What: Workers Memorial Day Observance and May Day Breakfast

When: 9 a.m. to noon today

Where: Bates Mill Complex, 35 Canal St., Lewiston, 2nd floor (above Davinci’s Restaurant)

Info: Don Berry, 207-415-2783 or [email protected].

Memorial Day, May Day Breakfast set

LEWISTON – The Western Maine Labor Council, AFL-CIO, along with Museum L/A will remember deceased workers at the first Workers Memorial Day Observance and May Day Breakfast today.

It begins at 9 a.m. at the Bates Mill Complex on the second floor, 35 Canal St. The event will also celebrate the gains and local history of working people.

U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, will be a featured speaker at the event. He was a union member at Great Northern Paper Company for 28 years.

Longtime labor supporter U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine will join Michaud in discussing the Employee Free Choice Act as an important tool for improving safety in the workplace. Both congressmen sponsored the measure in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The first Workers Memorial Day was celebrated on April 28, 1989. The date was chosen to commemorate the founding of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. As workers continue to die on the job every year, trade unionists around the world now recognize April 28 as an International Day of Mourning.

As part of the breakfast, there will be a ceremony, starting at 11 a.m., to read the names of 38 workers who died on the job in the past year in Maine.

“This gathering will be more than a somber remembrance,” said Labor Council President Don Berry.

Maine Senate President Beth Edmonds will be joined by renowned Portland author Phil Hoose and the musical ensemble “9 to 9” for a celebration of songs that helped shape the U.S. labor movement.

The Western Maine Labor Council represents workers in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties. The council received its charter from the AFL-CIO in 2006, making it the first new labor council to be chartered in ten years. The event is open to the public; breakfast tickets are $10. Proceeds from the First Annual Workers Memorial Day Observance and May Day Breakfast will benefit the Western Maine Labor Council and Museum L/A.