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May 28, 2024 |  By: Mark Moran - Public News Service

On Memorial Day, IA labor leaders honor fallen workers

factory worker

By Mark Moran - Public News Service

Memorial Day commemorates Americans who lost their lives while serving in the military.

But the Iowa Federation of Labor takes the opportunity to also honor people who died on the job in the last year.

The Iowa Division of Labor says the 57 workers who died on the job lived in all corners of the state - from Muscatine and Liberty, to Storm Lake, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.

They were truck drivers, software engineers, county court workers and grain elevator operators.

Iowa AFL-CIO President Charlie Wishman said workers died in car accidents and from chemical exposure.

Some lost their lives falling from high ladders or other on-the-job accidents that turned out to be fatal.

"The thing that I think is in common with most of them," said Wishman, "is that many of them are preventable."

There are various Memorial Day gatherings around Iowa today, honoring all Americans who were killed in the line of military duty.

Wishman says the Iowa AFL continues to push for laws and policies that will make workplaces safer, so there will be fewer job-related deaths in the future.

"It's a reminder that there's always something that we can do more," said Wishman, "to make people have a better chance of going to work and being able to come home to their loved ones."

There are more than 1.6 million Iowans in the workforce. The industry with the most workers in the state - almost 226,000 people - is manufacturing.