Worker Memorial Day 2022
Keynote Address: Katie Garrow (she/her/hers) - Laborers Local 242, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, MLK Labor
Katie Garrow was elected to serve as Executive Secretary-Treasurer of MLK Labor in September 2021. Katie got her start in the labor movement organizing domestic workers and day laborers through a hiring hall in the San Francisco Bay Area. She went on to represent public sector workers at the City of Seattle at PROTEC17, before joining the staff at MLK Labor. At the Labor Council, Katie’s focus has included a very successful push to grow labor’s political power beyond Seattle and into South King County where union members make up as much as 40% of the electorate. She worked to elect more than 50 union members as mayors, city council members, and school board directors in Seattle and South King County. She has also led the Labor Council’s work around anti-racism, climate change, and workforce development. Garrow was born into a working-class family in Grays Harbor County in WA, where her father was a union boilermaker and her mother worked in rural economic development. She witnessed firsthand the decline of such logging towns like hers in the area. Consequently, she is rooted in the plight of the rural working class, but is also passionately devoted to making the labor movement relevant and representative of women, people of color, and LGBTQ workers who have been left out and at times excluded from our unions and American prosperity.
This event is a joint program provided by the University of Washington (UW) Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS), The Northwest Center for Occupational Health & Safety, Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 925 UW Libraries Union, Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), Local 1488 /American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 28, Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) Local 4121, American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Faculty Forward, Ironworkers Local 86, UFCW 3000, UW Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S), SEIU Healthcare 1199NW, and UW DEOHS Continuing Education Programs
Worker Memorial Day Resources from AFL-CIO:
- Materials and Artwork: Please scroll down our Workers Memorial Day home page to view and download this year's materials and artwork, including posters, stickers, and fliers in English and Spanish. Stickers are available for "Organize! Safe Jobs Now" and for "Mourn for the Dead. Fight for the Living." Place an order for shipped materials here: https://go.aflcio.org/wmd-materials
- Toolkit Coming Soon: Soon, AFL-CIO will be distributing more materials to help you plan your commemorations and advocacy efforts. These include talking points, sample materials for media outreach, worker safety and health facts, state-by-state safety and health data, fact sheets, digital resources, infographics and other information.
- Hashtags you can use to build solidarity online around Workers Memorial Day: #IWMD2022 #WorkersMemorialDay #1uSafety
- Contact info for AFL-CIO about Workers Memorial Day: oshmail@aflcio.org or 202-637-5341
Worker Power in the 21st Century - April 27, 2022 - Ceremony Recording