by Michael Kuchta
The Workers Memorial Day ceremony took place on Bohemian Flats. A bell rang out as David Ybarra, business manager for the Minneapolis Building and Construction Trades Council, read the names of the deceased brothers. Black cloth was draped over a cross bearing their name and union.
The Flats are just downriver from where the 35W bridge collapsed on Aug. 1, killing 13 people. Among the victims was 45-year-old Greg Jolstad, a member of Operating Engineers Local 49, who was on a road crew resurfacing the bridge when it crumbled.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation and its general contractor, Flatiron-Manson, stopped work briefly on the new bridge at 2 p.m. in commemoration of Workers Memorial Day.
Jolstad was one of five Building Trades members died on the job in 2007. The others:
- Joseph Harlow, age 34, Laborers Local 132, who drowned in a St. Paul storm sewer during a sudden rain last July.
- Thomas Lucio, age 31, IBEW Local 110, who died from burns suffered in a work accident in October.
- Robert J. Wilkens, age 29, Iron Workers Local 512, who died in a fall from a bridge in St. Louis Park in November.
- David Yasis, age 23, Laborers Local 132, who died in the same storm as Harlow.
- Ernest Frederick, age 76, Bricklayers Local 1.
- Thomas E. Gorton, age 57, Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34.
- Robert John, age 72, Sheet Metal Workers Local 10.
- Thomas R. Johnson, age 65, Pipefitters and Steamfitters Local 455.
- David V. Muehlstedt, age 65, Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34.
Michael Kuchta is communications coordinator for the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters.
Reprinted from Workday Minnesota