On April 27, workers in conjunction with unions and local worker solidarity organizations held a Day of Mourning event separate and independent from the one usually held by the B.C. government. The National Day of Mourning is an annual observance honouring workers who are killed or injured on the job.
Billy Grayer, organizer with the East Van Workers Assembly, says the decision to hold a separate event stemmed from “repeated inaction from the government and from businesses to prevent and be proactive in preventing worker deaths.”
He spoke to The North Star about the importance of holding this event independent from the one held by the city:
“Every year, the Day of Mourning [...] is commemorated at Jack Poole Plaza and is a joint event held by the BC Federation of Labour, the Business Council of BC and WorkSafeBC. Our perspective is basically, we don't want to stand with the employers and with the government crying crocodile tears while we're the ones actually risking our lives.”
This year, workers, worker solidarity groups, and union representatives gathered at Thornton Park and marched down Main Street to CRAB Park chanting, “When bosses lose they're in the red. When workers lose we end up dead” and “Kill a worker, go to jail.” Within the crowd, a prop casket was carried.
A recent study showed a three-year increase in workplace fatalities in B.C. Meanwhile, the corporations for whom these workers put their health and lives on the line rake in record profits.
Last year, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) determined their union's demands to administer proper consequences to employers who placed workers in harm's way were falling on deaf ears. They decided to stop standing “shoulder-to-shoulder” with employers and politicians who are responsible for the death of workers every year.
ILWU Canada President Rob Ashton told The North Star, “We don't want to celebrate our dead with [WorkSafeBC, who is] looking at just running people through the system. We wanted to separate that and make the Day of Mourning back to what it should be. Workers remembering workers.”
Workers at the rally protested the government and their work safety agency's treatment of workers. Ashton elaborated on this position:
“We're tired of being treated like second-class people when it's actually the workers that produce the products that we all use. And I think until the day the recognition happens for that, I don't think the two parties can mix anymore.”
Members from the ILWU, Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), CUPE 5536, and the Teamsters Rail were present on the podium and in the crowd to mourn their fellow workers and demand change. Billy Grayer observed that many union members and locals that were most engaged in organizing the independent action were those who had been recently legislated back to work by the Liberal government:
"I think after this wave of anti-union, anti-worker legislation, a growing resentment in the labour movement against the government, a growing understanding that, when the chips are down, the government is lined up on one side and the workers are lined up on the other side.”
The government used back-to-work legislation against several major strikes last year, including CN rail workers unionized with the Teamsters in August, Vancouver longshore workers with ILWU in September, Quebec longshore workers with CUPE in November. After Canada Post stalled bargaining for a month, postal workers with CUPW were ordered back to work in December, leaving many workers frustrated.
“So why would we stand together on the Day of Mourning, a day that is for us, the workers, when the government is lining up on the side of the bosses?” asked Grayer.