Media Advisory - Good Photo Op, Interview Opportunities - Hundreds of
Steelworkers to March to Day of Mourning Ceremony

    
    WHAT:  National Day of Mourning

    WHERE: Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto City Hall

    WHEN:  Wednesday, April 28, 12:00 noon

    WHO:   Several hundred Steelworkers to join huge Day of Mourning ceremony
    

TORONTO, April 27 /CNW/ - Several hundreds Steelworkers will march en masse to Nathan Phillips Square Wednesday to join a huge Day of Mourning ceremony in Toronto.

More than 600 delegates from across Canada are attending the United Steelworkers National Policy Conference this week at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel. At 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, the USW delegates will break from their meetings and march to Toronto City Hall for the Day or Mourning ceremony which begins at noon.

Ken Neumann, the Steelworkers National Director for Canada, will speak at the ceremony.

Also in attendance will be USW District 3 Director Steve Hunt, who is spearheading a private prosecution against Weyerhaeuser company following the death of British Columbia sawmill worker Lyle Hewer. The prosecution is being pursued under the Westray Bill, which allows for criminal penalties against corporations and executives responsible for workplace fatalities.

Another speaker during Wednesday's ceremony will be Oksana Afanasenko, widow of Aleksey Blumberg - one of four workers killed in Toronto last Christmas Eve when they fell 13 stories from a collapsed building scaffold. Dilshod Marupov, the lone survivor of the tragedy, also will be in attendance.

The Day of Mourning commemorates workers who are killed or injured at work.

Nearly 1,000 workers are killed on the job annually in Canada, while hundreds of thousands are injured or fall ill in their workplaces.

For further information: Ken Neumann, USW National Director for Canada, [phone]; Andy King, USW Health Safety and the Environment, [phone]