Huff Post: On Worker's Memorial Day: Protest Bush Administration Policies Making Work Less Safe

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-w-gerard/on-workers-memorial-day-p_b_98858.html

Posted April 27, 2008

In the heart of Pennsylvania, while the media still relentlessly plagued Senators Obama and Clinton about flag pins and memory lapses just before the primary, a machine at an ArcelorMital plant in Steelton crushed Roger H. Prichard to death. He was 58.

It was April 18, three days before the Pennsylvania primary. It occurred just five days after piping crushed Jaren T. Hoover to death at the Dura-Bond Pipe factory, also in Steelton. He was 19.

Life went on. Jaren's father, a Pennsylvania common pleas judge, found dozens of his son's friends at the funeral, mourning, and doing what kids do now, which is post memorials on MySpace. Roger Prichard's wife told a local reporter that her husband was a good father and husband and loving person, before she was too overcome to continue speaking. His grandchildren will never get to know him.

As the presidential candidates are repeatedly forced to focus on the frivolous -- whether Hillary faked crying or laughed too loud or whether Obama once served on a board of directors with an unsavory character -- real issues like federal enforcement of workplace safety are completely ignored.

Monday, April 28, however, is one day set aside to concentrate on saving workers' lives. It is Workers Memorial Day. It is an occasion on which we mourn the dead and strive for better conditions for the living.

Under the Bush Administration, this has been nothing but a struggle.

FULL story at link.