MIDDLE BRANCH, Md — Praying for the dead and fighting for the living.
Those were the words used to describe the importance of the workers memorial event.
Elected officials, labor unions, and other community leaders from around Baltimore were in attendance to honor and mourn lives lost during the key bridge collapse.
“It's important to be here to recognize not only the six victims that unfortunately lost their lives in the Key Bridge collapse but also to recognize just how essential immigrants are to this country," says Alex Vazquez, Director of National Organizing, CASA.
During the memorial, leaders also talked about what should be done on the city, state, and federal levels to protect all workers from injuries, sickness, and work-related deaths.
“We owe it to those six workers and all the other workers that we lose every single year here and around the country to build a better, safer work environment for them," says Mayor Brandon Scott.
The mayor and other community leaders carried six reefs down to the water, each one representing the men who died.
Maynor Sandoval, Alejandro Fuentes, Dorlian Cabrera,Carlos Hernández, Miguel Luna, and Jose Lopez.
But those six construction workers were not the only ones mentioned at the memorial.
"Sadly, in Maryland last year, at Workers Memorial Day, we were also thinking about six construction workers that we lost in the high-speed crash on I-695," says Portia Wu, Maryland Department of Labor.
A deadly crash happened almost exactly a year before the key bridge collapsed.
“We don’t want to let these days go by without making sure we uplift those workers because they have families too that were depending on and expecting them to come home and return the same night," said Courtney Jenkins, President of the AFLCIO Central Labor Union.
They also expressed the importance of continuing to support the families who are impacted by the tragic deaths of these men.
The search continues for two of the men, Miguel Luna and Jose Lopez.
