From the newsletter of the International Federation of Chemical, Engineering, Mine and General Workers' Unions, 24 April 2011

Every April 28, the labour movement remembers the fallen. April 28 is known as International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers and is marked by trade unions and safety and health groups in over 140 countries.
Globally, 2.3 million workers die as a result of their work every year, according to the ILO. The ICEM considers this number, shocking as it is, to be understated by at least a factor of ten. Many millions more are injured or made ill due to occupational disease. Every one of these deaths, injuries, and illnesses is needless; in fact, senseless.
ICEM affiliated trade unions work in some of the most dangerous and toxic workplaces on the planet. High-profile tragedies such as explosions and fires at oil and gas facilities, out-of-control nuclear power plants, methane gas blasts and cave-ins at mines, and untold number of equipment failures in manufacturing that cause death, limb loss, other injuries are all part of a sad culture that the ICEM aims to reverse.
The continuing toll of deaths, injuries, and illnesses is quite simply unacceptable to the ICEM. That is why the ICEM is there to assist its affiliates on any occupational health and safety issue. It is the reason that the ICEM has led the way in bringing occupational health and safety into Global Framework Agreements. It is why the ICEM has an ongoing campaign for the ratification of ILO Convention 176, a long-standing project on HIV/AIDS, and it is also why the ICEM engages other international organizations for better standards and better cooperation in occupational health and safety.
What would make workplaces safer? While employers and governments spend enormous sums seeking magical solutions, the ICEM knows that the answer is really quite simple, although burdensome to some in implementing: workers have rights, employers have obligations.
Here then, is the answer.
• Unions make work safer, therefore the first and most important workplace health and safety programme stems from a strong union. To achieve this, we demand respect for the ILO Core Labour Conventions, especially those protecting freedom of association, the right to organize unions, and the right to collective bargaining.
• Workers’ rights: the fundamental rights of workers with respect to occupational health and safety include: the right to know about the hazards of work and to receive training in how to do the job safely; the right to refuse – and shut down, if necessary – unsafe work; the right to participate in the formulation and implementation of workplace health and safety policies, programmes, and procedures. This right is best achieved through a Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) that plays a central and obligatory role in an employer's internal responsibility system.
• Employers’ obligations: Employers should concentrate their efforts on making work safer. This means process safety management, identification and use of best available technologies, industrial hygiene, ergonomics, occupational disease recognition and investigation, and a precautionary approach to chemical, biological, physical and other hazards.
• Employers’ prohibitions: Employers should not be allowed to use methods and practices whose principal purpose is to blame victims, or suppress the reporting of accidents and artificially improve statistics in order to gain improved workers' compensation experience ratings, premium reductions and rebates, and public relations points. This includes prohibiting behaviour-based safety programmes, workplace drug and alcohol testing (particularly post-incident), safety incentives that encourage under-reporting of accidents, and waging fights against recognition of workplaces diseases.
The theme, “Unions Make Work Safer” on April 28 and on every work day, is sometimes known as Workers’ Memorial Day. It is fitting because a major role that trade unions play in everyday work-life is to monitor – and improve – occupational safety and health. Trade union activists are encouraged to find an activity and to take meaningful action to better safe work practices through the strength of their union.