Workers Memorial Day, 2010

Proclamation 8507 of April 28, 2010

Workers Memorial Day, 2010

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

This year marks the 40th anniversary of both the
Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Federal Coal
Mine Health and Safety Act, which promise American
workers the right to a safe workplace and require
employers to provide safe conditions. Yet, today, we
remain too far from fulfilling that promise. On Workers
Memorial Day, we remember all those who have died, been
injured, or become sick on the job, and we renew our
commitment to ensure the safety of American workers.

The families of the 29 coal miners who lost their lives
on April 5 in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine
in West Virginia are in our thoughts and prayers. We
also mourn the loss of 7 workers who died in a refinery
explosion in Washington State just days earlier, the 4
workers who died at a power plant in Connecticut
earlier this year, and the 11 workers lost in the oil
platform explosion off the coast of Louisiana just last
week.

Although these large-scale tragedies are appalling,
most workplace deaths result from tragedies that claim
one life at a time through preventable incidents or
disabling disease. Every day, 14 workers are killed in
on-the-job incidents, while thousands die each year of
work-related disease, and millions are injured or
contract an illness. Most die far from the spotlight,
unrecognized and unnoticed by all but their families,
friends, and co-workers--but they are not forgotten.

The legal right to a safe workplace was won only after
countless lives had been lost over decades in
workplaces across America, and after a long and bitter
fight waged by workers, unions, and public health
advocates. Much remains to be done, and my
Administration is dedicated to renewing our Nation's
commitment to achieve safe working conditions for all
American workers.

Providing safer work environments will take the
concerted action of government, businesses, employer
associations, unions, community organizations, the
scientific and public health communities, and
individuals. Today, as we mourn those lost mere weeks
ago in the Upper Big Branch Mine and other recent
disasters, so do we honor all the men and women who
have died on the job. In their memory, we rededicate
ourselves to preventing such tragedies, and to securing
a safer workplace for every American.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim April 28, 2010, as
Workers Memorial Day. I call upon all Americans to
participate in ceremonies and activities in memory of
those who have been killed due to unsafe working
conditions.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord two
thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.