By KEVIN NEVERS
In a solemn, dignified ceremony on Thursday, United Steelworkers Local 6787
dedicated a memorial erected in front of the union hall to the 30 men and
women who have died at the Burns Harbor facility.
Almost exactly a year ago, on April 28, ground broke on the memorial. That
day was chosen because it coincides with Workers Memorial Day, created 41
years ago by the Occupational and Health Administration Act and a day now
honored around the world by trade unionists as an “international day of
mourning,” as Local Vice-president Pete Trinidad noted on Thursday.
“Last year, when we broke ground for this monument, there were only 29 names
that were to be engraved on it,” Trinidad recalled. “Seven months later,
there was another fatality, bringing the total to 30. Thirty of our
co-workers who came to work and never made it back home. Thirty families
that were torn apart.”
The 30th name: that of Gabriel Rocha, who succumbed to injuries sustained
when a high-pressure steam hose ruptured.
“More workers die while at work than those fighting wars,” Trinidad said.
“Worldwide, one worker dies every 15 seconds—6,000 people every day. For our
honored men and women of the military, the ultimate sacrifice is given
valiantly and voluntarily. No one, however, volunteers to sacrifice their
lives for a job. Every day, across this country, the lives of 12 workers are
taken, not given. No one should die trying to make a living.”
“Decades of struggle by workers and our union have resulted in significant
improvements in working conditions,” Trinidad added. “The workers here in
this plant, led by our president, Paul Gipson, were instrumental in helping
to establish the coke oven standards and OSHA in 1970. These standards have
become a shield to protect workers from coast to coast. Large corporations
relentlessly attack the standards that we fought so hard for. If OSHA is
delayed by bureaucracy, if a law is erased or reversed, that directly
impacts the potential for injuries and death. While corporate leaders say
that safety is their No. 1 priority, sometimes it just doesn’t seem that
way.”
“We need to use every resource available to make our work place safer,”
Trinidad concluded. “We need our elected officials to work on creating jobs
and not weakening job safety precautions. We need more authority given to
OSHA. Safety laws and regulations don’t kill jobs—but unsafe jobs kill
workers. We will continue the fight until the promise of safe jobs is a
reality.”
The Ceremony
The ceremony opened with a prelude performed by the Lake County Sheriff’s
Police Pipes and Drums. Trinidad then presented a plaque of appreciation to
Stefan Cervick, chair of the Steelworkers Memorial Committee, whose idea it
was to erect a monument, who spearheaded the effort, and who organized
funding, to which several Duneland businesses contributed, including Leroy’s
Hot Stuff and Pat’s Liquors in Porter.
“Thank you everybody who helped,” Cervick said. “It’s meant a lot to me and
I know it’s meant a lot to families who lost loved ones.”
Mark Lopez, a staffer for U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st—unable himself to
attend the ceremony—then spoke briefly. “The importance of today is the
names behind me,” he said. “They’re not just names etched in granite. They
symbolize a son, a daughter, a father, a mother, and in some instances just
a damn good friend. We all have a responsibility to ensure that folks’ most
important job is not the one they go to but the one they come home to.”
Lopez noted that Visclosky read a statement of his own on the event into the
Congressional Record.
A staffer for U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-2nd, also spoke, reading a brief
statement by Donnelly. “On this solemn day, by this noble monument, we thank
them and their families, we remember and treasure them, and we vow to value
workers’ lives and safety above profits.”
Trinidad then read each worker’s name, 30 times Cervick tolled a bell
provided by the Portage Fire Department, and a detachment of officers from
the Porter County Sheriff’s Police fired a 21-gun salute.
Trinidad concluded the ceremony with a prayer. “Merciful God, we gather here
today united to honor our co-workers who have fallen here at the Burns
Harbor plant. We lift up to you the names placed on this monument. Let their
names never be forgotten. . . . Thoughts of this hour are and should be
solemn thoughts but they should not be clouded with woe or grief. Rather,
they should be of great emotions that are brought to life when we come face
to face with the realities that underlie our existence and the realities of
working class life. . . . During this time of remembrance let us never
forget our shared responsibilities to one another. We are our brothers’ and
sisters’ keeper. Let us live out this mandate each and every day of our
lives. Amen.”
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