Today, Manitoba’s unions marked the National Day of Mourning, a day to honour workers who have been killed or suffered injuries or illness at work, with a walk from the Union Centre to Winnipeg’s Memorial Park followed by a candlelight ceremony in front of the Workers Memorial.

Every year, over 1,000 Canadian workers lose their lives as a result of workplace injuries or illness. Sadly, 18 Manitoba workers died last year from injuries and illnesses that they suffered at work. Unions also honoured 11 others who died in previous years but whose deaths were not recognized as work-related until now.

“Every worker deserves to make it home safely to their loved ones at the end of every shift,” said Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour. “Each one of these deaths represents a family member, friend and co-worker who never made it home or spent their final years battling a disease they had as a result of work. While today is about mourning, it is also about re-committing ourselves to making workplaces safer to prevent these tragic losses.”

While Manitoba has made a lot of progress over the years in making our workplaces safer – largely due to the advocacy of workers and unions – the fact that workers continue to lose their lives every year to workplace injuries and diseases means there is more work to do.

“Manitoba’s unions are committed to making work safer and healthier for everyone,” said Rebeck. “We have made tremendous strides in protecting workers on the job, but much more needs to be done to recognize and prevent the true extent of workplace injuries and illnesses suffered by Manitoba workers every year.”

Rebeck encouraged government to do more to ensure employers face meaningful penalties when they fail to keep workers safe on the job, especially in the case of workplace fatalities. In the past five years, there have been 95 workplace fatalities in Manitoba. In just two of those instances was the employer convicted of a violation under the Act. Of these two, in one case the employer was fined just 20 per cent of the maximum $500,000 penalty, while in the other case the employer was fined only $20,000. Rebeck added that the current provincial government has taken steps to hire several new Workplace Safety and Health officers, but that more investments are still needed to rebuild after budget cuts under the previous PC government.