'Mourn for the dead, fight for the living'

COEUR d'ALENE - One by one, the names were read.

Craig Adamson. Robert Butterfield. Jared Scott Smith. Thomas Walker. Larry Marek. Brandon Gray.

With each, Ben Theard, retired captain with Kootenai County Fire and Rescue, sounded the bell. His face was solemn. Each name belonged to a man killed while working last year.

"It's a moving experience," he said later.

Theard was among 35 people who attended a memorial service Saturday for six Idaho workers who lost their lives on the job and seven servicemen killed in action in 2011.

The North Idaho Central Labor Council put on the event, billed as a time to "mourn for the dead, fight for the living," at the Human Rights Education Institute. It included prayers, proclamations and a call to build a workers' memorial in Coeur d'Alene.

"While showing efforts of a hard day's work is to be expected, it does not mean we give up our lives or limbs," said Rian VanLuevan, Idaho State AFL-CIO president.

Idaho work places, he said, are safer than they once were as a direct result of employees getting involved. Fewer are getting hurt on the job. There are more laws that provide safeguards and securities.

Those protections did not just happen, he said.

"All workers should have the opportunity to return home at the end of the day to their families," he said.

Brad Cederblom, president of the North Idaho Central Labor Council, said that on average, 12.5 workers are killed each day.

The fatal injury rate was 3.5 per 100,000 workers. Some fields are more dangerous than others. The 2010 fatality rate among construction workers was 9.5 per 100,000, and the rate in mining was 19.8 per 100,000.

When workers are hurt, fines and penalties for companies "are a slap on the wrist," he said.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has a budget of about $565 million, Cederblom said. That comes out to about $4.41 per worker.

There is room for improvement, he said.

"Hopefully, some year down the road we won't have any deaths at work," he said.

While there is a design for a local workers memorial that was unveiled Saturday, a site has not been found.

"The committee still plans on going forward with the monument and we plan on building it, funding it and donating this to a city in North Idaho - hopefully Coeur d'Alene," Cederblom wrote.

It would cost about $160,000, but could be done with volunteer labor and donations, he said. It would be low maintenance with solar lighting.

"We need to have a workers memorial in the state of Idaho," said Barb Harris, a speaker at Saturday's memorial.

It's about respect.

"We want those people who work all day, who want to work, to be respected," she said.

Jim Harris, who attended the ceremony, was glad to be there.

"It's an honor," he said.