To the Journal editor:

Sunday is Workers Memorial Day. This is a day where we remember workers killed, injured and sickened from their jobs and pledge to fight for all workers to have the freedom to work safely.

More than 50 years ago, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act and unions are still fighting for good and safe jobs for everyone. We have fought hard and won protections that have made jobs safer and saved thousands of lives.

Still, each day, more than 340 people across the United States either die from on-the-job injuries or have illnesses, impacting their livelihoods and families’ lives. Lack of union representation makes workers especially vulnerable to unsafe working conditions.

Working families won’t stop fighting until Congress increases funding for job safety agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, until we have stronger standards to protect against harmful exposures and dangerous conditions, and until we improve anti-retaliation protections so that workers can raise safety concerns on the job.

Elections matter! Anti-regulatory attacks have put our working conditions in danger, threats that would remove protections on the books we take for granted. Congressional Republicans are attempting to defund the OSHA and remove job safety enforcement funding.

Our job safety laws are still too weak and our job safety agencies are under-resourced. Penalties still are too low to be a deterrent for bad-acting employers.

On this Workers Memorial Day, working families are calling on federal, state and local policymakers to provide worker protection agencies with the resources they need to issue strong standards to enforce dangerous conditions.

We must fight to protect our job safety rights from rollbacks and political attacks, and renew the call for safer working conditions.

No one should have to go to work wondering whether they’ll return home safely after their shift.