Washington — “Behind every workplace fatality are stories of family, friends, colleagues, communities that made every single person that we are honoring today special and forever missed,” acting OSHA administrator Amanda Wood Laihow said April 24 during a memorial event honoring workers who died on the job.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, along with other leaders from OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, as well as family members of the fallen workers, also attended the observance. It took place at the Department of Labor headquarters ahead of Workers Memorial Day, which occurs annually on April 28.
“I want you to know that you have our full support from the team at OSHA and the team at MSHA and the team at [DOL],” Laihow added. “I promise that we will work hard every day to inspire the necessary change to make workplace safety a top priority at every worksite across the nation. American workers and you deserve nothing less.”
The event also included remarks from:
- James McHugh, deputy assistant secretary for policy at MSHA
- Tonya Ford, OSHA’s family liaison
- Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL)
- Roy Houseman, legislative director at United Steelworkers
“Our words and actions today cannot fully express our gratitude for their service, but by honoring their lives and the lives of those we’ve lost and their loved ones, it’s our hope that we can provide some comfort to you and some dignity and some pride,” McHugh said.
“We owe it to those that we’ve lost to ensure that their sacrifices are not in vain. We do this by making workplaces safer. This is a commitment that we make to everyone. We make this to workers across the country. We make this to their families. We make this to their communities.”
