On Thursday, nine new names joined the list of 36 Greater-Sudbury area United Steelworkers Local 6500 members and retirees who died from occupational disease.

The nine – three due to asbestosis, one from silica exposure, three due to diesel exhaust and two from having worked at a now-closed sinter plant – all died in the past 12 months since the last Steelworkers Local 6500 memorial ceremony was held to mark the passing of members who died from occupational disease.

“We honour their names and we pause to recognize their loss of life simply for earning a living,” said memorial ceremony emcee Jean-Paul Mrochek, who is a Workplace Safety Insurance Board worker representative with the union. “It’s important for us. It’s important to recognize our fallen brothers … We should all be upset at that (addition of nine names). We need political help to make the changes (to health and safety legislation) and we thank the politicians for being here today.”

Politicians attending the event were Sudbury New Democrat MPP Jamie West, Nickel Belt New Democrat MPP France Gelinas and Nickel Belt Liberal MP Marc Serre.

The memorial ceremony is traditionally held at the Leo Gerard Workers’ Memorial Park in Val Caron, where the names of deceased members who have died from occupational disease are posted. Due to the threat of inclement weather, it was held instead at the Steelworkers Hall on Brady Street.

Mrochek said it was important to hold an annual ceremony to recognize the fallen members, but it was also important to have a physical site in the community in their honour.

“I envision a young girl looking at the names and saying ‘that’s not right!’” he said. “I envision a young boy who wants to be a politician saying ‘we have to change that.’”

Gerard, a Greater Sudbury native and long-time international president of the Steelworkers union who recently retired, told the audience of more than 80 people that the fight for a healthy and safe workplace never ends. He said it was through the work of John Gagnon, a sinter plant worker who began to research his co-workers’ illnesses and filed compensation claims on their behalf, that the WSIB reduced the employment time at the plant to be eligible for benefits from six years down to three weeks.

“The problem with that was that it was too late for too many families,” he said. “You who are here today need to know the union never stops fighting (for you ) … You should not have to go to work and give your life and damage your family by not only losing a brother or a father, but a breadwinner.”

Gerard then said he knows of no other local in the Steelworkers union that had done so much for its members on the health and safety front and will not stop fighting for safe workplaces.

“We can’t ever stop fighting, ever,” he concluded. “No one should go to work to get sick. No one should go to work to die or not support their family in the autumn of their years.”

During the ceremony, a bell was sounded as each name from the list of 45 was read out. Family members of each of the deceased were presented with a white rose, which symbolizes sympathy.

Ward 5 Coun. 5 Robert Kirwan, in whose ward the memorial park is located, said that growing up in Lively he saw parents and grandparents going to work in conditions that would be unthinkable today.

“They ended up suffering from disease because they went to work,” he said.

Kirwan said having a day to recognize Local 6500 members who died from occupational disease is important.

“It’s unfortunate we have to have a day like this, but I think it’s necessary for future generations,” he said. “We’re in a better place today, unfortunately, because these people lost their lives.”

West said that while April 28 is an international day to mourn people who have died in workplaces, it’s the stories about occupational disease and the lives lost that don’t get out.

“People don’t go to work to die,” he said. “They want to have long lives with their families and not die from occupational disease.”

Gelinas said the process of dying in an industrial accident is almost sudden, but the process of dying from occupational disease can affect a family for days, weeks, months and even years.

“We have to remember their names, tell their stories, because this is how we move forward,” she said.

Local 6500 President Nick Larochelle said, “it’s our duty to honour the names of these men and women and continue to fight for safer workplaces.”

hcarmichael@postmedia.com

Twitter: @HaroldCarmichae