Photographic Essay: International Workers Memorial Day 2025
Around the world, International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD) was celebrated on April 28, 2025 by trade unions, labor federations and groups representing victims of workplace illnesses and accidents. As always, the purpose of the day’s activities was to rally support for safer workplaces by revealing the human cost of dangerous working practices and use of hazardous substances such as asbestos. Remembering the dead, campaigners continue to fight for the living. Although the declared theme of this year’s activities was the threat of artificial intelligence to workers, many of the events held highlighted the imminent hazard posed by asbestos to workers both in countries where its use remains legal and those where it is banned.
In Italy, IWMD is an annual calendar event for asbestos victims’ groups which have proclaimed the day to be World Asbestos Victims’ Day. More than thirty years after asbestos use was banned in Italy, the reality remains grim. Italy has the highest number of mesothelioma deaths of all EU member states, accounting for more than 20% of annual EU mesothelioma morality. Of course, the asbestos death toll doesn’t end there. For each case of mesothelioma, there are between 1-2 cases of asbestos-related lung cancer as well as other cancers and respiratory diseases.1
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As per usual, World Asbestos Victims Day was marked with a series of events in the Piedmont town of Casale Monferrato, considered by many to be the ground zero of Italy’s asbestos epidemic. Activities on the day included a ceremony at the town hall to honor key figures in the struggle for asbestos justice, research and remediation.2
 Casale Monferrato Mayor Emanuele Capra recognizing the important contributions made by the winners of the Vivaio Eternot Award. Photo courtesy of the Association of Relatives of Asbestos Victims (AFeVA). |
Amongst those honored were:
- Simona Martinotti, biologist and mesothelioma researcher;
- Carolina Mensi, epidemiologist at the Clinica del Lavoro in Milan;
- Claudio Saletta, former mayor of Sala Monferrato and labor inspector;
- Benedetto Terracini, pioneer of oncological epidemiology in Italy;
- Greta Tomaello, author of a legal thesis on the Eternit case;
- Giuseppe Valesio, journalist;
- the late Maria Wojtowicz and Emanuele Lauria, pioneers of environmental monitoring of asbestos in Piedmont and the late Dario Mirabelli, a much-revered epidemiologist who provided crucial evidence in the trials against Eternit.
During the day, a wreath laying ceremony was held at the Eternot Park, built on the remediated and reborn site of the notorious Eternit asbestos-cement factory.
 Local dignitaries, asbestos victims’ campaigners and trade union leaders at the 2025 IWMD ceremony in the Eternot Park, which was opened in 2016 as a lasting memorial to all those who had been poisoned by the operations of the Eternit factory. Photo courtesy of the AFeVa. |
As in Italy, much of the asbestos-related mortality in Brazil was caused by the Eternit Group. On April 28, the Brazilian Association of the Asbestos-Exposed (ABREA) held a simple celebration in memory of the victims of work accidents and occupational diseases in the sacred square across from the site of the old Eternit factory in Osasco.
 ABREA President Eliezer João de Souza welcoming ABREA members and colleagues to the IWMD 2025 event. Photo courtesy of ABREA. |
In the photograph above can be seen the breathtaking Memorial to the Victims of Asbestos which was erected in 2022 as a lasting memorial and place of pilgrimage.
 The Lung Tree – created by artist Wagner Hermusche (photograph courtesy of ABREA; photographer Wendell Cristiano). |
The deadly legacy left by asbestos remaining within the UK infrastructure was the focus of an April 28 activity hosted by the TUC at Congress House, London.3
 Delegates at TUC IWMD event in London April 28, 2025. Photo courtesy of the TUC. |
The TUC is calling for a new legal duty to safely eradicate asbestos from the built environment with a mandatory 40-year timetable for its removal from all public buildings.
Also on April 28, campaigners and local people gathered at the site of the asbestos memorial in Barking, East London to remember those who had died from asbestos-related diseases as a result of working at toxic asbestos factories throughout the country including the one built by the Cape Asbestos Co. Ltd. in Barking in 1913.
 Floral tributes at the Asbestos Memorial in Barking, London. Photo courtesy of London Asbestos Support Awareness Group. |
To the music of a Scottish piper and the Liverpool Socialist Singers, trade unionists and asbestos victims marked IWMD in Liverpool with a day of activities amidst banners, flags and floral tributes.
 Participants at IWMD April 28 event in Liverpool. Photo courtesy of Chris Ingram, Union Safety. |
 John Flanagan (left) and members of the Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group at the IWMD April 28 commemoration, Liverpool. Photo courtesy of Chris Ingram, Union Safety. |
Participating in these events were members of the Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group who joined trade union colleagues for the activities starting with the public rally at Pier Head 4
In Western Australia, the CEO of the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia (ADSA) Melita Markey took part in a trade union IWMD event in Solidarity Park, Perth.
 ADSA’s Melita Markey at Solidarity Park, Perth, April 28, 2025. Photo courtesy of the ADSA. |
Commenting on the event, Melita wrote:
“Seeing the WorkSafe Commissioner, along with compassionate politicians and union leaders, all dedicated to ensuring safer workplaces, brought me great comfort. The celebrant's closing words truly touched our hearts: ‘We hope to see fewer wreaths next year and the year after.’”
 The ADSA’s floral tribute was not only beautiful but was also unappetizing to local wildlife. Long after all the other bouquets had been eaten, the tribute to the asbestos victims would remain untouched. Photo courtesy of the ADSA. |
In the Indonesian capital, officials and members of civil society groups including the Local Initiative for Occupational Health and Safety Networks (LION), Indonesian Ban Asbestos Network (INABAN), the Federation of Indonesian Workers' Union (FSBPI), the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KPBI) and the Indonesian Port Transport Workers Federation (FBTPI) came together at a rally to call attention to a range of issues as shown by the signs held by participants in the photos below which highlighted the price paid by Indonesian workers for unsafe working conditions, the lack of government oversight and the need for labor solidarity.
 Participants at IWMD event in North Jakarta, Indonesia on April 28, 2025. Photo courtesy of LION/INABAN. |
 Participants at IWMD event in North Jakarta, Indonesia on April 28, 2025. Photo courtesy of LION/INABAN. |
The activities in Jakarta ended with a moment of silence and communal prayer.
In June 2022, the International Labour Organization officially recognized “a safe and healthy working environment” as a fundamental principle and right. With millions of tonnes of asbestos material still contaminating national infrastructures and over a million tonnes of asbestos fiber being used every year, neither workers nor the public are safe from deadly exposures. It is imperative that campaigners continue to raise awareness of the serious health hazard posed by asbestos whenever possible and it is gratifying to see that this life-saving work continues to be part of IWMD commemorations. The IWMD slogan: “remember the dead, fight for the living” is as apt now as it’s ever been.
May 7, 2025
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1 Eurostat. Mesothelioma cancer: still a relevant occupational disease. September 26, 2024.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/edn-20240926-1
2 Giornata Mondiale delle Vittime dell’Amianto: i vincitori del Premio Vivaio Eternot [World Asbestos Victims’ Day: the winners of the Vivaio Eternot Award]. April 28, 2025.
https://radiogold.it/news-alessandria/404881-giornata-mondiale-vittime-amianto-2025-premio-vivaio-eternot/#google_vignette
Brunsti, A. Un killer micidiale: l’amianto [A deadly killer: asbestos]. April 30, 2025
https://www.pressenza.com/it/2025/04/un-killer-micidiale-lamianto/
3 TUC. Workers’ Memorial Day: TUC takes action to eradicate asbestos in workplaces. April 28, 2025.
https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/international-workers-memorial-day-end-threat-asbestos-work
4 Union Safety. International Workers Memorial Day 28th Aril 2025 - Liverpool Event.
https://www.unionsafety.eu/docs/HSNewsItems%202025/April/InternationalWorkersMemorialDay28thApril2025LiverpoolEvent.html
