In 2017, 158 workers lost their lives to workplace injury or disease. Please join us in honouring their memory on the Day of Mourning, April 28.

Many BCGEU members will be attending Day of Mourning events in communities around our province. Some members will be there to honour and remember their co-workers and family members. Many will be there to show solidarity and empathy for those who have been affected by the death of a worker. 

Experience tells us that every one of these 158 deaths and injuries could have been prevented. There is much work to be done to improve regulatory requirements and enforcement. The BCGEU, along with the BC Federation of Labour and other unions, continue to lobby government and the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) to increase prevention activities, to write more orders, levy more penalties and launch more criminal prosecutions against negligent employers. 

Every year the BCGEU and Labour Councils organize activities in their workplaces and communities to commemorate April 28. BCGEU members are encouraged to attend Day of Mourning events in their communities. Members are also encouraged to take a moment on April 28 to remember the workers who have lost their lives or have been injured in the course of their workday.

Since 1997, the BC Federation of Labour, the Business Council of British Columbia, and WorkSafeBC have co-hosted a public commemorative ceremony for the Day of Mourning in Vancouver, B.C. In 2001, WorkSafeBC, the BC Federation of Labour, and the Business Council of British Columbia dedicated a permanent workers' memorial in the Sanctuary in Hastings Park, Vancouver.

There are approximately 45 permanent worker memorial sites sponsored by WorkSafeBC in British Columbia.

• For a list of ceremonies taking place in British Columbia on April 27 and 28 visit http://www.dayofmourning.bc.ca/

• Download a PDF file of the new Day of Mourning poster here

UWU/MoveUP