Honor the Dead; Fight Like Hell for the Living; Workers’ Memorial Day 2021

Jordan Romero and Carlos Gutierres, left for work early one morning this past February, never to return home. Killed on the job working for a construction company with a record of health and safety violations, Jordan and Carlos will be remembered as part of MassCOSH’s Workers’ Memorial Day commemoration April 28th.

This year, MassCOSH will hold a small commemoration at the steps of the State House that will simultaneously be broadcast on Facebook Live to allow families, coworkers, and advocates to safely honor those we lost on the job. To RSVP to view our Workers’ Memorial Day event, please click here.

We also welcome readers to submit a short video of you lighting a candle in honor of the many workers lost to COVID-19 during this deadly pandemic. Please email a video of you lighting a candle (five seconds maximum please) to ben.w@masscosh.org by April 19 for your video to be added to our virtual program.

MassCOSH will also release its annual Dying for Work in Massachusetts report on April 28 listing those that died from workplace injury and disease in 2020. Click here to continue reading. According to the report, once again, construction was one of the most dangerous industries for workers in 2020, with a total of four workers killed even as the sector effectively shut down for months as the pandemic took hold of Massachusetts. The report will also honor those workers lost due to workplace exposure to COVID-19, though we are unable to list names and even quantify those lost due to the State’s failure to collect data on the occupation and industry of COVID-19 victims.