|
“On this Workers Memorial Day, we honor and remember those who
lost their lives on the job and affirm every worker’s basic
right to a safe and healthy workplace,” he said during the
ceremony.
Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea also honored fallen workers,
and the creation of OSHA.
“Yet today, we see that oversight is being eroded. Senate Bill
1976 in the Illinois General Assembly is our promise to
everyone, anybody who works in Illinois for a living, that the
Illinois labor movement will continue to advocate for safe
workplaces,” Drea said.
Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs remembered his father’s jaw
being wired closed one Thanksgiving. Frerichs reflected on his
father, as a truck driver, getting into a wreck near a train
track and barely escaping before a train hit the truck.
“This was in early November and I remember him eating his
Thanksgiving meal through a straw. It was tough,” Frerichs
shared with the crowd in attendance. “Broke a rib, lost his
gallbladder, there were a lot of complications. But we were
lucky. He eventually did make it back home from the hospital.
Too many don’t because of neglect.”
Frerichs said the wreck was caused by a lack of cleanup and
signage around railroad construction. He says that highlights
the need for persistence in workplace safety regulations.
Union members placed roses in honor of fallen laborers at the
base of a repolica workers memorial monument that is being
stored during construction at the state capitol. |
|
