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8 February, 2010
Workers’ Memorial Day this year will use the moniker “Unions Make Work Safer,” as global labour moves 28 April – the Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers – as the one day that every day must bring in the fight for safe, healthy, and risk-free workplaces. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has designated that theme for 2010 in order to emphasize the vital role trade unions play in constantly improving occupational health and safety.
In the UK, the government became one of over 20 countries worldwide to officially designate 28 April as Workers’ Memorial Day when Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper announced formal recognition of the day on 28 January. After beginning consultations in July 2009, it became clear to the government that the growing number of observances and health/safety renewal commitments on 28 April each year merited official designation.
What UK recognition now means is that the government will encourage commemorations of the day throughout the country, with ministers committed to support and promote public commemorations. “Workers’ Memorial Day has been an important date in the trade union calendar for many years and we look forward to working with ministers to increase its profile,” stated Trades Unions Congress (TUC) General Secretary Brendan Barber.
The ITUC expects 2010 to exceed the 10,000 activities that occurred in over 100 countries around 28 April 2009. The ITUC itself will produce and release background materials, campaign ideas, and additional tools as 28 April 2010 nears.
“Workers’ Memorial Day gains more local, national, and international recognition with each passing year,” stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “And it is only fitting this year to draw attention to workers who, through their unions, have done so much to improve everyday workplace safety and health.”
The facts bear this out. In Canada, a recent report by the Ontario Safety and Health Agency found that 79% of unionised worksites report high compliance with health and safety legislation, while between 54% and 61% of non-union workplaces report such compliance.
In Australia, unionised workplaces are three times more likely to have a safety committee and twice as likely to have performed a safety audit as non-union-sites.
The ICEM encourages affiliates to begin preparing now for 28 April. The day became officially recognized by the ILO in 2001 as the “International Day of Action for Safety and Health at Work,” but had its origins before then. The ITUC marks the day to 1996 when the UN lit Commemorative Candles for the 188 victims of the Kader toy factory in Thailand in 1993.
But the commemoration day has its true roots in the Canadian trade union movement, where unionists worked for several days before the Canadian Parliament in 1989 passed Bill C-223, designating 28 April as the official “Day of Mourning” for the North American country.