Community Honors 177 North Carolina Workers Who Lost Their Lives on the Job

Workers' Memorial Day, observed annually on April 28th, is a time to remember and honor workers who have been injured, killed, or made ill by their jobs. Held on the anniversary of the enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1971, Workers' Memorial Day serves as a reminder to renew the fight for fundamental job safety protections and the freedom to join unions to ensure every worker can return home safely at the end of their shift.

This year local workers, union members, and community leaders gathered on Bicentennial Plaza in Raleigh, N.C., for an interfaith press conference and solemn memorial service during which participants rang a bell 177 times – once for each person who died here while working for a better life in 2023, the most recent year for which the full death toll is known. North Carolina is the 17th most dangerous state for workers.

“Every year we pray the numbers will not be as high next year," said Rev. Jennifer Copeland of the NC Council of Churches. She was followed by Rabbi Noah Rubin-Blose of Makom Community, who asked for comfort for the families who lost loved ones on the job. 

“No worker should ever have to choose between their safety and a paycheck,” said NC State AFL-CIO President MaryBe McMillan, who highlighted the ways in which the current administration’s weakening of job safety agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) undermines safety standards and enforcement, putting workers in even greater danger.

More than a thousand workers in six states and Washington, D.C., have lost their jobs at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the federal job safety research agency. By gutting this key organization, America’s workers will lose critical safety protections and more workers will get hurt. Every single NIOSH research center is being closed and the few staff remaining no longer have the resources to do their jobs.

Please call your member of Congress at 844-292-9097 to demand they stand up for this critical health and safety agency and its workers.

See photos from the 2025 NC Workers' Memorial Day service.

Read the AFL-CIO report Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, 2025.