Presidential Document2024-09552
Workers Memorial Day, 2024
Primary source
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Published
May 1, 2024
Signed
April 26, 2024
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 85 (Wednesday, May 1, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 1, 2024)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 34949-34951]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-09552]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 85 / Wednesday, May 1, 2024 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 34949]]
Proclamation 10734 of April 26, 2024
Workers Memorial Day, 2024
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
A job is about more than a paycheck--it is about
dignity and respect. Our Nation's workers built this
country, and we need to have their backs. On the most
basic level, that means every worker in this Nation
deserves to be safe on the job. Too many still risk
their lives or well-being in unsafe work conditions or
dangerous roles. On Workers Memorial Day, we honor our
fallen and injured workers and recommit to making sure
every worker has the peace of mind of knowing that they
are protected at work and can return home safe to their
families every night.
I am proud to be the most pro-labor President in
history, and from day one, my Administration has fought
to make workplaces safer and fairer. Our American
Rescue Plan invested $200 million into keeping workers
safe during the pandemic and guaranteeing that workers
had sick leave available if they got COVID-19. We also
used the full power of the Defense Production Act to
deliver personal protective equipment to workers who
needed it. We vaccinated 230 million Americans so they
could return to offices, stores, factory floors, and
more without worrying about their health.
Strong unions are at the core of all of this work.
Every major law that protects workers' safety passed
because unions fought for it. That is why, as my
Administration makes the biggest investment in our
Nation's infrastructure in generations, we are also
incentivizing companies to hire union workers, pay
prevailing wages, and support pre-apprenticeships and
Registered Apprenticeships that help workers learn how
to safely do the job. At the same time, my
Administration finalized a rule requiring Project Labor
Agreements for most large-scale Federal construction
projects, helping ensure these projects are completed
safely, efficiently, and on time.
I am proud of my work standing up for unions, from
being the first sitting President to walk a picket line
to nominating union advocates to the National Labor
Relations Board, which has helped protect the right to
organize. I also signed Executive Orders restoring and
expanding collective bargaining rights for the Federal
workforce, and I re-established labor-management forums
at Federal agencies to ensure Federal workers on the
job are heard. I signed the Butch Lewis Act, protecting
the pensions that millions of Americans worked their
whole lives for. I have expanded coverage through the
Affordable Care Act and slashed prescription drug
prices, making health care more affordable for millions
of working families.
At the same time, the Department of Labor has also made
it easier for whistleblowers to report unsafe working
conditions, regardless of their immigration status, and
are hiring and training hundreds of workplace
inspectors to ensure employers are meeting health and
safety requirements. Last year, my Administration
issued the first-ever heat Hazard Alert to protect
millions of farm, construction, and other workers who
spend their days outside in increasingly extreme heat.
We also finalized a new rule to limit miners' exposure
to toxic silica dust--protecting more than 250,000 from
its harmful effects. The Department of Labor has also
ramped up the enforcement of heat-safety rules,
conducting more than 4,000 heat inspections in the past
2 years. They have also completed over 65,000 workplace
safety and health
[[Page 34950]]
inspections since 2022, helping keep workers in high-
risk industries safe. Further, my Administration
published a rule that allows workers to choose a
representative to accompany an Occupational Safety and
Health Administration official during a workplace
inspection, ensuring workers are being heard. The
Department of Labor is working to develop a national
standard to protect indoor and outdoor workers from
extreme heat that can be hazardous to their health.
We are also fighting for the courageous first
responders who routinely run toward danger to protect
the rest of us. The Department of Labor proposed a rule
that would strengthen safety standards for emergency
responder equipment, training, and vehicle operations
for the first time in more than 40 years. These new
standards would transform many current industry best
practices to requirements and could prevent thousands
of injuries for more than one million brave first
responders across the country. I was also proud to sign
the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act, which boosted
pay for over 10,000 Federal firefighters to help
recruit more to the job, because I know that nothing
keeps firefighters safe like more firefighters. We are
also committed to protecting firefighters from the
harmful effects of toxic ``forever chemicals'', which
are still too often found in firefighting equipment and
fire suppression agents. I signed legislation extending
the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program to
firefighters who are permanently disabled and to
families of firefighters who die after experiencing
trauma like PTSD--it will not bring their loved ones
back, but we owe them.
Today, our Nation is in the midst of a great comeback.
Our economy is growing, wages are rising, and inflation
is down. We have created a record 15 million jobs. On
Workers Memorial Day, we recommit to making sure that
every worker in this country is safe on the job. We
honor those who lost their lives or have been injured
on the job; we stand by their families; and we stand
with the labor unions that are fighting to guarantee
every worker safety, dignity, and respect.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 28,
2024, as Workers Memorial Day. I call upon all
Americans to observe this day with appropriate service,
community, and education programs and ceremonies in
memory of those killed or injured due to unsafe working
conditions.
[[Page 34951]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
eighth.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2024-09552
Filed 4-30-24; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on May 1, 2024.
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