CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia workers who died on the job are being commemorated at the 35th annual Worker’s Memorial Day ceremony.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations were among a few of the unions across a national and worldwide platform to gather at the state capitol Friday for the event.
They were there to honor first responders, coal miners, loggers, correction workers, construction workers and others who were among the 18 lost in West Virginia in 2022, as the annual event commemorates those workers who died on the job from the previous year. The names of those workers were read off during the event.
The West Virginia President of AFL-CIO, Josh Sword said Friday’s ceremony not only honors those employees lost in the year prior, but works to pave the way for safer working environments in the future.
“We do this to make sure we honor them first and foremost, and then make sure we’re committed to continue to fight for safer workplaces for everybody that goes to work in the morning,” Sword said.
Sword said while safety standards on the job have greatly improved over the years, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“We’ve come a long way when it comes to workplace safety,” Sword said. “When you compare the number of deaths in the workplace today to say 100 years ago, it’s significant, but the fact that we still do have deaths in the workplace means that we have a long, long way to go,” he said.
President of the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Albania (SPMSH), Gezim Kalaja, who is currently heading a delegation in the U.S, was a guest speaker at Friday’s event.
Since copper and chrome mining are still significant industries in Albania, Kalaja said they face similar health and safety challenges, and it’s crucial to unite trade unions together to keep striving for better standards.
“We all have the same problems within the mining industry, and this worker’s memorial looks into one of the focuses they have within their trade union movement when it comes to their health and safety, as the life of each worker is very important,” Kalaja said.
Through collective agreements with labor unions around the world, SPMSH strives to encourage all of those union’s stakeholders to recognize and work to implement more safety legislation in the workplace.
They have signed a collaboration agreement with the United Mine Workers of America just a few days ago, which will work to improve and exchange experiences with both trade unions in both countries, and will continue to strengthen future collaborations.
Sword said while mining, logging, and industrial industries have naturally higher rates of danger on the job, fatalities can happen in any industry, which makes the precedent of safety more difficult to control.
“In those arenas especially we have a lot more work to do but there are times in which a worker who you wouldn’t think would be exposed to much risk at all in the workplace and something weird or maybe freak happens,” Sword said.
Regardless, creating a safer working environment for all workers was the overarching goal among the unions at Friday’s event, with the ultimate achievement being the day when no names have to be read off, Sword said.