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Raleigh community will observe Workers' Memorial Day (4/28)

Jeremy Sprinkle
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Pray for the dead. Fight for the living!

On Tuesday morning, Raleigh workers, advocates, community members, and faith leaders will gather at 7 W. Lenoir Street, near the site of a deadly construction accident last month in downtown Raleigh, to memorialize workers who have died or suffered illness or injury on the job.

Let us know you're coming!

What: Workers’ Memorial Day press conference, followed by march and letter delivery to Commissioner of Labor Cherie Berry

When: 10:30 AM Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Where:7 W. Lenoir St., Raleigh, NC 27601 -- near the site of the crane collapse that killed three workers and injured another in downtown Raleigh last month.

Who: AFL-CIO, Student Action with Farmworkers, NC Council of Churches, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and NC Justice Center

Workers’ Memorial Day is an international day of remembrance for workers who have lost their lives on the job, as 109 North Carolina workers did in 2013. Please join us for a press conference and memorial observance in which we will record the names of those who died and call on the NC Department of Labor to do more to protect workers here from death and injury on the job.

As recently reported by the News & Observer, dozens of North Carolina workers die each year with little or no notice from state officials -- no questions asked, no reforms demanded, and no fines levied -- and 79 percent of deaths in 2013 went unreported by Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, who hasn’t sought advice from her OSHA advisory council for five years running.

When workers die on the job, their deaths should count for something, especially to their Labor Commissioner. Every worker’s death ought to be counted and accurately reported. And as the law requires Berry to convene her OSHA advisory council twice a year, she ought to obey the law.