This April 28 marks the 24th Workers Memorial Day, and around the country workers, workplace safety activists, community and faith leaders will honor the men and women killed on the job and renew their commitment to the continuing campaign for strong job safety laws and tough enforcement of those laws.

The theme this year is “Safe Jobs, Save Lives. Make Your Voice Heard.” You can prepare for Workers Memorial Day with fact sheets in English and Spanish, posters and other materials available here. Also local unions, central labor councils and other labor groups soon will be adding their events to our Local Action calendar. Be sure to keep an eye on that. 

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sent this message to working family activists:

Tom Ward’s hardest memory to live with was the day his father came home from what would be his last day of work. His father barely made it through the door, fell to the floor and, between tears, said, “I can’t do it anymore.”

Football is a dangerous sport by nature, but it doesn't have to be as dangerous as it is today.

The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) has awarded $100 million to Harvard Medical School for a 10-year study of player injuries and illnesses, including brain trauma. The study is funded under the collective bargaining agreement the players reached recently with the NFL. Its goal: to transform the health of current and retired players, whose lifespan averages 20 years less than men who are not professional football players.

Falls are the leading cause of death among construction workers and cause the second-highest number of injuries. A new interactive map marks fatal construction falls and graphically conveys what numbers alone cannot.

True Value should take back the 2011 Supplier of the Year Award it gave North American Salt, says United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard, because North American operates a salt mine in Louisiana that has received safety and health citations for serious violations and been shut down temporarily by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Some 100 workers at the company’s Cote Blanche mine in Louisiana are USW members.

Two years ago on Aug. 5., a San José copper-gold mine located in Chile’s northern Atacama Desert, caved in, trapping 33 miners 2,257 feet underground. “The 33,” as they were quickly known around the world, survived a staggering 69 days underground before their rescue.

BP is slated to pay a hefty fine for willful violations of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) process safety management standard at its refinery in Texas City, Texas: $13,027,000.

One of the most important legacies of the Wisconsin uprising is the mobilization of a new wave of activists. A powerful example is the nearly 300 workers at Palermo’s Pizza in Milwaukee, who were emboldened by the broader movement for workers’ rights in Wisconsin to fight back to raise standards for themselves and customers alike. Many of the workers had come to the United States to build better lives for themselves and their families, and their concern over unsafe working conditions and unfair wages at the frozen pizza plant inspired a desire for a voice on the job.

If you work in the hydraulic fracturing industry—better known as “fracking”—you may be exposed to high levels of crystalline silica, putting you at risk of developing silicosis, lung cancer and other debilitating diseases, according to a letter sent today from the AFL-CIO, Mine Workers (UMWA) and the United Steelworkers (USW) to the top federal safety agencies.

Each day in 2010, 13 workers on average were killed on the job—some 4,690 workers—and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases, according to the AFL-CIO's annual report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.” Released today, the report shows the number of those who died in 2010 (the most recent year for which data are available) is up from the 4,551 people who perished in 2009. This trend has continued since 2004, the first year in a decade that saw the number of deaths on the job increase.