seen on union organizing is a direct assault on the health and incomes of American workers.
My Administration is committed to protecting the lives, rights, and livelihoods of workers and reducing workplace accidents, injuries, and fatalities. That is why I strongly encourage the Congress to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021—and why I included the PRO Act as part of my American Jobs Plan. The decision to form a union should belong to workers alone—free from coercion, interference, or intimidation—and this important legislation would empower workers to exercise their right to organize, hold management accountable for violating the rights of their workers, and promote union elections that are free from interference from employers.
It is clear that we have not completely fulfilled our obligation to protect our Nation’s workers. We must always remain vigilant against the notion that worker endangerment is simply a necessary cost of doing business. And we must always protect the right of workers to unite and bargain for their own mutual aid or protection.
Today, we mourn each treasured life taken away on the job. Those stricken by disease and fatal injuries as they keep America running deserve a dedicated day of grateful prayer and remembrance from the living. Workers Memorial Day impels us to work for a future where no one should have to risk their life for a paycheck. When our Nation fully recovers from the challenges we face today, it will be in large part because of the sacrifice and perseverance of our workers. We commit to holding close their memory and investing in the health and safety of the colleagues they have left behind.
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, 2021, 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.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.
[FR Doc. 2021–09262
Filed 4–29–21; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295–F1–P
