LEWISTON — The Western Maine Labor Council will honor people Friday who died on the job and those who have fought to improve the workplace.

The nationally recognized group will hold its annual Worker/Memorial Day event with a dinner and awards presentation at the Franco-American Heritage Center at St. Mary’s at 46 Cedar St. It begins at 6 p.m.

Honorees at the dinner will include former Maine Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman, who will be given the Workers’ Solidarity Award, and former Bates Mill owner Fred Lebel, who will be given the Frances Perkins Award, named after the Mainer who served as Franklin Roosevelt’s labor secretary. She was the first woman to serve in a U.S. cabinet.

“Mr. Lebel always went out of his way to help his fellow workers,” Joseph Mailey, the council’s vice president and recording secretary, said. The work continued when he owned the mill. “He always tried making the plant as safe as possible.”

A third award, the Bruce Roy Award, will honor Jim Carson, a longtime teamster who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters for 10 years. The award will be presented to Carson’s widow and a close friend.

This will mark the fifth annual event for the labor council, which has historically gathered for a breakfast gala. Friday’s dinner is open to the public, which will be charged $15 for individuals and $20 for couples.

Besides the awards, the names of workers who have died on the job in Maine will be read.

Fortman and Sarah Bigney of the Maine AFL-CIO will make a presentation on the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City.

The fire led to 146 deaths, many os them garment workers who jumped to their deaths because the factory’s doors were locked. Fortman and Bigney will talk about some of the national safety rules that grew out of the fire 100 years ago.

The labor council represents 5,500 union workers in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties.

For more information about the dinner, contact Mailey at [email protected] or call 786-3750.

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