April 28 marks the National Day of Mourning and the London and District Labour Council (LDLC) is remembering those who’ve suffered work-related disability, disease and death.
Attendees tuned in to the virtual ceremony Friday morning, pushing for a collective review of current health and safety laws to better protect workers.
The day was first established in 1984 and made official in 1991 by the Canadian Labour Congress.
Patti Dalton, president of the LDLC, said that the annual toll of workplace fatalities continues to remain high across the province.
“The Ontario Federation of Labor has reported an average of one worker per week is getting killed on the job,” she told Global News. “In the labor movement, we do so much to try to ensure that people understand their rights and to prevent deaths because no worker should go to work and not go home.”
On Dec. 11, 2020, construction workers John Martens, 21, and Henry Harder, 26, were killed in the Teeple Terrace partial building collapse. Five more workers were injured.
According to the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada, there were 1,081 workplace fatalities recorded in the country in 2021. Of that total, 1,009 were male workers, and 72 were female workers. Among the deaths were 18 young workers aged 15-24.
On March 15 of this year, Ryan Laarman, 18, was killed in a mill accident at the Elgin Feeds County Store in Aylmer, Ont.
Dalton said that most of these tragic events could have been prevented.
“While we grieve today, we must continue to fight for justice and to ensure that every worker who has been killed at work deserves to have their deaths investigated fully, and that criminal negligence by the employer has repercussions that are not just monetary,” she said.
Terence Kernaghan, MPP for North London Centre, said no one should go to work worrying about whether or not they’ll come home, adding that “the death of any worker is unacceptable.”
In highlighting the effects of COVID-19, former MP for London-Fanshawe, Irene Mathyssen, said Friday that the pandemic put a sharp perspective not just on the world, but within workplaces and personal lives.
“Service workers, childcare providers, health-care providers, retail and hospitality workers, these are all incredible and devoted workers who kept our communities going. That kept us thriving at a very difficult time, and they deserve the absolute support of not just from the community, but from the government and employers,” she said.
“We saw with COVID how the lack of access to paid sick days forced workers to go on job sites with unsafe conditions that made them ill,” added Peggy Sattler, MPP for London West. “They took that illness home to their families, to people on transit systems and it spread to some of our most vulnerable.”
As of the end of March, Ontario ended its temporary paid sick-day program that provided three paid sick days to workers during the pandemic, saying that the province “has achieved one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.”
LDCL’s Dalton also stressed the need for more regulations and resources to address workplace violence.
“We know that there’s been a tremendous increase in violence in schools, for example, but also in many other workplaces,” she said. “We need mandatory training standards.”
“When we say we’re here today to mourn for the dead and fight for the living, we mean that with every fibre of our being,” Dalton added.
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