Nationwide, more than 4,300 workers died on the job in the most recent year statistics are available, a sign that 40 years after the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) that there is much more work to be done.

"The job safety laws must be strengthened," finds the 2011 AFL-CIO annual job safety report "Death on the Job," released this morning to commemorate Workers Memorial Day. (Click here for the full report.)

The safety report estimates that since the OSH Act become law 40 years ago tomorrow, it has saved an estimated 431,000 lives. The nation's two mining laws, the 42-year-old Coal Mine Health and Safety Act and the 34-year-old Mine Safety and Health Act, have saved thousands more.

House Republican are working to make deep cuts to OSHA to help fund tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. Business groups and their Republican supporters on Capitol Hill are trying to block new job safety rules that could save workers' lives. At the state level, legislators in at least 10 states have launched attacks on workplace safety laws.

"Our work is never done when it comes to workplace safety-the tragedies in the last year at Massey Energy's Big Branch mine and the BP Gulf Coast oil rig have shown us that," says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

But recently worker protections have come under attack by big business groups and Republicans claiming that we can't afford to protect American families. This Workers Memorial Day, we need to get one thing straight: Safety regulations don't kill jobs, but unsafe jobs do kill workers.

Tomorrow, in more than a hundred vigils, rallies and memorials in 25 states, America's working families will commemorate Workers Memorial Day and honor workers who died or were injured on the job in the past year, including 45 Steelworkers.

Help honor them by fighting for tougher worker safety laws and against cuts by corprate politicians.