Workers killed on the job remembered

Officials paid tribute to people whose lives are cut short due to dangerous conditions in their daily work.

Lorain County elected officials paid tribute to people whose lives are cut short due to dangerous conditions in their daily work.

Lorain County Commissioners Michelle Hung, David J. Moore and Matt Lundy declared April 28 as Workers Memorial Day.

In the past, the honor included a ceremony outside the Old Lorain County Courthouse, where a monument sits dedicated to workers who died during their jobs.

The 2021 commemoration had no large gathering, but some of the county’s elected officials met to talk briefly at the site.

The goal was to be cautious and avoid a large gathering of people due to the novel coronavirus, said Jim Slone, president of the Lorain County UAW CAP Council.

The United Auto Workers Local 2000 includes a Citizenship and Legislative Committee, most often referred to as the Community Action Program, or CAP.

Slone had a wreath for the memorial and a copy of the county proclamation from Lundy, who spoke about the issue during the commissioners’ regular meeting earlier that day.

“It’s just really important for all of us to realize how many people go to work, and how many folks don’t come home at the end of the day,” Lundy said.

Law enforcement officers and their families may recognize that possibility, but in other jobs, people go to work expecting to return home, he said.

Lundy credited labor unions and collective bargaining agreements for improving workplace safety.

In 2019, 5,300 workers died on the job, more than 100 a week, and about 20 percent of worker deaths in private industry happened in construction, he said.

In Ely Square, Joe Gee, a member of the Lorain County Veterans Service Commission, snapped photos with Slone and others including Moore and Lundy, Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson, Lorain County Clerk of Courts Tom Orlando and Elyria Law Director Amanda R. Deery.

Before taking county office, Orlando recalled his experience serving in posts with the UAW Local 2000.

Worker safety is a key

“It’s just really important for all of us to realize how many people go to work, and how many folks don’t come home at the end of the day.” —Commissioner Matt Lundy

issue in contract negotiations, he said.

“Everybody that walks into those plants, deserves to walk out in the same physical condition that they walked in with,” he said.

RICHARD PAYERCHIN — THE MORNING JOURNAL A new wreath sits at the monument that marks Workers Memorial Day outside the Old Lorain County Courthouse on April 28.