United in Struggle

April 27, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: UNIONS AND WORKERS HOLD AN INDEPENDENT DAY OF MOURNING TO COMMEMORATE THOSE WE’VE LOST AND FIGHT FOR SAFE AND DIGNIFIED WORK

On April 27th, to commemorate the National Day of Mourning, unions and workers have united for a rally and march, 1 p.m. at Thornton Park in Vancouver, to grieve, and to express our anger at a system which has failed us.

Three workers are killed every day in Canada, and experts suggest this number could be up to 10 times higher. The number of workers killed on the job each year has steadily increased since the 1970s. This is a symptom of the corporate drive for profit at the expense of working people.

Traditionally, the Day of Mourning is commemorated in a joint event hosted by the BC Federation of Labour, the Business Council of BC, and WorkSafeBC at Jack Poole Plaza. This year, the growing workers’ movement is calling for an alternative to this event. “We can’t stand idle with employers crying crocodile tears, while we’re the ones risking our lives for their profit,” says Billy Grayer, an organiser with the East Van Workers Assembly. “This year we’re holding our own commemoration to show our strength as a workers’ movement, and to say enough is enough, one dead worker is too many.”

“After 26 workers were killed at the Westray Mine in Nova Scotia in 1992, the United Steelworkers led a decade-long struggle for the adoption of the Westray Law, which allows employers to be charged with criminal negligence in cases of workplace death under the Criminal Code,” says Grayer. Since the Westray Law was codified, it has only been used to effect 11 times, most of those cases coming against small business owners. “Now we need to fight for the Westray Law to be implemented, for the employer, the owners and top level executives, to be charged and sent to jail when they are responsible for worker deaths.”

There were 146 officially recognized workplace deaths in BC in 2024. Construction, manufacturing, and resource extraction are some of the most dangerous economic sectors, with high risk of injury and death.

“Workplace injury and death is an issue that affects workers from all industries. We’re the ones who make society run, it’s us the workers” says Grayer. “The government has shown repeatedly that they will not take action and protect us unless we’re united as workers and willing to fight.”

-30-