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Letter to the Editor

April 15, 2009

Renew the fight for worker safety



To the editor:

Workers Memorial Day will again be observed on Tuesday, April 28, a day on which workers remember those who have been killed or injured on the job and renew the fight for strong health and safety protections.

More than three decades ago, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and Mine Safety and Health Act, passed by Congress, purported to give every worker the right to a safe job. With other allies, we in the labor movement have fought for that promise to become a reality - winning protections that saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

However, the toll continues to be enormous. The challenges are still great after eight years of neglect and inaction by the Bush administration. The economy is in shambles and major hazards are still unchallenged. Many workers lack basic protections and rights.

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The opportunities to change the direction the country has taken, to strengthen job safety protections and to make sure our workers' voices are heard, will arrive on Workers Memorial Day, April 28. This year's theme is "Good Jobs. Safe Jobs. Give Workers a Voice for a Change."

We will continue our fight to make workers' issues a top priority, to guarantee the freedom of workers to form a union and to keep and create good safe jobs in our country.

On Tuesday, April 28, at 10 a.m., at UAW 171 Hall, 18131 Maugans Ave., Hagerstown, our Workers Memorial Day program will be held. It will include refreshments.

If you have a name(s) of injured union members, please let us know and we will place an appropriate entry in our journal. Call the Education Committee at 301-739-9500.

We are adamant in our quest for safe and good jobs; right here and right now we pledge ourselves anew to the accomplishment of those endeavors.

Please join us on April 28, Workers Memorial Day, and help honor the victims of workplace injury and illness and continue righting for the promise of safe jobs for all workers.

Teresa A. Griffin
president
Central Maryland AFL-CIO Council

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