‘Mourn and Fight’

... for the dead and the living, respectively, on April 28. That’s Workers Memorial Day, and this year — because of the 2000 election results — the day will have a special resonance. Workers and their unions now have to fight even harder for safe jobs. The combination of a Republican-controlled Congress and an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) run by officials appointed by President Bush does not bode well for working men and women.

Think of the ergonomics standard — to reduce back and other repetitive-strain injuries — that OSHA finally made effective this January. We can expect that, pressured by the Chamber of Commerce and other anti-worker business interests, President Bush and Congress will make killing or gutting the new standard a top priority. AFSCME members must defend what this union and others fought so hard to win.

Buttons, posters, flyers and other Workers Memorial Day materials are available from the AFSCME Health and Safety Program. For more information, materials or assistance in planning your own WMD activities, call (202) 429-1228 or e-mail osha@afscme.org.