posted 28 April 2005 11:36 AM                   

Today is known as Workers' Memorial Day, the Day of Mourning, the day Commemorating workers who die or are seriously injured every day in workplace accidents. Day of Mourning for Dead and Injured Workers.

The Wobbly saying goes: "Don't mourn, organise!" but I guess there is time for both. (Hint, health and safety rules are a good rejoinder for the silly thread about unions in this forum...)

posted 28 April 2005 12:02 PM                   

Undertraining is another culprit in many kinds of work. Last weekend the Globe and Mail ran a feature article about young people who have been killed just days into summer or temporary jobs. The article laid unfortunate stress, many thought, on the failure of parents (!) to check out the temp jobs their children take, but over and over in the stories we read, it became apparent that green recruits were being handed very risky tasks without sufficient training -- presumably by some employer focused on increasing "productivity'n'efficiency."

posted 28 April 2005 12:22 PM                   

Honour the Dead. Fight Like Hell for the Living!

posted 28 April 2005 03:28 PM                   

Here is an international story on the 10th anniversary of the Commemoration Day. Over 2 million workers yearly die of workplace accidents and from industrial disease.

skdadl, I knew a fellow here who worked at Institut Pinel - a hospital for the "criminally insane", as they used to be called. The patients/inmates obviously included very dangerous types - the Hitlers were the worst (predictably, they beat up on patients and staff of colour) but a series of health and safety measures - including adequate staffing levels, of course - greatly reduced the danger to staff and other patients - until the wave of cutbacks, that is.