Remembering Fallen Workers: One Death is One Too Many!

This week, Oregon’s labor movement observed an important date in workplace safety: Workers’ Memorial Day.  NOLC made the observance part of its monthly delegate meeting on April 27, where we remembered the 37 workers who died on the job in 2025. 

We also teamed up with the Oregon Labor Federation in a moving ceremony on the waterfront in Portland, to acknowledge the Labor Movement’s work to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Act, pushed for by unionists nationwide more than 50 years ago.

Though we celebrate our victory in establishing OSHA in 1971, we know that our hard-won workplace protections are under constant threat.  This is an urgent moment to hold the line against attacks on worker health, even as we celebrate the drop in workplace deaths here in Oregon.

Imagine a worker starting the day, coffee in hand, lunch packed, a quick goodbye to the family, never knowing that it will be the last time they walk out the door.  For that family, whose lives are forever changed, for every colleague who carries the weight of loss, and for every worker who said their last goodbye, we pledge to honor your experience by redoubling our efforts to protect past gains and forge ahead to make our workplaces safer.

Because here are the facts:

·        Every day in the US, we lose 15 workers to preventable accidents.

·        And countless more suffer permanent injuries that change their lives forever.

·        Black, Latino, and immigrant workers are killed on the job at higher rates than others, especially in violence, disease, heat, and chemical exposure incidents.

Meanwhile, accelerated deregulatory attacks, such as the removal of OSHA coverage, weakening mineworker silica protections, and destroying the regulatory process altogether, threaten to roll back decades of progress.

In these times, we call all unionists to action.  We must:

1.     Stop the erosion of important past wins.

2.     We must demand stronger safety standards, backed by science and enforced without compromise.

3.     We must ensure that no one is retaliated against for spotlighting hazards.

4.     And we must invest in prevention so that someday, this ceremony reports zero deaths and you all will have no flags to raise in our fallen siblings’ memory.

Ours is a call for good jobs, safe jobs, and the protection of our rights.  Let us mourn for the dead and fight every day for the living.

Here is the text of a moving speech by Portland Firefighters President, Isaac McLennan:

Brothers, sisters, and siblings of labor, thank you for the opportunity to stand with you today.

We gather here on Workers Memorial Day not just to remember—but to bear witness. To say their names in our hearts. To honor lives that were built on hard work, dignity, and the belief that every worker deserves to come home at the end of the day.

This day is rooted in both grief and purpose. Grief for the lives lost. Purpose in the fight that continues. Because every name we remember today represents more than a statistic. They were someone’s partner, parent, friend, or coworker. They were people who showed up, did the job, and trusted that their safety mattered. And too often, that trust was broken.

As a firefighter, I’ve seen what happens when safety fails—when corners are cut, when systems break down, when the job becomes more dangerous than it ever should be. Firefighters respond when things go wrong, but we are workers too. We face risks every day—burning buildings, toxic exposures, structural collapse, cancer-causing environments. We train for it. We accept risk as part of the job.

But here’s the truth: no worker should have to accept unnecessary risk. Whether it’s a firefighter running into a burning home, a construction worker on a scaffold, a nurse in an understaffed hospital, or a warehouse worker pushed beyond safe limits—the danger is different, but the principle is the same. Every worker deserves protection. Every worker deserves a voice. Every worker deserves to go home.

That’s what unions are about. Unions are not just about wages and benefits—they are about safety. They are about standing together and saying: enough. Enough shortcuts. Enough preventable injuries. Enough lives lost in the name of profit or neglect. The labor movement has always been the driving force behind workplace safety—from child labor laws to OSHA protections to cancer presumptions for firefighters.

None of it was given. All of it was fought for. And that fight continues. Because today, we are still losing workers. On job sites. On roadways. In hospitals. In factories. And yes, in firehouses. We are still seeing preventable tragedies. Still seeing families changed forever because someone didn’t make it home.

That is why this day matters. Not just as remembrance—but as a call to action. To recommit ourselves to safer workplaces. To demand accountability. To lift up the voices of workers who are too often ignored. And to support one another—across trades, across industries, across this entire labor movement. When a worker dies, it is not an isolated loss. It is a loss to all of us. And when we stand together, we honor them not just with words—but with action.

So today, we remember. We remember the fallen. We honor their lives. We stand with their families. And we carry forward the responsibility they leave behind—to fight like hell for the living. Because the most powerful tribute we can offer is this: A future where fewer names are added to this list. Thank you.