Every year on April 28th, workers across the country come together to remember and honour those who have lost their lives or suffered injury or illness on the job as a result of work-related incidences and hazards. On this day, we mourn all those we have lost – each loss, a preventable death – and recommit ourselves to taking action against unsafe working conditions so that every worker can return home to their loved ones.
While all of us go to work intent on returning home, the rates of workplace injuries and deaths continue to interrupt that intention all too frequently. Pervasive lack of reporting and recognition surrounding the relationship between injury, death, and occupational disease to working conditions create a domino effect – barring workers from deserved compensation and facilitating government and employer inaction to change hazardous conditions in the workplace.
So long as workplace hazards continue to go unchecked – whether obvious hazards, such as a spill, or the not so obvious psychosocial hazards, such as poor work life balance, harassment, or precarious work – we have a long way to go in this shared fight towards safer working conditions for all.
In 2023, an estimated 2,540 worker deaths and estimated 353,312 worker injuries and illnesses resulted from hazardous work – while WSIB allowed only 254 worker death claims and 176,656 worker injury and illness claims. These are only conservative estimates for Ontario workers, reflecting the long road ahead. Each of us deserves to feel safe and secure in their workplaces, without fear of death or harm.
On the 40th anniversary of the National Day of Mourning, established in 1984 by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), we remind each other that while we mourn, we must not be complacent. We must remain active in our commitment of keeping ourselves, and each other, safe – particularly the most vulnerable workers among us.
This day, and every day moving forward, we re-dedicate ourselves to remembering the dead; standing with workers of yesterday, today, and tomorrow; and fighting like hell for the living.