Today I read a disturbing headline at the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) blog—“Every day, it’s likely that 14 workers won’t come home because they will be killed on the job.”

Can you believe this? Fourteen people a day typically die while at work? You often hear people talk about not making your work your life, taking time off to smell the roses; but how many of us can say that our work could be the death of us?

I know my father could. We are very lucky to have him with us today after he suffered a very bad fall last year that resulted in injuries all over his body, including blood clots in his brain. He is still going through rehabilitation now, six months later, but at least he is alive, which is a lot to say after that kind of situation. While in the head injury ward of the emergency care unit, we witnessed a lot of families come and go as their loved ones did not make it.

In honor of my father, who has been a carpenter his whole life (a very gifted one, I might add), I’d like to stand for all workers who face harm or the potential for harm every single day and today ask that they be given proper safety and health protection. Businesses need to follow these rules down to the last period. I don’t give a damn if it’s more expensive and if it’s more time-consuming; no dollar amount is worth a human being. Over 5,000 workers died on the job in 2008, many of them likely causalities of businesses’ flippant slack and outright carelessness when it comes to safety.

I’d also like to stand for workers in general today and hope that many of you will with me. President Obama is trying to pass Wall Street reform, something we are in dire need of after these companies took $700 billion in tax bailouts and did nothing in return, except maybe party a bit more and give out more bonuses. This gross use of American tax dollars needs to stop, the big companies need to be broken up, and it’s time to enforce taxes on Wall Street just as they are on Main Street.

To learn more about campaigns to make Wall Street accountable and to demand good, safe jobs, click here. You can also join the virtual march in support of the endeavor.