Workers’ Memorial Day
From buildings to clothing, we often take for granted the comforts of modern living, but workers of the past faced deadly hazards to give us these comforts.
Position your organization as a safety-first employer by highlighting workplace hazard prevention, OSHA compliance, and worker protection initiatives on Workers' Memorial Day.
- Share your company's safety milestones and zero-incident achievements to inspire industry peers
- Feature employee testimonials on near-miss incidents prevented through proper safety protocols
- Host a virtual or in-person safety training webinar tied to industry-specific hazards
- Publish a case study on how your organization reduced workplace injuries year-over-year
During the 1950’s an organization was established that stood to unite the Labor Unions in a single unified goal.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) was established in 1955, comprised of union organizations from many different nations. There were two organizations, the AFL and the CIO that came together to create this organization with the purpose of representing workers all over the world in creating a safe workplace.
In April of 1970 Workers’ Memorial Day was established to bring awareness to the hundreds of thousands of people all over the world who had died just trying to get through another workday.
This day was established in the same year that the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) came into effect in the United States, an event that helped to both standardize safety protocols and create an organization that would visit sites to enforce them. It didn’t take long before this same practice was picked up and implemented in multiple industrialized countries all over the world.
Raise Safety Awareness
Whether you work in a simple manufacturing facility or in the far more dangerous fields that require you to put your life on the line in a daily basis, you can spread awareness of the OSHA requirements that govern your industry.
Hold a Memorial
If you’ve had workers die on the job, spend some time to remember them and share their stories (and what mistakes may have cost them their lives) as a cautionary tale to your co-workers, but also as a way to motivate people to report unsafe conditions and get management involved in resolving them.
Take Steps Toward Safety
Everyone deserves to come home at the end of the work day, Workers’ Memorial Day reminds us of those who didn’t, and encourages us to take steps to make sure there’s less of them in the future.