BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A memorial in Bethlehem was held to honor individuals throughout the Lehigh Valley who misplaced their lives on the office. Organizers additionally hoped to carry extra consciousness to the problem.
On a wet Sunday afternoon, the thirty second Annual Lehigh Valley Staff’ Memorial passed off on the Bethlehem Rose Backyard.
Contained in the DAR home, organizers rang a bell 9 instances: as soon as for every office fatality inside the Lehigh Valley within the final 12 months.
Amy Bedocs’s son, Isiah was one in all them.
“My son, Isiah Bedocs, was the love of our life,” she stated, talking on the podium.
Amy Bedocs attended the occasion with Isiah’s 16-year-old sister and his nice grandmother.
“You by no means count on to ship your son to work, and for him to not come house,” Amy Bedocs stated.
Isiah Bedocs was killed whereas working as a part of a tree removing crew in North Whitehall Township this previous August. He had gotten caught up in a wooden chipper. He was 17 years previous.
Ron Ennis, an officer with the Lehigh Valley Labor Council and co-chair of the Lehigh Valley Staff’ Memorial Committee, is among the occasion’s organizers.
He tells 69 Information that in mild of Bedocs’s demise, the occasion is particularly remembering the greater than 110 baby laborers, 17-years-old and youthful, who died in office accidents.
Most of these deaths are from greater than a century in the past. However he says there have been at the very least 4 fatalities because the Occupational Security and Well being Administration was established in 1971.
An investigation by OSHA discovered the corporate Bedocs labored for, Adam’s Tree Service, had allowed three minors to function the woodchipper. OSHA cited 10 severe security violations.
“We’re doing every thing we are able to to get Adam’s Tree Service made accountable,” Amy Bedocs stated.
The U.S. Division of Labor says since 2018, it is seen a 69 % improve in youngsters employed in violation of kid labor legal guidelines.
“We do not want to return to the nineteenth century,” Ennis stated. “That is the twenty first century. And we ought to be defending our kids.”
John Werkheiser additionally serves as co-chair of the Lehigh Valley Staff’ Memorial Committee. He spoke about making the office safer for all workers.
“Within the phrases of Mary Harris, Mom Jones, ‘pray for the useless and battle like hell for the residing,’” Werkheiser stated.
Simply greater than a month in the past, an explosion at RM Palmer Firm in Berks County left seven staff useless.
Organizers say the final industrial accident with that many fatalities or extra within the Lehigh Valley was again in 1942.
“That is very distinctive, if you begin having 5 or 6 deaths,” Ennis stated. “That is very distinctive. And really tragic.”
This occasion was particularly remembering the 9 individuals, both from the Lehigh Valley or working within the Lehigh Valley, who had been killed whereas on the job.
Two volunteer firefighters out of New Tripoli had been amongst these remembered: 59-year-old Marvin Gruber and 36-year-old Zachary Paris had been killed whereas battling a home hearth in Schuylkill County.
And simply earlier this month, 19-year-old Ryan Schock was chopping down timber for AJW, Inc., in Carbon County, when a department fell about 90 toes, putting him within the head. Schock had simply graduated from Northwestern Lehigh Excessive Faculty in 2022.
Werkheiser, taking to the rostrum, known as for extra OSHA staff, saying whereas there are greater than 700 fulltime sport wardens within the state of Pennsylvania, there are lower than 70 fulltime OSHA personnel.
“You are safer as a trout in Pennsylvania than you might be as a employee,” Werkheiser stated. “If OSHA would begin right this moment to hit each worksite simply as soon as, it’s going to take 162 years for them to finish investigations.”
Organizers additionally appeared again on the historical past of jobs regionally.
“Roughly 4000 Native fatalities,” Ennis stated on the podium. “They’re dated going again earlier than the Civil Battle.”
Ennis says the Lehigh Valley has been house to a number of the most harmful occupations within the U.S.
“We had cellular iron metal mills,” he stated, “we’ve iron ore mining, zinc ore mining, dynamite factories and railroads.”
Organizers say total situations have improved since OSHA was created in 1971, however to at the present time, too many staff nonetheless face severe threat of damage, publicity to chemical compounds and toxins and office assaults.