USW Marks Workers Memorial Day

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USW members, officers and staff mourned for their fallen brothers and sisters and vowed to continue to fight like hell for the living during the annual Workers Memorial Day ceremony Thursday, April 28, at the USW headquarters in Pittsburgh.

Vice President Tom Conway reminded the crowd of more than 100 that protecting the lives and the health of workers will always be the union’s top priority. That work, he said, grows in importance as leaders in Washington aim to gut regulations and prioritize corporate profits over the safety of American workers.

“The regulations they are going after, they are the ones we rely on the most to protect workers,” Conway said. “As a union, we can’t relax one bit, and we can’t be fooled.”fRAN1

The Trump administration, Conway said, has distracted working-class Americans with a “Trojan horse,” promising to support workers while often doing the bidding of corporate CEOs.

Following Conway’s remarks, USW staff members read aloud the names of 36 workers who lost their lives at USW workplaces in the past year. With each name, Fran Arabia, former president of Local 1196 at ATI in Brackenridge, rang the union’s memorial bell, which was salvaged from a railcar accident that took the life of a member at his plant in 2005.

With each sound of the bell, a candle was extinguished to memorialize a life that ended too soon.

“This fight isn’t going away,” Conway said. “We’ll have a lot more candles if we don’t stay vigilant.”

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Media Contacts

Communications Director:
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USW@WORK (USW magazine)
Editor R.J. Hufnagel

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Call USW Communications at 412-562-2442

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United Steelworkers
Communications Department
60 Blvd. of the Allies
Pittsburgh, PA 15222