2023 Workers Memorial Day: Organize for Safe Jobs

Tomorrow, April 28, is Workers Memorial Day, when we remember workers killed or injured on the job and renew our commitment to fight for strong safety and health protections.

Workers are increasingly taking collective action and forming unions. Ensuring safe working conditions has been one of the centerpieces driving this movement. Workers in some of the most dangerous occupations, like tower climbers, who are organizing for a voice on the job with CWA, are taking advantage of this momentum and fighting for permanent safety measures that will ensure the safety of workers for generations to come. As part of this broader campaign, members of the Tower Climbers Union/CWA have launched a public petition to raise awareness and hold companies accountable.

This year’s theme is "Organize! Safe Jobs Now." The AFL-CIO has posted resources, including flyers, artwork, and its yearly "Death on the Job: the Toll of Neglect" report that you can use as you raise awareness and commemorate the day, at: https://aflcio.org/about-us/conferences-and-events/workers-memorial-day.

This Workers Memorial Day, we honor the memories of these members and others whose deaths over the past year were work-related:

Robert Combs, 51, a member of CWA Local 4320 who worked as an Engineer/Operator for Guernsey County in Ohio, died as a result of a vehicle accident while traveling in a dump truck that was hauling large pieces of wood. Combs was pronounced dead at the scene.

Courtney Edwards, 34, a member of CWA Local 3645 and a Passenger Service Agent at Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama, was working the ramp on New Year’s Eve. An Embraer ERJ 170 airplane was parked at the gate, but one of the engines was still on because of an inoperable Auxiliary Power Unit. As the number one engine was spooling down, Courtney Edwards walked past the engine ingestion zone and was pulled into the engine. The results of the OSHA investigation have not been issued yet. CWA’s investigation has revealed that none of the members at the station have ever received detailed training from Piedmont Airlines about the hazards of engine ingestion and jet blast zones.

Farid Ait Hamza, 31, a member of IUE-CWA Local 81463 who was a trainee at Lamart Corporation in Clifton, N.J., died after being crushed by a moving machine he was working on during the second shift in the evening.

Christian Helger, 29, a member of CWA Local 7781 and a Ski Patroller at Park City Ski Resort in Park City, Utah, was on a ski lift when a dead tree broke and hit the lift line causing him to fall to his death. The Company was cited by Utah Occupational Health and Safety Administration for a General Duty Clause violation. There had been another tree incident near the lift line the day before and the trees were not properly cleared to prevent the kind of accident that caused Christian Helger’s death.

Donnie Knights, 41, a member of IUE-CWA Local 84911 who worked as a mill stocker at Lock Joint Tube in South Bend, Ind., was in the process of separating large steel coils to take to the production floor on a forklift. When he cut the bands on the coils of steel, one of the 7,600 lb. coils fell over, pinning him underneath it. After the paramedics arrived, he was transported to the hospital. He underwent surgery but was removed from life support two days later and died at the hospital.

John C. Molnar, 47, a member of CWA Local 1075 who worked for the Township of Middletown Sewerage Authority, in Belford, N.J., died in a manhole he had entered to replace a drain plug. He was overcome by inert gas and collapsed to the bottom of the manhole, which contained water, causing him to drown. According to the state agency that conducted the investigation, there were serious violations which included the employer’s failure to identify respiratory hazards, exposed wires and hazardous chemicals leaking from a pump station, and a facility-wide lack of personal protective equipment.

Todd Pierce, 57, a member of NABET-CWA Local 51016 who worked at ABC-Disney in New York City, died of a 9/11-related cancer due to his exposure to the toxins in the disaster zone while he responded to Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center. He photographed and filmed the events of 9/11 and his footage has been seen around the world.

Joshua Schulze, 35, a member of CWA Local 6171 who worked as a technician at Frontier Communications in Brownwood, Texas, was electrocuted while working in a bucket truck repairing a digital communications line.

Israel Soto, 58, a member of CWA Local 3603 in Charlotte, N.C., was a new hire at AT&T who was attending climbing school and passed away after he became unconscious while climbing a pole on his third day of training.

Nolan Suttles, 44, a member of CWA Local 3215 and an Outside Plant Technician at Bellsouth Communications (AT&T) in Ellenwood, Ga., was working in a placing truck and stowing the bucket when the boom came in contact with a powerline and the truck immediately burst into flames. Emergency rescue personnel could not approach the truck to assist until the power company arrived to disconnect the power. The truck was completely destroyed. CWA’s investigation revealed that employees had not received training about the approach distances to electric lines on joint use poles.

Communities across the country, including CWA members, are continuing to grapple with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we may finally be putting the pandemic behind us, it has changed aspects of our lives forever. In the memory of those we have lost to the COVID-19 pandemic and the sacrifices our members have made to provide essential services to our communities, we must continue to fight to protect all workers from hazardous working conditions.

Forming a union remains the most effective way for workers to get the appropriate protections they need and a voice on the job. As we grieve those we have lost, we must do everything we can to pass critical legislation like the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, so workers can freely form a union and collectively bargain, and the Protecting America’s Workers Act to provide OSHA protection to the millions of workers without it.