The Following Statement By UAW President Stephen P. Yokich is Issued In Observance of Workers Memorial Day On April 27, 2001

    DETROIT, April 26 The following statement by UAW President
Stephen P. Yokich is issued in observance of Workers Memorial Day on April 27,
2001:

    On Friday, April 27, 2001, the UAW, the labor movement and our allies are
again observing Workers Memorial Day.  All around the country, UAW local
unions are taking time to remember victims of injury and illness on the job
and to rededicate ourselves to preventing these tragedies in the future.  In
many facilities, management will join us in these observations.
    We begin with remembering the 15 UAW victims of occupational fatalities in
the year 2000 and this year's victims of workplace violence and industrial
disease.  We will dedicate ourselves again to stopping this senseless and
preventable loss of life.
    This year we also respond to Congress passing and President Bush signing a
resolution to disapprove the OSHA ergonomics standard.  Ergonomic failures are
the single largest workplace cause of injury, illness, pain and disability.
The American people did not vote to wipe out ten years of effort to protect
workers by setting ergonomic standards.  But President Bush did.  Therefore,
we will commit ourselves again to continue the struggle for government
mandated ergonomics protections.
    Further, we must respond to the toll of occupational illnesses caused by
chemical and other contamination of our workplaces.  While current research
identifies more cancer and respiratory hazards, standards that would protect
working people from contamination remain stuck in the last century.
    Health and safety can never be taken for granted, even when working for
responsible employers.  Our health and safety rights are in jeopardy,
threatened by hostile legislation and the economic pressure of globalization
and the slowing economy.  As UAW members, we have the power to bargain with
management for new protections, to search our workplaces for hazards and to
demand that management eliminate them.  But we can lose our momentum if
government rolls back our legal protections, and workers without unions depend
on ever more weakened public protections like OSHA.
    For decades, the labor movement has led the fight for, and won, stronger
job safety protections that have improved the lives of all workers --
organized and unorganized.  We must continue that fight, speak out and make
our voices heard for safe jobs.

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