Every year on April 28, workers across the United States recognize Workers Memorial Day to honor, remember, and mobilize on behalf of our friends and allies killed, injured, or made ill on the job. On April 28 neearly 55 years ago, the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect to protect the safety of all workers, but there is still much work to be done.

Far too many of us who labor across industries have been subjected to workplace hazards that can kill or permanently disable us. The AFL-CIO reports that each day, 340 workers are killed and more than 6,000 suffer injury or illness because of dangerous working conditions that can be prevented by management. It is our right to go to work and know we will come home safely to our family and loved ones.

While worker fatalities and reported injuries on the railroad are somewhat down in recent years, we still endure the effects of management-led efficiency and fatigue-inducing attendance policies like Precision Scheduled Railroading ("PSR"), "High-Viz" attendance, and long and heavy trains that produce and reproduce unsafe working conditions. As part of a subset of workers deemed "essential" due to our work ensuring our supply chain of crucial goods and services is operational, the nation sometimes (rightly) calls us "heroes," but heroes deserve a real investment by management in truly safe working conditions, and in worker-centered policies that protect us over management profits.

This Workers Memorial Day, we remember those who have sacrificed their lives and health while performing their duties. We will never stop fighting for a healthy and safe workplace environment.

For many years, Railroad Workers United had maintained a "Remember Fallen Rails" initiative that maintains a list, commemorates, and offers solidarity to the families of those killed on the railroad. You can learn more here — and our thanks to RWU solidarity member and volunteer Will Maus for his dedication to this initiative.

In the words of the famous labor union organizer "Mother" Mary Harris Jones, we must always remember to "Mourn for the dead, and fight like hell for the living!"

social media tag: #WorkersMemorialDay

In Solidarity, The Int'l Steering Committee of Railroad Workers United