Union leaders and members and others gathered Friday morning at the United Steelworkers headquarters Downtown to mark Workers Memorial Day, an annual event to “remember those who lost their lives on the job while also renewing our promise to fight for safer, healthier workplaces.”
People who’ve attended these ceremonies describe them as “moving.”
But you also could describe this one as very sad.
Guest speakers from Toledo, Ohio, USW Local 1-346, its President Jim Witt and Secretary- Treasurer Bryan Sidel, honored late members Ben and Max Morrissey, brothers who died Sept. 20, 2022, after a fire at what was at the time the BP-Husky (now Cenovus) oil refinery in Oregon, Ohio.
Ben, 32, was survived by a 2-year-old child and a pregnant wife, who gave birth to their second child in May; Max, 34, was survived by his wife and children ages 2 and 4. They also left behind their mother and other family, friends and co-workers, even a side-hustle pizza-and-ice cream shop, as documented in numerous sad stories after the accident.
According to a federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation, the two brothers were trying to fix rising liquid levels in a fuel gas mix drum when “a flammable vapor cloud formed, ignited and then triggered an explosion.” Their actions may have saved the lives of many others, but their own families, including their union family, were devastated.
“It was very gut-wrenching,” Witt said in a video that played for about 100 people who gathered in the USW lobby for the ceremony.
From the podium, Witt and Sidel told the gathering how helpful it was to have the support of the Steelworkers and the union’s Emergency Response Team (represented by Director Duronda Pope), as well as the support of the community, for everyone to begin to get through it.
Emcee Doug Ward of Local 3657 said, “We recommit ourselves to health and safety in their memory.”
While two siblings in the same family dying in the same accident was unprecedented for their local, workplace deaths are not rare, as there are about 15 a day and more than 5,400 per year in the U.S., said the USW’s District 10 Director Bernie Hall in his opening remarks. As sunshine streamed in the big windows behind him, he stood beside a wreath of yellow roses and a table where flames flickered on 23 votives representing workers at USW work sites across North America who died since last year’s ceremony and as recently as this week.
“That’s why we have to fight each and every day,” Hall said, “so someday there will be no candles at this ceremony.”
Hall stated the importance of workers’ mental health, as well. This worldwide observance isn’t just about accidental deaths, emphasized USW Local 3657 Communications Specialist Cheyenne Schoen Gallivan, but also workplace violence. She repeated twice: “Homicide is the leading cause of death for women.”
A disproportionate number of killed or injured workers in dangerous fields such as construction are Latinos and other immigrants, who also are undercompensated, under-union-represented and exploited in other ways, noted Jessica Rios-Viner, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.
She opened her remarks by reading the names of the six workers killed in the March 26 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore:
- Alejandro Hernández Fuentes.
- Carlos Hernández.
- Miguel Luna.
- Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval.
- Jose Mynor López.
- Dorlian Castillo Cabrera.
She called on unions to do more to help immigrant workers with language and other accessibility issues, so they can feel safe about reporting concerns about health and safety on the job. “Every worker should be able to return home safely after their shift.”
USW presenters honored 23 of their own who did not return home by ringing a USW bell — salvaged from a locomotive involved in the 2005 rail car crushing death of a worker in Brackenridge — and extinguishing a candle flame as they read each worker’s name and age:
- Dru Worker, 25.
- Jaquan Pugh, 24.
- Joshua Vyse, 40.
- Scott Higgins, 55.
- Damien Brant, 22.
- Gabriel Cabral, 32.
- William Hackman, 59.
- Patrick W. Wing, 63.
- Oscar Sanders, 64.
- Pierre Warford, 32.
- Noah Jon Dinger, 24.
- Sean MacPherson, 56.
- Roderick L. Jackson, 36.
- Officer Paul J. Tracey, 58.
- Todd E. Fair, 56.
- Andrew Stayzer, 58.
- Gillis “Bonty” Millette, 51.
- Juvenile Balmores, 36.
- Raymond Lofland, 67.
- John R. May Sr., 61.
- Robert Wood, 37.
- Courtney A. Smith, 30.
- Steven Brookins, 57.
That was so sad. But, with the reading of two poignant poems and piano music by Shailen Abram, it was moving. And it became “soothing,” as promised by Allie Petonic, who belongs to both USW 3657 and the Pittsburgh Labor Choir, as the choir sang “The Whole Wide World Around” and “Tomorrow Is a Highway” and encouraged attendees to join in on parts of the latter, including:
Tomorrow is a highway broad and fair,
And we are the workers who’ll build it there:
And we will build it there.
USW 3657 President Ryan Fairly provided more uplift in closing by referring to federal legislation that their and others’ unions will continue to protect and push for, along with other action toward “creating a world where every worker can thrive without risking life and limb.”
The memorial observance is one of many around the region and the country. The Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council will host its memorial event at noon on Monday on Downtown’s Market Square.
Bob, a feature writer and editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is currently on strike and serving as interim editor of the Pittsburgh Union Progress. Contact him at bbatz@unionprogress.com.
