THUNDER BAY – Local workers, union officials, families and community leaders gathered at First Wesley United Church on Sunday to remember and honour workers who have died or suffered illness or injuries while on the Job.
As part of the International Day of Mourning for Workers Killed and Injured on the Job, the ceremony saw locals from the city and the district join in with people from over 100 countries in remembering those who have been lost while working.
The ceremony was organized by the Thunder Bay District Labour Council and the Thunder Bay & District Injured Workers Support Group.
Steve Mantis, treasurer of the Thunder Bay and District Injured Worker Support Group, said that the focus of this year’s ceremony was to really call attention to the numbers of people who have been exposed and are hurt and ill and die
“The majority of whom are people who die from occupational disease, which is a long latency outcome, and what we see is that it's really not recognized in terms of the real impact,” he said.
“There are over 200 people in Ontario that were recognized as dying from occupational disease, but the research that was commissioned by the Government of Ontario is saying it's probably 10 times or more higher than that, but it's not recognized.”
As part of the ceremony, workers were invited to share their stories and reflect on those they have lost and renew the fight for stronger worker protections across the country.
Mantis said that more locally, some of the biggest areas of concern for health and safety right now are healthcare and education.
“These are areas we normally don't think about. We think about heavy industry, logging and mining, and yes, there are injuries there as well as construction,” he said.
“But with all the cutbacks we've seen over the last two decades in our public services, we're seeing that those workers are more stretched, they're working longer hours, there's more violence, in fact, both in the schools and in the hospitals, because of the lack of immediate service and more and more people are getting hurt there.”
The ceremony ended with workers laying roses on the monument to workers injured and killed on the job.
