WORKERS
INSTITUTE FOR
SAFETY AND
HEALTH

WHAT IS WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY?

Unionists and worker advocates around the world recognize April 28 as an International Day of Mourning. Workers Memorial Day was first observed on April 28, 1989. April 28 marks the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970. This is the St. Louis area's 3rd Annual Workers Memorial Safety and Health conference. It is held each year during the week of Workers Memorial Day (April 28).

NUMBERS ONLY TELL PART OF THE STORY:
In 2001, there were 8786 workers killed on-the-job, 2886 of those were from 9/11/01. 143 deaths in Missouri and 231 in Illinois.
A total of 5.7 million injuries and illness were reported in private sector workplaces during 2001 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor).

  • Every 18 seconds a worker in the United States suffers a job-related ergonomic injury.
  • More than 50,000 American workers die each year from occupation-related diseases.
  • Over 100 U.S. workers are killed each week (17 each day) in job-related incidents. (AFL-CIO)

Our Workers Institute for Safety and Health (WISH) has made progress since last year. We have an office at Saint Louis University, staff, phone numbers, email addresses, and an OSHA grant to provide ergonomics training programs. We are working with other universities, government agencies, labor, business, and community organizations to secure funding for additional programming and research.
Contact us:
WISH Phone: 314/977-3238
Saint Louis University School of Public Health Fax: 314/977-1674
3545 Lafayette Email: WISH@slu.edu
St. Louis, MO 63104

The WISH logo (Ribbon) was inspired by the Chinese symbol for worker in the color of copper associated with healing, meaning "heal the worker." By using the ribbon as our WISH logo, we hope it will help increase its visibility to make it a national symbol for workers health and safety and will be worn each year on Workers Memorial Day.