I was honored to perform at the 2015 Workers Memorial Day in Bellingham. Last year’s music provider was the great Anne Feeney. The day is commemorated throughout the United States and several countries throughout the world to remember workers who were killed and injured on the job…or as a result of the job. In the USA, there are approximately 12 work-related deaths each day and nearly 4 million injuries per year.
My labor guru, Mark Lowry, President of the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council, facilitated the event with his usual blend of dignity and intensity.
Ramon Torres, president of FUJ, the state’s farmworkers union, with translation assistance from Rosalinda Guillen, related a story of a berry picker with severe symptoms of pesticide poisoning who was told by his bosses to basically “shut up or be replaced.” He died shortly thereafter.
The names of the remembered were read by two union brothers while a bagpiper played “Amazing Grace.”
RIP
Gary Kanter 
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