Almost 100 people, a mix of politicians, labor union executives, and some friends and relatives of people lost to accidents while on the job or from work-related disease, came to the Bethlehem Rose Gardens April 25 to celebrate the workers who have died.

When a worker dies on the job or from an illness contracted on the job, it is often a rugged and painful, and sometimes violent, death.

John Weiss rang a bell as five new names were added to a long list of workers who have died from job-related injuries in the Lehigh Valley.

John Werkheiser, the vice president of the Lehigh Valley Labor Council, stood at a lectern in front of the memorial sculpture that anchors a grassy plot within the seven-and-a-half acre park across from Nitschmann MS.

“Since 1991, we have met at the Bethlehem Rose Garden every April to remember local workers lost to accidents and diseases,” Werkheiser said. Over 3,300 workers have lost their lives in Lehigh Valley to workplace accidents or work-related disease, he said.

A booklet listing the names starts in 1849. Many are listed by only a single name. Some names have been lost to history and are marked with “n. a.”

Those attending also came to champion labor rights.

“Kill a worker, go to jail,” was the message from the keynote speaker, Frank Snyder, the secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. He was urging more stringent labor safety laws.

“We are going to continue to move for [more] OSHA safety legislation,” Snyder said. “We can’t make every profession risk free.”

“OSHA (Occupational, Safety and Health Administration) must have more inspectors, more inspections, more fines and more standards,” Snyder said. “Remember those who have lost their lives.”

He also said he supports a worker’s right to join a union.

The April 25 celebration was also acknowledging a couple of anniversaries: the 50th anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the 30th anniversary of the Lehigh Valley Workers’ Memorial installed at the Bethlehem Rose Gardens park.

The memorial sculpture depicts a working man inside a massive steel ring. “The circle symbolizes safety through solidarity and the worker stands inside as if protected,” as interpreted by the ceremony’s program, which was union printed.