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Louisiana teachers' union concerned about educators' future; Supreme Court hears arguments in Trump immunity case; court issues restraining order against fracking waste-storage facility; landmark NE agreement takes a proactive approach to CO2 pipeline risks.

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Speaker Johnson accuses demonstrating students of getting support from Hamas. TikTok says it'll challenge the ban. And the Supreme Court dives into the gray area between abortion and pregnancy healthcare, and into former President Trump's broad immunity claims.

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The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken, and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

Workers Memorial Day - 80 WV On-the-Job Deaths

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Friday, April 27, 2007   


Charleston, WV - West Virginia workers who died on the job last year are being honored this weekend for Workers Memorial Day, including 47 who died working in the mining industry in 2006. The names of those who died on the job last year are being read out loud at the memorial services to be held Saturday.

More than half of last year's deaths were in the coal mining industry, and West Virginia AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue says the death statistics are alarmingly high.

“Between workers that were killed on the job in 2006 and workers that died from occupational illnesses, those numbers are going to probably be up close to 80.”

Congress responded to the Sago mine deaths with a law that requires stricter standards on mine rescues, and higher penalties for repeated mine safety violations. Perdue notes that other industries also deserve more scrutiny, something that will be tough unless more inspectors are hired. He says there are only eight, and it would take them 90 years to inspect every West Virginia workplace.

Perdue notes that as worker safety has slipped down the priority list in recent years, and the number of deaths in West Virginia have increased.

“What we do is recognize and remember the workers that lost their lives in the workplace. Too often, these workers are forgotten.”

Weekend’s events also include a charity golf scramble to raise scholarship money for the sons and daughters of West Virginians who died on the job, or were seriously injured. The West Virginia AFL-CIO Kids' Change Golf Scramble is today, Bel Meadow Country Club in Clarksburg. Workers Memorial Day service is Saturday, 2 p.m. at the Chapel of West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon.



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