THUNDER BAY -- For more than 30 years people have been gathering every Apr. 28 to mourn workers killed on the job.
But with 36 young workers in Ontario dying on the job every year, local international day of mourning chair Robert Larocque said it' s also about looking to the future.
"We have to let them know that they have rights. They have the right to refuse unsafe work," he said before the event of around 200 people kicked off Tuesday evening at the Lakehead Labour Centre.
"If we do that an t hey continue the movement then people will come home at the end of the day not as a right but as a benefit to their family."
CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn agreed.
"Part of today is to mourn those that we've lost but it is also to redouble our efforts to fight for the future," he said.
Since 2008, workplace fatalities have increased more than 30 per cent.
"We're heading in the wrong direction here," he said.
The day is a rallying point to educate the public and convince the province to make strategic investments that keep people safe Hahn said.
"We have to get workplace fatalities at zero," he said.
The day, which started in Sudbury in 1985 is now in place in more than 100 countries.
