Six wreaths were floated out into the Middle River on Sunday afternoon; each wreath representing one of the six construction workers who were killed when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed on March 26th.
Workers’ Memorial Day is celebrated annually on April 28th and this year’s service at the Middle Branch Park brought state and national union leaders alongside Baltimore City elected officials to call for stronger worker protections.
Each year, in anticipation of the day, the AFL-CIO puts out an annual report tracking workplace safety trends. This year’s report found that the number of Latino workers dying on the job is rising.
All six of the workers who died in the Key bridge collapse were immigrants originally from Latin America.
Father Ty Hullinger of the Transfiguration Catholic Community Parish opened the memorial with prayer and reflection. Hullinger echoed the famous words of Mary “Mother Jones” Harris, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
The leaders mourned the loss of the six workers who died while doing routine work filling potholes on the bridge when it was struck by a cargo vessel. Ship crews from the Dali sent a mayday warning to emergency operators who were able to shut down bridge traffic but the warning reportedly did not get to the workers in time. One worker and a state inspector survived. The bodies of two men have yet to be recovered.
“We're here today with a very painful reminder that we have more work to do,” said Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO. “And we're thinking about six workers, who wanted nothing more than to come here to Baltimore, to this country, and make a life for themselves and their families. They're gone far too soon.
Shuler and others called for stronger union protections, and better safety laws– as well as stronger enforcement of the laws already on the books.
Maryland Labor Secretary Portia Wu noted that approximately two Maryland workers are killed on the job every month; construction work is particularly deadly.
“They only make up 5% of the workers in Maryland, they make up about 30% of the deaths. So this is a high risk industry,” Wu said of construction workers.
Wu noted that last year’s memorial also remembered construction workers; last March, six workers were killed by a motorist who entered a workzone on I-695. Many of those workers were also immigrants.
Latino workers make up about a third of the country’s construction industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Meanwhile, a recent report from the state comptroller’s office found that immigrants are fueling Maryland’s current economic growth.
Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35; Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, 26; Jose Mynor Lopez, who was in his 30’s; Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38; Miguel Luna, 49; and Carlos Hernandez were all killed when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in the very early hours of March 26th.
