In New Jersey in 2022, 44 workers lost their lives. These workers were employed at construction sites and in general industries such as milling operations, warehousing, and manufacturing.
April 21, 2023
By Patricia Jones, Director of OSHA’s Avenel Area Office in honor of Worker Memorial Day.
In May 2022, Armando Ribau, a 53-year-old man employed at a Sayreville, New Jersey, steel mill was pulled in and crushed by a rolling mill machine he was adjusting. He tragically died from his injuries.
A federal safety investigation that followed found the equipment was not shut down using the proper, required procedures to protect employees from hazardous energy, such as the unexpected startup of a machine. Sadly, workplace deaths, like this one, are an all-too-common occurrence in the U.S.
Each year, thousands of workers of all ages die needlessly – leaving their families, friends and communities to grieve – when required safety and health standards are ignored. Each day, 14 people suffer preventable work-related deaths. Tens of thousands more die of preventable work-related diseases.
In New Jersey in 2022, 44 workers lost their lives. These workers were employed at construction sites and in general industries such as milling operations, warehousing, and manufacturing.
These numbers remind us of the dangers many workers face. Behind these numbers, there are people who mourn each loss. For them, these statistics are loved ones: they’re parents, children, siblings, relatives, friends, or co-workers.
For those left behind the day their loved one was lost becomes a sad remembrance. Graduations, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and other special times are forever tainted.
On April 28, we pay tribute to those whose jobs claimed their lives in New Jersey on Workers Memorial Day. An opportunity for us to pause and join those families, friends, and co-workers to recall those who suffered work-related injuries and illnesses. The remembrance also recognizes the grief that their survivors face in the days, months, and years after.
Workers Memorial Day also reminds us that more must be done to prevent workplace deaths, injuries, and illnesses. For those of us at the U.S. Department of Labor and, specifically, its Occupational Safety and Health Administration, this annual commemoration reinforces our commitment to developing and enforcing standards and initiatives to safeguard workers and guide employers as they work to provide safe workplaces.
Remember, we all have a role to play in making sure our nation’s workplaces do not endanger our safety and health. If you see people exposed to workplace dangers, don’t ignore your concerns. Alert the employer or contact your local OSHA office or law enforcement agency. Demand that the stores you frequent, the companies that get your business, and those you hire protect the people they employ. If they won’t, take your business to those who respect their workers’ rights to a safe and healthy workplace, and who don’t put profit ahead of the lives of the people who help them earn it.
On Workers Memorial Day 2023, let’s remember those who didn’t return home after work and commit ourselves to making sure that no one is forced to trade their life for a paycheck.
Patricia Jones is the director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration Area Office in Avenel, New Jersey
Workers Memorial Wall. In Remembrance
Name: Workers Memorial Day March and Rally
Date: Sunday, 4/23/2023
Location: Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple, 222 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
Description: The NJ Work Environment Council, New Labor and an Intersectional Coalition that calls for action on worker & climate protection for Workers’ Memorial Day 2023.
Website: https://njwec.salsalabs.org/WorkersMemorialDay2023/index.html
Host: NJ Work Environment Council, New Labor, United Steelworkers District 4, New Jersey Education Association, Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War.
Contact Name(s): Cecelia Leto, project director, WEC
Contact Email: [email protected]
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Name: New Jersey Department of Labor’s Workers Memorial Day Event
Date: Friday, 4/28/2023
Location: Virtually at https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1614957816?pwd=cy9iMWlVenJzSzNGSm9qc05GTWlzUT09
Time: 10:00 a.m. ET
Description: The NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the NJ State Industrial Safety Committee is co-sponsoring a memorial program to honor those who have lost their lives during the course of employment in calendar year 2022.
Website: https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1614957816?pwd=cy9iMWlVenJzSzNGSm9qc05GTWlzUT09
Host: NJ Dept. of Labor and Workforce Development
Contact Name(s): Theresa Kramarz
Contact Email: [email protected]