Port of Miami Announces Plans For Workers’ Memorial Day

Workers, Labor Leaders and Community Members to Honor Florida Workers Who Lost Their Lives on the Job

Florida’s Working Families are Speaking Up and Calling for Critical Workplace Protections

Miami, Florida – On Thursday, April 28, local workers, union leaders and community allies will gather at Port Miami at a Memorial Service to mark Workers Memorial Day, remembering workers who have died or suffered illnesses or injuries while on the job.

The labor movement has always led the charge to protect working people from workplace injury, illness and death. This April 28, the labor movement and their allies across the country will observe this day by coming together to organize workers and call on employers and our government for workplace protections from COVID-19, and heat illness, among other hazards. They will focus on the need to continue the fight for safe working conditions as a fundamental right, and the need for workers to have the right to organize in their workplaces to win safer working conditions and a better life.

Each day, 340 American workers die from preventable on-the-job injuries and illnesses, while millions more suffer injury or illness. In 2020 – the most recent year of reported data – employers reported 2.7 million injuries and illnesses in private sector workplaces and 574,500 injuries and illnesses in state and local sector workplaces.

“Our leaders in government and business should be protecting working people’s lives above all else. It’s time for action to protect workers from life-threatening job hazards that have plagued our workplaces, from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases to workplace violence and heat illness,” said Jeffrey Mitchell, President of the South Florida AFL-CIO. “All working people deserve safe and family-sustaining jobs, and we’re not going to stop fighting until that promise becomes a reality.”

“Everyone has a right to a safe workplace. Working people and our families deserve to know we will make it home at the end of day unharmed,” said Dana Ferguson, Secretary-Treasurer of the International Longshoreman Association (ILA) Local 1416. “Yet too many Florida Families are mourning their loved ones. We’re here to fight together and give workers a fair shot to strengthen our voice on the job.”

WHEN: Thursday, April 28 – 11:45 am
WHAT: Memorial Service to Commemorate Workers Memorial Day
WHERE: Port Miami, Behind Seaman Café, 1180 S. American Way, Miami, FL 33132
For Information: Lovette McGill 305-588-7542