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23 April, 2007
With 19 countries now recognising 28 April as the official International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, attention is now squarely on the United Nations General Assembly to also recognise the day.
To that end, on 3 May, a worker and trade union delegation will meet with officials of the Executive Office of the UN's Secretary General to update them on global labour's drive for recognition of the day. The meeting in New York City is hosted by the Support and Coordination Office of the UN's Economic and Social Council.
Trade union representatives from each continent, along with those from the ITUC, will update officials from the Secretary General's office on the growing number of 28 April activities scheduled for this week, as well as on priorities to be contained in the official recognition of such a day.
Those priorities include: Recognition and enforcement of worker and trade union rights to overcome barriers to occupational health and safety; A better understanding, tracking system, and response to occupational cancers; Ratification of global occupational health and safety instruments and measures by national governments, with aggressive promotion to strengthen reporting and enforcement.
A global ban on the production, use and commercialisation of asbestos in all of its forms; and the need for better and more enduring mechanisms to report performance of HIV/AIDS targets and commitments made by intergovernmental institutions, especially the G8.
Ed Thomas from the Canadian Union of Public Employees will lead the delegation. The Canadian labour movement is largely credited for the initial push, in 1984, to proclaim 28 April as Workers’ Memorial Day each year. The Canadian government formally recognised the day in 1991 when the Day of Morning Act was passed. Last year, the UN agreed to an annual reporting of 28 April by the ITUC.
"It has taken a long time to reach this point, but our goal draws closer every time another country adopts 28 April as a national observance day," said Thomas. "The recent decision by the governments of the Ukraine and the Andean Community, which will bring to 19 the number of countries that officially recognise the day, has injected fresh energy into the trade union delegation that will join me in New York."
The trade unionists heading to the UN on 3 May will be part of a broader trade union group that will attend this year's UN Commission on Sustainable Development. The unionists will highlight the importance of good industrial relations regarding workplace health and safety within the context of sustainable development.
The nations that have adopted 28 April as an official day of remembrance include: Argentina, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Greece, Luxembourg, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Venezuela.
In 1996, the UN's Commission on Sustainable Development first observed a global day to commemorate dead and injured workers when a trade union delegation was allowed to light a candle and incense at one of its sessions. At that time, Canada was the only country that had adopted 28 April as a national day of observance.