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Workers’ Memorial Day Activities – 2023

This year, on April 28th, please join your co-workers and all workers to commemorate Workers’ Memorial Day. Teamsters across the country can organize and conduct various activities detailed below to honor and remember those we have lost to a workplace injury or illness. Please report any activities you organize or participate in and send along with any videos or pictures (preferably digital) to the Teamsters Safety and Health Department so that we may publicize the event in Division newsletters and by other means.  On Workers Memorial Day we must mourn the dead and continue to fight for the living until the promise of safe jobs is a reality.

What You Can Do on Workers’ Memorial Day:

• Coordinate a moment of silence to remember those who have died on the job and use the gathering to highlight job safety problems or concerns in your workplace or community.  
• Record a video to highlight the job safety and health problems in your workplace or community and how the union is fighting to improve protections.
• Lay a wreath at memorials and at workplaces in communities where workers have been killed on the job.
• Plant a tree (with a dedication plaque) in remembrance of members who died due to occupational injury or illness.
• Fly flags at half-mast at your workplace and union hall.
• Wear black ribbons or armbands at your workplace.
• Create and publish digital fliers on social media and organize a call-in to congressional representatives during lunch or break times. Tell your members of Congress to support stronger safety and health regulations and worker safety and health protections.
• Creating a photographic book or other mixed media artwork highlighting images of injured workers discussing firsthand the need for strong safety and health precautions. Send this digital media work to members of Congress, local and state politicians, local religious leaders, and other allies to participate in the call to action; and
• Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Talk to print and TV reporters you know and encourage them to write a story about dangerous work conditions and inadequate job safety protections.
• Participate in events that labor councils in each state may hold

For additional assistance, contact the Teamsters Safety and Health Department,
25 Louisiana Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Phone: 202-624-6960; Fax: 202-624-8740, ibtsafety@teamster.org.