There were three fatalities among the UAW-represented workforce since last year's Workers' Memorial Day.

Workers' Memorial Day is April 28 and our union will pause to remember those who lost their lives on the job in the last 12 months and in years past. We should also pause to reflect on how we can all do our jobs safer until fatalities and injuries on the job are eliminated.

"There are those who say that unions are no longer necessary, but who will keep the pressure on employers who allow dangerous work environments to save a few dollars?" UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said. "Who will keep the pressure on the government to monitor existing laws and strengthen weak health and safety standards?"

The three UAW fatalities were among skilled-trades workers who typically suffer a higher fatality rate (3.5 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2009) than the rate for all workers (1.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers). The rate for skilled-trades workers remains the same as it was in 2008. But the rate for all workers has steadily dropped; in 2000 it was 2.05.

This is a direct result of the gains UAW members have won at the bargaining table, including:

-- Restrictions on working alone or in isolated areas.

-- Lock-out and energy control.

-- New technology and equipment review.

-- Fall hazard prevention.

-- Electrical safety.

The UAW's policy on health and safety is straightforward: We always seek to set the standards that the rest of the industry tries to emulate, no matter where the workplace. And we'll continue to do that so every worker arrives home at the end of their shift in the same condition as when they entered the workplace.

Sadly, the need for remaining constantly vigilant on health and safety issues was once again demonstrated earlier this year when 29 coal miners died after an explosion at Massey Energy Co.'s Upper Branch Big Mine. In 2009, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) proposed nearly $1 million in fines for more than 450 safety voilations at trhe non-union mine in Raleigh County, W.Va. In March, MSHA cited the mine for 57 voliations that included repeatedly failing to develop and follow the ventilation plan.

But Massey CEO Donald Blankenship's attitude toward safety can be summed up in a 2005 memo he sent to mine supertintendents:

"If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal ... you need to ignore them and run coal," Blankenship wrote.

In Canada, Blankenship would likely face criminal prosecution. Twenty-six miners died in the 1992 Westray coal mining disaster. A law passed after that tragedy allows for corporations and senior officers to be held liable for the harm caused at work.

But the Massey miners have no such protection here in the United States. And being non-union miners they could not refuse the hectic pace of work, nor protest the safety violations because they could have been terminated for lodging a complaint.