariff threats. We must ensure that efforts to protect markets, jobs and trade don’t come at the expense of health, safety and workers’ lives.
In our province, the Ford Conservatives have shown themselves willing to ignore workers’ well being in countless way. In the midst of an affordability crisis, they returned $2 billion in surplus WSIB funds as special rebates to employers. They could have restored loss-of-earnings coverage from 85% to 90% for injured workers, increased funding for the six Ontario health and safety associations, and expanded coverage to 1.5 million Ontario workers. Instead, they chose to rob from injured workers to give to employers.
And that decision was taken in addition to the other forms of damage the Conservatives have inflicted on Ontario workers’ health and safety: repealing sick leave provisions, cutting workplace safety inspections, and threatening workers’ mental health through underfunding and understaffing in our public services.
In the face of these challenges, we each of us must become activists for health and safety, and use every available tool, from joint workplace health and safety committees to our powers under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, to protect ourselves and our co-workers.
On April 28 and every day, it is our duty as trade unionists to recall and act on the words of American labour hero Mother Jones and “pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
