On Sunday, April 27, 1199SEIU members commemorated Workers’ Memorial Day, a holiday which honors those who have died or been injured at work.

1199ers joined over a hundred community partners in New Brunswick, NJ, for a rally and march hosted by New Labor and the New Jersey Work Environment Council. Workers from a range of industries including healthcare, construction, and domestic service shared personal testimony about employers who have violated health and safety laws, causing injury and even death. In New Jersey in 2013, 37 people were killed by simply doing their jobs.

Joya Robinson, an 1199SEIU member who works as a certified nursing assistant at JFK Hartwyck at Edison Estates in Edison, NJ, attended the event to help shine light on the workplace hazards that exist in nursing homes.

Joya says that lifting patients into and out of bed is one of the more difficult parts of her job. “You have to be very careful and use the correct body mechanics, or you’ll hurt yourself or your patient,” she explains. “There are certain things you can do to be safe, such as making sure that the patient’s wheelchair is as close as possible to the bed before you transfer them.”

But even with taking the proper precautions, Joya says, being a CNA is hard work and takes its toll on the body. “We’re not robots, we’re human beings. After time, your body starts to deteriorate, and many CNAs develop back problems from all of the lifting we do.”

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, nursing homes are the most dangerous worksites in the United States, with over seven percent of nursing-home employees suffering a workplace injury or illness in 2012. But with their union voice, 1199SEIU caregivers are fighting to reduce this trend, to deliver quality care to their patients in the safest ways possible.