Workers Memorial Day - Editorial Comment

Once again members of the Building and Construction Trades Council AFL-CIO honored those who died, union and non-union, working in the building and construction industry with a solemn Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral celebrated by Fr. Brian Jordan OFM/CAP.
The April 28th Mass was particularly poignant for members of Local 3, IBEW. Of the two Building and Construction Trades Council deaths in the past twelve months, one was a Local 3 member, William Barnes.
Brother Barnes was killed on the Throgs Neck Bridge while performing his duties as an electrician. Brother Barnes left behind his wife Toni and his child William Jr. We mourn his loss.
Just days before, April 5th, 29 non-union miners were killed in a mine explosion in West Virginia. At a memorial service for them on April 25th President Obama expressed what is felt by anyone who loses a loved one under sudden circumstances, “Nothing I can say can fill the hole they leave in your hearts, the absence they leave in your lives. If any comfort can be found, it can, perhaps, be found by seeking the face of God, who quiets our troubled minds, mends our broken hearts and eases our mourning souls.”
Men and women go off to work each and every day of the year. They and their loved ones do so with the full expectation that they will return home at the end of the workday. It is not an unreasonable expectation that they work in a safe workplace; that the economics of insuring a safe workplace ought
not result in a less safe work place. President Obama is the first President
to officially recognize Workers Memorial Day, April 28th. Workers across America appreciate his gesture.
The sudden loss of a loved one is extremely difficult for all involved. April 28th, Workers Memorial Day is set aside in order to recognize the loss and the impact it has upon so many.
It is a day to recommit to insuring a safe workplace for all who toil.