This guest column was written by Tom Szymanski, a union representative with Electrical Workers, IBEW Local 725; a trustee of the White River Central Labor Council; and a member of Jobs With Justice.

“Mourn for the Dead, Fight Like Hell for the Living” — Mother Jones, United Mine Workers Union Organizer (1914).

The tragic loss of 29 miner lives at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia on April 5 continues to tell a sobering story about job safety when profits take precedence over protection.

At the nonunion mine (where the United Mine Workers of America has tried unsuccessfully three times to organize under the threat of job loss, mine closings and firings by CEO Don Blankenship), Massey Energy has been cited with more than 1,342 safety violations nearing $2 million since 2005.

Due to the weak enforcement of safety standards and a drawn out appeals process under the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the company paid only approximately $300,000 in fines and continued to operate under unsafe conditions up until the day of the April 5 accident.

It did everything in its power to keep the union out and the workers’ voices quiet. It maximized profits at any cost (including environmental destruction through mountain top removal in the Appalachians) and tolerated safety violations and worker injuries simply as a cost of doing business.

As much as we want to believe our workplaces are safe and free from peril, they are not. The cumulative number of never-ending tragedies that go unseen and the unacceptable number of injuries and accidents taking a toll on the lives of American workers must stop.

As Workers’ Memorial Day is approaching and recognized annually on April 28, we as a community and as a country need to ask that more be done to protect workers from the devastating effects of on-the-job injuries and the long-term sickness caused by unhealthy work hazards.

Asbestosis, falls, trench cave-ins and vehicle driving incidents are the most common cited factors adversely affecting workers causing immediate and long-term suffering. In 2007, the last year for available data, 127 workers in Indiana and 5,657 workers across the country died due to injuries on the job.

More than 107,000 Indiana workers and more than 4 million workers in total became sick or injured on the job, costing the economy $145 billion to $290 billion. The national AFL-CIO estimates the number of reported injuries is probably two to three times more (8 to 12 million) due to underreporting of employers and limitations on the reporting requirements.

Annually, 50,000 to 60,000 workers lose their lives to occupational health hazards and disease. Overall, that’s more than 100 workers who die each week, and for what? For being responsible, for being a productive citizen and for trying do the right thing. And this is the result? Employees “come to work, not to die!”

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis has started the process of turning around eight years of lax enforcement under the Bush administration. However, we have a long way to go in protecting workers on the job.

As Secretary Solis recently acknowledged after speaking about the Massey Energy mining accident, “We know it’s not just mine workers that need protection. It’s housekeepers, car wash workers, meatpackers, construction workers, farm workers and janitors. In other words, it’s all workers.” Finally, a Secretary of Labor that gets it!

Workers’ Memorial Day is a day to remember and honor those workers who have suffered and died on the job. Please join the White River Central Labor Council and its affiliated labor unions for a ceremony at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

In honor of those workers, a memorial dedication will be held at the Building and Trades Park, across from Bloomington Hospital, at 619 W. Howe St.

The public is invited to attend a Workers Memorial Day ceremony at 4 p.m. today at Building Trades Park on West Second Street, across from Bloomington Hospital.

“A bench has been installed to commemorate the event this year, thanks to donations from several local unions,” says White River Central Labor Council President Jackie Yenna.

First observed in 1989, Workers Memorial Day is an international event remembering workers who are injured or killed on the job, or suffer from job-related illnesses.

This guest column was written by Tom Szymanski, who is an organizer with the Electrical Workers, IBEW Local 725, a trustee of the White River Central Labor Council and a member of Jobs With Justice.

On April 28, 1971, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, commonly known as OSHA, in order to prevent illness, injury and death caused by workplace hazards. Unfortunately, Monroe County and surrounding communities have witnessed tragic stories in the media recently identifying workers killed and injured while performing their jobs.

Electricians, quarry workers, public servants, drivers, laborers and more have made the ultimate sacrifice while trying to provide a livelihood for themselves and their families. It’s such a sad day to learn about and to try and understand the anguish families are put through after knowing a loved one lost their life on the job. Regrettably, the same story is repeated many times across the state and across the country.

According to the Department of Labor national statistics, 5,488 workers were killed, 4 million were injured and 50,000 died due to occupational disease in 2007. In 2006, Indiana documented 148 on-the-job deaths and 111,300 workers who were injured or became ill.

We need to do more and make worker protections a bigger priority. The number of available inspectors on the job compared to the number of workers and worksites out there is frightening, as are the average penalties for serious violations. Indiana had more than 2.8 million workers employed in 156,000 establishments in 2007 and only 71 OSHA inspectors available to perform routine inspections.

With only 1,100 inspections conducted per year, the length of time for OSHA to inspect every workplace once would take more than 140 years. The average penalty assessed for serious violations, including deaths, averaged $815 in Indiana and $909 nationally. Far too many unscrupulous employers, without more OSHA enforcement and larger penalties, have little incentive to make safety a priority, and consider safety violations as just another cost of doing business.

On April 28 of each year since 1989, Workers’ Memorial Day has been observed by the unions of the AFL-CIO, also known as International Day of Mourning by workers across the globe, as a day to remember and honor those workers who have suffered and died on the job. It’s a day to call on our employers and elected representatives to promote safety standards and protect all employees who, at the end of their shift, want to see their families again.

Jobs aren’t supposed to expose workers to toxic chemicals resulting in asbestosis or mesothelioma cancers, put lives in jeopardy by taking short cuts and playing the odds, or subject workers to threatened job loss because it takes a bit longer to utilize the proper safety equipment. What we need is to make safety a priority, take it seriously and recognize the fact that no job is worth the price of losing our health or losing our family.

After years of budget cuts, let’s communicate with our elected representatives and ask them to do more for workers. The time is ripe to institute “Good Jobs, Safe Jobs” and promote more funding, legislation and education to protect all workers. OSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration and the research arm of OSHA, the National Institute for Safety and Health (NIOSH), have been starved of proper funding and enforcement mechanisms for years. We can make a difference, but only if you have the desire.

If you have time, the Indiana State AFL-CIO will be holding a ceremony at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the site of the Workers Memorial Monument located on the corner of West Street and Government Place in Indianapolis. The ceremony will honor workers who were injured or killed on the job in Indiana last year and call for stronger laws protecting workers’ health and safety.