Congressman John K. Delaney (MD-6) attended Workers’ Memorial Day events in Cumberland and Hagerstown. These ceremonies remember those Americans who have been killed on the job and call for safe workplaces for all.
Coverage from the Hagerstown Herald-Mail here:
Union and Delaney honor military, civilians hurt or killed on the job
By Caleb Calhoun, 4/28/15
The theme of this year’s Central Maryland AFL-CIO Labor Council Workers Memorial Day Program to commemorate those killed or injured on the job turned toward those in uniform on Tuesday.
With Rep. John Delaney in attendance, Chip Cook, president of the Central Maryland AFL-CIO Labor Council, said the unofficial theme for the program was safety for National Guard Reserve and active-duty members.
“We want to make sure that we’re doing whatever we can in the civilian workplace, so these people go home to their families as good as they started that morning or better,” Cook said.
Retired Brigadier Gen. Annette M. Deener, who served in the Maryland National Guard for more than 36 years and as director of the Joint Staff, Joint Force Headquarters in Maryland, spoke about the importance of safety in the military.
“We do the best we can to make the workplace, whether it’s in a factory or at a military training site or a battleground, as safe as we possibly can for our most precious resource, and that’s our people,” Deener said.
She said military safety measures need to be exercised by the organizations and by the individuals themselves, but many of the measures are usually the result of “lessons learned the hard way.”
“When risk assessments and practicing good safety measures become a habit, a process that is second nature in all that we do from the planning phase to completion, we’ve done the best that we can,” Deener said.
“Getting to net zero in accidents is probably unrealistic, but striving to get there certainly reduces the risk, and hopefully, prevents names from being added to a memorial plaque for those we’ve lost,” she said.
Delaney, D-Md., talked about workplace injuries. He told the audience how he grew up in New Jersey, where his father, grandfather and neighbor were all injured while working on the job.
He described workplace injuries as something that was just part of people’s lives and credited organized labor for reducing them.
“We haven’t eliminated that, but if you think about the safety conditions that have been put in place, the care and precaution that goes into protecting our workers at the work place, we’ve really made remarkable improvement, and it’s all due to the organized labor movement,” he said.
As a former businessman, Delaney said before the event began that taking care of workers is the top responsibility when running a business.
“You don’t have anything unless you have your people, and creating an environment where they’re safe and secure and have dignity in their job is really important,” he said.
The program also included the singing of “Amazing Grace” by Clear Spring High School senior Jenn Bowers and a performance of “Taps” by Clear Spring High junior Brady Clark.