On Tuesday 28th April, we will commemorate International Workers Memorial Day, where we remember those workers who have lost their lives or had their health seriously affected by their work.
Every year this is a poignant occasion for us, but this you it is particularly so. Nobody should go to work and not come home. Sadly, at the moment, too many workers are. Whether in health, social care, transport, refuse, retail or other services, key workers are putting our needs before their health and we owe it to them to reflect on that. IWMD provides us all with that opportunity.
But it also, reminds us of the need to fight – for PPE, for testing, for proper health and safety protections. Sadly, as we all know, that is not a fight we have yet won. But when we reflect on Tuesday, we will also resolve to keep that fight going.
Our Branch will be participating in a number of different activities on the day.
A small number of us will be attending a physical event in support of health and care workers. We cannot provide the details of this upfront (due to our commitment to ensure the protest respects social distance guidance), but we will share coverage afterwards.
At 12:15pm, we will be participating in an online event for Salford City Council employees led by the City Mayor, which will feature a short contribution from myself and pre-recorded videos from two of our local reps, who are proud key workers. If you work for the Council, please do join the International Workers’ Day Commemoration at 12:15, by clicking on the link. The event will be accessed via MS Teams and to join you must mute your microphone and turn off your video. If you are not a Council employee, but would like to view the event, we are assured it will be posted on various social media platforms afterwards – and we ourselves will share it on ours.
Lastly, so we can make the day as interactive as possible, we are encouraging members to take selfie, perhaps holding up a print out of the image at the top of this page or one of your own design. Those can be then shared on social media with the hashtags #IWMD20 and #salford. If you are sharing on Twitter please mention us in the tweet @SalfordUnison and we will retweet. Alternatively, you can email us your pictures and we will post them on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
Take care this weekend and stay safe. If you need us, we are contactable.