Remarks of Bruce Popper, First Vice-President, Rochester Labor Council; Vice-President, 1199SEIU

(Rochester & Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation)Workers Memorial Day
Highland Park
Rochester, New York

April 28, 2009

Remarks of Bruce Popper
Executive Vice-president
Rochester Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO

        Welcome to our annual observance of Workers Memorial Day, a tradition started nationwide, 20 years ago, by union activists, health care professionals, and health & safety advocates on this date that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was enacted into law.

        After nearly 40 years of OSHA, much of that time ruled by administrations hostile to worker safety, our work has barely begun.

        The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) described Workers Memorial Day last week in its "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" as follows:

        "Workers' Memorial Day recognizes those workers who died or sustained work related injuries and illnesses during the previous year.  In 2007, a total of 5,488 U.S. workers died from occupational injuries.
Another 49,000 annual deaths are attributed to work related diseases each year.  In 2007, an estimated 4 million private-sector workers had a nonfatal occupational injury or illness; approximately half of them were transferred, restricted, or took time away from work.  An estimated 3.4 million workers were treated in emergency departments in 2004 (the most recent data available) because of occupational injuries, and approximately 80,000 were hospitalized."

        Brothers and sisters, it is against this backdrop that our ceremony takes place today.

        Sometimes the human toll of workplace injury and illness gets lost in the staggering statistics that we cite when we lobby for reform.

        Mike Gurski was a very talented craftsman, a dedicated family man, and great, all around guy.  Mike was a steamfitter by trade, first in the Navy, and then for decades at the Eastman Kodak Company.  He died one year ago yesterday of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs caused by exposure to asbestos.

        Industry knew of the dangers of asbestos long before it came to be regulated, and industry resisted attempts to protect workers, like Mike Gurski, from exposure.  Now, in 2009, it is settled law that asbestos causes mesothelioma, and that the greatest exposures take place among steamfitters, construction workers, and others who work around it.  

        But for many hazards, there is no settled law.  And for many workers, there is no law enforcement at all - those without a union to back them up, those who work in the public sector in many states, those who work for bosses who know that the odds of ever seeing an OSHA inspector are slim to none.

        I knew Mike Gurski well because he was my only brother-in-law.  My family knows the pain of losing someone to occupational disease.  So do many other families.

        We've been doing these Workers Memorial Days for a long time.  I remember bringing my baby daughter here 17 years ago.  I've been at most of them since.

        I believe this one is different.  I believe that, for the first time in these many years, we have the opportunity for real change.  Just as many were pronouncing our movement for worker rights, including the right to a safe and healthy workplace, dead on arrival, we elected a President and a Congress sympathetic to our cause.

        We have a lot of work to do, but this time we can win if we work hard and smart, and if we stay united.  We can fulfill the vision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.  We can make America a safer place to work.  We can spare more families from the pain of loss.  It is right and it is our duty.