On Workers Memorial Day, California Federation of Labor Unions Honors Workers Who Died on the Job, Call for Stronger Labor Law Enforcement

Release Date: April 28, 2026

Media Contact: Shubhangi Domokos, [email protected]

On Workers Memorial Day, California Federation of Labor Unions Honors Workers Who Died on the Job, Call for Stronger Labor Law Enforcement

Sacramento, CA - (Tuesday, April 28, 2026) - April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, a somber occasion where we mourn and honor those workers who were injured or killed on the job and demand stronger labor law enforcement and increased accountability on employers to prevent more senseless deaths.

According to a new report from the AFL-CIO, titled "Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, 2026," there were 419 workplace fatalities in California in 2024. That's 419 workers who didn't get to go home to their families, whose deaths could have been prevented.

California also saw 344,500 workplace injuries and illnesses in the private sector in 2024; that's 2.9 workers for every 100 in the state, above the national average of 2.3.

Too many workers are getting hurt or killed on the job, and a disproportionate number of those workers are Black or Latino. In fact, California was second in the nation for Latinos who died on the job (215), behind only Texas.

"In 2024, 419 California workers died and another 344,500 workers were injured in work-related accidents on the job. Every single one of those deaths was preventable. The chronic underfunding of enforcement agencies that are charged with holding businesses accountable for worker abuse and safety violations undoubtedly contributes to these tragic statistics," said Lorena Gonzalez, President of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO. "Today, we mourn and honor working people who have tragically lost their lives on the job and renew our commitment to fight for every worker in California to stay safe at work and come home from their job."

These figures are for 2024, before President Trump took office.

But in the past year, we tragically saw firsthand how the Trump Administration's brutal crackdown on immigrant workers led to even more senseless worker injuries and deaths, including Jaime Alanis, an agricultural worker killed when he fell from a greenhouse during an ICE raid on his worksite and Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, who was shot by ICE agents while on his way to work. The Trump Administration's inhumane immigration policies serve to silence immigrant workers from speaking out about dangerous working conditions, exacerbating the crisis of underreporting health and safety violations in the workplace.

For more information, or to set up an interview with Lorena Gonzalez to discuss the AFL-CIO report, please contact Shubhangi Domokos, [email protected].

The California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO represents over 1,300 affiliated unions in California with over 2.3 million union members in trucking, retail, hospitality, janitorial, construction, health care, local and state government, education, arts and entertainment, warehousing and logistics, manufacturing, and every other sector of the economy.

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