SALEM — It’s a day to remember those who died on the job. It’s a day to grieve with families, friends, and communities. It’s a day to renew our responsibility to create and maintain safe and healthy workplaces for all workers in Oregon. Oregon workers who died on the job will be honored with a ceremony Friday, April 28, at noon in Salem. The Occupational Safety and Health Division (Oregon OSHA) – part of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) – and the Oregon AFL-CIO invite all Oregonians to attend the Workers Memorial Day observance. Oregon AFL-CIO will livestream the ceremony at https://www.facebook.com/OregonAFLCIO/. The in-person event will take place at the Fallen Workers Memorial outside the Labor and Industries Building, 350 Winter St. NE, on the Capitol Mall. The memorial service, coordinated by the Oregon AFL-CIO, will feature remarks from Bob Livingston, labor liaison for Gov. Tina Kotek, and state Reps. Dacia Grayber and Travis Nelson. The ceremony will include the reading of the names of Oregon workers who died on the job in 2022. “Workers are the backbone of this state,” Gov. Kotek said. “Today and every day, we must honor Oregon workers who have tragically lost their lives while working to make our state a better place. As we stand with their families and support them through their grief, I will commit to always pushing for safer working conditions across the state to ensure the health and well-being of our workers.” Oregon OSHA Administrator Renée Stapleton and Oregon AFL-CIO President Graham Trainor will also be among the event speakers. Oregon workplaces are safer and healthier today than in previous decades. Yet, there are still far too many preventable on-the-job deaths each year. “We have to do better for Oregon’s workers, because everyone deserves to expect to come home safely from a day’s work,” Trainor said. “We’ve made progress on workplace safety, but our work is not done. Each year, thousands of workers are killed, and millions more suffer injury and illness because of dangerous working conditions that are preventable. On April 28, Oregon’s unions will recommit ourselves to doing everything we can to improve workplace safety.” Through a partnership of labor, business, and government working together to bolster workplace safety and health, Oregon’s fatality and injury and illness rates have steadily declined for decades. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement. “As we honor the memories of the lives tragically taken from us, we must not waver in our commitment to protecting the safety and health of all workers in Oregon,” Stapleton said. “Instead, we must renew our commitment. We must do so by continuing to educate workers about their unequivocal right to a safe and healthy workplace. We must do so by redoubling our efforts to make sure the message to employers is equally unmistakable: That they are obligated to protect their workers from harm. And we must do so by directing our resources to the maximum extent possible to identify and eliminate workplace hazards.” The annual Workers Memorial Day serves as a nationwide day of remembrance. The observance is traditionally held on April 28 because Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act on that date in 1970.
