OPINION: We must do more to protect workers' lives

Sunday was Workers’ Memorial Day. 

This little known but important annual event is celebrated on the 28th of April each year. That’s the day in 1971 when the Occupational Health and Safety Act went into effect.

The Act created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a branch of the federal government. It is estimated that since its inception more than 50 years ago, OSHA has saved 690,000 American workers’ lives.

Over the years, Labor Unions have worked tirelessly to protect workers from safety hazards, health hazards, and unfair labor practices that infringe workers’ rights.

But workers continue to die on the job. In Idaho alone 27 individuals perished in the past 12 months. These people worked in agriculture, forestry, mining, transport and warehousing, and construction.

Nationally, those at greater risk of dying on the job are older workers and people of color. Children under 18 (most of whom are migrants) work in dangerous conditions as well, and some have died on the job.

Visitors to Coeur d'Alene’s City Park have an opportunity to pause and reflect on these preventable deaths at the Workers’ Memorial. 

This block and brick monument sits within Coeur d’Alene City Park just west of the Human Rights Education Institute. This elegant structure contains stone plaques bearing the inscribed names of Idaho workers who died on the job.

Next time you are downtown, the Workers’ Memorial is worth your visit.

See for yourself the names of the 27 people added this year and reflect on their lives and loss. 

At noon this past Sunday, the North Idaho Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO hosted a service to remember them. A number of Democrats were there to pay our respects and to represent our party’s strong support for Unions and for working people. 

Among them were three candidates for office in the November election: Dale Broadsword, Paula Marano and Loree Peery.

A representative from OSHA read the name and reason for death for each fallen worker. A bagpiper then played "Amazing Grace." The 27 names were read again, and a brass bell was tolled 27 times. 

A uniformed bugler then played taps, the universal gesture of finality.

Democrats believe that workplace safety should be a paramount concern for all of us. Unfortunately it is not. 

We must unite in our commitment to protect lives and prevent workplace deaths. America cannot continue to shift the responsibility for safety away from companies and onto workers themselves, and undermine the agencies that enforce workplace safety.

That is why we hear and read a lot about the resurgence of unionization these days. Just recently the United Auto Workers struck deals with Daimler-Benz and Volkswagen in the South, an area of our country that had been resistant to unions.

Spillover to other plants, industries and regions can and does happen. The UAW says it plans to organize at 13 other car-making plants. Union representation in the U.S. may be at a turning point.

Idaho, with its Right to Work Law, would not be an easy target for unionizing. But Michigan recently repealed its RTW law. That achievement and the Southern example could provide Idahoans the impetus to repeal RTW and organize workers here.

Workers who can speak with one voice do better in every respect: They earn more money, collect more retirement savings and they enjoy safer working conditions.

Workers’ Memorial Day is an annual reminder that we can do more to protect the lives of those who power our economy. The Workers’ Memorial Day itself is a permanent remembrance and a recognition of our duty to protect one another from workplace dangers.

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Evan Koch is chairman of Kootenai County Democrats.