HOUSTON, April 18--In 2017, the latest year for which data is available, 101 people in the Houston area died because of a job-related injury. Most of these deaths were preventable.

Texas leads the United States in workplace fatalities, and around 20% of Texas deaths occur in Houston. This trend has held true for the last decade. With the recent spate of high-profile industrial accidents in the city, including the plant explosion that killed a worker in Crosby on April 2, the annual observation of Workers’ Memorial Day April 28 promises to spotlight a problem gaining recognition with Houstonians.

“People dying at work is a tragedy and also a moral outrage,” said Marianela Acuña Arreaza, executive director of the Faith and Justice Worker Center, which is organizing Workers’ Memorial Day actions in cooperation with a diverse coalition of partners. “These deaths occurred because employers put profit over safety and policymakers neglect existing countermeasures and dismiss calls for better ones.”

FJWC and its partners are holding a press conference at Houston’s City Hall on April 23, with comments from Mayor Sylvester Turner, U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, U.S. Representative Sylvia Garcia, relatives of fallen workers and labor rights activists. Names of workers killed at their jobs will be read aloud.

Furthermore, 10 Houston faith communities will be observing Workers’ Memorial Day during their services April 27 and 28. Catholic, Methodist, Episcopalian, Unitarian Universalist, and Presbyterian congregations are already committed.

“When I participated in my first Workers’ Memorial Day many years ago, I was shocked at the number of people who were killed on the job or died as a result of on-the-job injuries. It’s necessary to speak out. We need to call attention to what’s happening,” said Ceil Roeger of the Dominican Sisters of Houston, which will be dedicating a service to fallen workers.

“Our Catholic social teaching is that all people have rights, and deserve dignity and respect. If employers can’t do more to guarantee employee safety, they’re not showing that dignity and respect.”

Just in 2018: A worker was killed in an industrial shredder on his fourth day on the job. A worker had an SUV dropped on them when a coworker hit controls reaching for a phone. A worker was electrocuted by a hydraulic lift. A worker was run over by a forklift. A worker tripped and fell off a truck, where pipes rolled onto them.

“Each one of these deaths represents a failure of workplace safety that cost a human life, leaving behind family, community, hopes and dreams. There is no centralized data collection system tracking workplace fatalities,” said Acuña Arreaza. “So little has been done to prevent workplace accidents that we do not have the names of all deceased workers. Their names and lives deserve to be known and commemorated.”

A full list of participating churches, names of the dead, and images and photos are available at https://www.houstonworkers.org/wmw.

Workers’ Memorial Day is organized locally by Faith and Justice Worker Center,Houston Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council, Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation (AFL-CIO), Workers Defense Project, the Painter's Union, the Occupational Safety and Health Agency, and academic and faith-driven volunteers.

WORKERS’ RIGHTS HOTLINE: 713-862-8222

For more information:

NAME: Silvia Chicas

PHONE:‭ (713) 298-8824‬

EMAIL: silvia@houstonworkers.org, cc: erin@houstonworkers.org

https://www.houstonworkers.org