{"id":28711,"date":"2021-04-29T15:27:39","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T14:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=28711"},"modified":"2021-04-29T15:28:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T14:28:20","slug":"an-incredible-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=28711","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098An incredible memorial\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Yesterday (April 28) was Workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Memorial Day. As part of the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s observation of this date when we remember all those who have lost their lives at work, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey<\/strong> and other leaders from the trade union movement joined family members who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lost their loved ones.<\/p>\n

The wall is covered in individually hand-painted hearts commemorating each life lost in the pandemic. And with over 155,000 hearts now painted on the wall, the memorial stretches nearly a mile long and takes a full 10 minutes to walk.<\/p>\n

Hannah Brady<\/strong>, 25, (pictured below) travelled from Wigan with her sister Tasha<\/strong> to reiterate their call to make the wall permanent and for the government to agree to a full public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Hannah Brady <\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Hannah and Tasha lost their father, Unite member Shaun Brady<\/strong>, a dedicated worker at the Heinz factory in Wigan. He was 55 years old. It is believed he caught the virus at work.<\/p>\n

Matthew Fowler<\/strong>, one of the founders of a campaign group for bereaved families which helped create the Covid Memorial Wall, lost his father, Unite member Ian Fowler<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Just 56 years old, Ian,\u00c2\u00a0 was a semi-retired design engineer at JLR Castle Bromwich. Matthew said he was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe life of the party \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including the ones he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t invited to. He was my hero.”<\/p>\n

\"\"

Matthew Fowler <\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Leshie Chandrapala<\/strong> lost her father, Rajith Chandrapala<\/strong>, a London bus driver and Unite member. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBetter protection could have meant that he would still have been here with us today,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI have lots of questions about why he and so many bus drivers have died of Covid. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m calling for a public inquiry on Workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Memorial Day.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

\"\"

Leshie Chandrapala<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

‘An incredible memorial’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis wall is an incredible memorial and one that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here to pay my respects to,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Len said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here to congratulate the bereaved families and their campaign for putting this together and also to offer my condolences to all of the people who have lost loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI urge everyone here in London to come and visit this wall \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a highly emotional experience and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also here for us not only to remember the dead but also fight for justice,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd that justice here is fighting for a public inquiry.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Tasha and Hannah Brady with Len McCluskey<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAlthough this wall is full of love, it also brings for me an element of anger,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Len continued. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHow many of these 156,000 lives could have been saved if the government had acted quickly enough on a whole host of different issues that we urged them to do such as PPE provision?<\/p>\n

“We need this wall to become a permanent memorial and we need a public inquiry so that the questions that these bereaved families still have are answered. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only way that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get closure.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

\"\"

(l to r) Tasha, Hannah, Len, Matthew, Leshie pay their respects <\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Pics by Mark Thomas\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Compiled by Amanda Campbell\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday (April 28) was Workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Memorial Day. As part of the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s observation of this date when we remember all those who have lost their lives at work, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and other leaders from the trade union movement joined family members who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lost their loved ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[921,160],"wps_subtitle":"Unite GS Len McCluskey visits National Covid Memorial Wall by London\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s St Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Hospital","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28711"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28718,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28711\/revisions\/28718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}