But some don’t.

A small group gathered at Veterans Triangle Park in downtown Fort Dodge Friday afternoon to remember those who lost their lives while at work.

It was the local observance of Workers Memorial Day.

Workers Memorial Day is held on April 28 every year, because that is the date that the Occupational Safety and Health Act became federal law, according to Al Womble, the political director of the Iowa Federation of Labor.

Webster County Supervisor Niki Conrad said the law came about because of the tireless efforts of workers and “their insistence on a safe job as a right.”

“It is our responsibility to come together to make sure that everyone goes home at the end of their work shift alive,” she said.

“We mourn for the dead and fight for the living because there is still work to be done,” she added.

Near the conclusion of the brief observance, Womble and Dale Struecker, a Fort Dodge man who is the executive vice president of the Western Iowa Labor Federation, read the names of all the Iowans who lost their lives at work.