INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ MEMORIAL DAY 2021 - REMEMBER THE DEAD, FIGHT FOR THE LIVING

Aberdeen Trades Union Council (ATUC) will commemorate the annual International Workers’Memorial Day on Wednesday 28 April at 11:50 for a small, socially distanced service in Persley Walled Gardens, Bridge of Don.

A small number of representatives from affiliated unions will gather at the workers’ memorial to remember all those who have lost their lives, been injured or made ill at their work. The theme, as always, will be to ‘remember the dead, fight for the living.’

Graeme Farquhar, ATUC President said, “This will be a particularly poignant event this year
after fourteen months of the Covid pandemic where so many have lost their lives, many of them
through their work.

“Countless others have been made ill, with many suffering the effects of Long Covid which
leaves them unable to return to work for a long time. We know that our black and minority ethnic colleagues have been hit particularly hard, as have our disabled colleagues.

“We will mourn for the many who have died in this pandemic, many of whose deaths were completely avoidable if the right protections had been in place at the start. We will fight to ensure that this can never happen again and to make sure that those who are still suffering the effects of Covid are treated with compassion by their employers and their employment rights upheld.

“As we come out of Covid we must ensure that working environments are very different and put the health, safety and wellbeing of workers and service users at their core. Whether you work in
the public sector or in the private sector, the employers’ duty to protect its workforce must take
priority over any economic considerations.

“We will always remember the dead, and continue to fight for the wellbeing of the living.”

ATUC will lay a wreath in memory of those who died by going to their work and will reaffirm their pledge to ensure that no one dies or is injured simply by going to their work.