Day of Mourning honours workers killed, injured on the job
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Online memorials, messages and tributes have replaced the usual in-person service marking the national Day of Mourning locally but the day is no less poignant for Veronica Cardoso, whose husband Claudio died on the job on Jan. 21, 2009.
Cardoso and her sons, Mateo and Mauricio, have participated in the local event every year since, joining hundreds of participants who remember the lives lost and speak of the need for improved workplace health and safety before marching to the injured and killed workers memorial in Coventry Gardens at Reaume Park.
“At first is was just such a sad day, and it is always a sad day but then you almost get stronger every time you tell the story,” Cardoso said. “I’ll probably cry until I’m 90, if I live that long, talking about this because it’s always sad but it does make you stronger.
“In the beginning, when my kids were very young, the community was so helpful. Before this whole COVID thing happened, we would go to the ceremony and my kids would come up with me (when she spoke).”
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Windsor & District Labour Council to hold its remembrance virtually for the second year.
Survivors, union leaders, activists and workers pre-recorded messages and all the videos can be viewed online by visiting windsorlabour.ca.
Cardoso’s video is a heartfelt message to her son Mateo, who was only three years old when his father Claudio was pinned by a rack that hadn’t been secured properly to a forklift.
The rack struck his chest, “tearing his aorta from his heart, killing him instantly,” Cardoso said. “He was 36 years old and went to work and never came home unfortunately.”
Her message to Mateo and all other young workers is simple.
“I want them to be aware. If you don’t feel safe doing something, just say something,” she said.
“He’s going to be 16 on Monday and he needs to get a job so I thought, you know what … he (needs to know) it’s important. I don’t want him to go to work and then not come back.”
Event chairman Mike Jee said the Day of Mourning is an important reminder of the rights workers have including the right to refuse unsafe work and the importance of reporting injuries and unsafe working conditions to supervisors.
“We haven’t had these rights for very long and we don’t have them because of the generosity of employers or government,” Jee said.
“The only reason we have these rights and freedoms is because workers stuck together and they worked hard to get it, to make it the way it is,” adding more work needs to be done to protect migrant workers and assist injured workers.
“Today we should be honouring the workers who have died in service of their employer and those who have been injured and our frontline workers and those that are trying to keep us safe.”
Jee said COVID-19 has made workplace health and safety more challenging.
“For a lot of places, it’s taken the focus away from dealing with the other issues. You’re not worried about if you’re sore at night, you’re worried about whether you’re going to be exposed to COVID or whether you’re going to be able to go to work and pay your bills.”
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