National Workers Memorial Day

Floor Speech

Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, today I wish to mark an anniversary, one that was many tragic years in the making. According to the Idaho AFL-CIO, 35 Idaho workers were killed due to on the job injuries in 2007. Next Tuesday, April 28, is National Worker's Memorial Day, which celebrates the day the Occupational Safety and Health Act--OSHA--became law in 1970.

More than 30 years ago, in 1967 a construction worker in Nampa, ID, Louis Jose Archuleta, was killed in a jobsite accident. Louie and others were installing a sewer line, 35 feet deep, in sandy soil, when the soil caved in. It trapped Louie, and, although fellow workers and rescue crews worked diligently for two and a half hours, their efforts were hampered due to further collapses of cleared areas, and Archuleta did not survive.

But Louie and many other workers knew what they were facing. Just a week before the accident, Louie told his sister Victoria that it was the most dangerous job he had ever worked on. Safety inspectors were in the process of shutting the job down at the time of the accident, a process that, in 1967, took at least 5 days to shut down a job.

Louie was very active in the local labor union and served three terms--9 years--as president of Labor's Union Local No. 267 in Pocatello, ID. He was a strong advocate for a retirement system. As a result of the tragedy, the Idaho AFL-CIO joined the push for Federal legislation to protect workers, legislation that was later known as Occupational Safety and Health Act, OSHA.

With Louie, his family and the many others who have suffered due to worker safety issue, I am honored to recognize National Worker's Memorial Day, keeping in mind Louis Jose Archuleta and all fallen workers for their contribution to the infrastructure of the State of Idaho and the Nation and to the establishment of OSHA and much-needed increased worker safety standards.

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