April 28, 2023
5pm
Chad Erickson Memorial Park in La Crosse
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The families and friends of Western Wisconsin workers will gather at Chad Erickson Memorial Park on Friday, April 28, 2023 to honor workers who perished while at work and to call for action on hazards that cause unnecessary injury, illness, and death.
A non-denominational invocation will be given by Ellen Rasmussen, former pastor at Wesley United Methodist Church in La Crosse and current pastor at Brown Deer United Methodist Church in Brown Deer. The solemn recognition of those who have fallen will begin with the reading of the proclamation marking April 28th as Workers Memorial Day in the City of La Crosse.
This year’s keynote guest speaker will be:
– Kerrie Baures, mother of Brooke Baures, who lost her life while working as a waitress in 2014
This event is part of International Workers Memorial Day, held annually on April 28th, with thousands of groups around the globe uniting to honor the fallen and to remind everyone that, ‘One worker’s life lost is one too many’.
Two-thousand and seventeen (2017) marked the fourth consecutive increase in annual workplace fatalities and the first time more than 5,000 fatalities have been recorded by the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) since 2008.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act and Mine Safety and Health Act promise workers the right to a safe job. Unions and all working families have fought hard to make that promise a reality—winning protections that have made jobs safer, saved hundreds of thousands of lives and prevented millions of workplace injuries and illnesses.
The escalating death toll verifies that the work is not done. Each year, thousands of workers are killed and millions more suffer injury or illness because of their jobs.
Hard-won gains enhancing workplace safety are threatened (as the upward trend signifies). There have been several all-out assaults on regulations, targeting job safety rules on beryllium, mine examinations, injury reporting and child labor protections.
Please join us on Workers Memorial Day as we continue the fight for safe jobs and morn the lost.
Agenda:
• Presentation of the Colors – La Crosse Police Department
• Welcome & Pledge of Allegiance – Mike Davis Jr, President, Western Wisconsin AFL-CIO
• Invocation & Prayer – Reverend Ellen Rasmussen
• Openings Remarks & Welcome – Bill Brockmiller, Treasurer, Western Wisconsin AFL-CIO
• Reading of the Proclamation – Chris Kahlow, Common Council President, City of La Crosse
• Guest Speakers
– Brad Pfaff, Wisconsin State Senate, 32nd District
– Kerrie Baures
• Workers Memorial Day Tribute Poem by Mike Baird, IAM Lodge 21 as read by the Directing Business Representative of IAM District Lodge 66
• Fallen Worker Ceremony – Placement of Crosses
• Moment of Silence
• Thank you notes – Bill Brockmiller, Treasurer, Western Wisconsin AFL CIO
• Complimentary Lunch Hosted by the Western Wisconsin AFL-CIO Council – (hot dogs, soda pop, and desert) – while supplies last
