Mourners gathered July 27 along the main stretch of road just outside of Whitesville, WV, to dedicate the official memorial of the workers killed in the April 2010 explosion at Upper Big Branch mine.

UBB memorial: “Come to me, all you who labor, and I will give you rest.”

Twenty-nine silhouettes of the miners killed stand inside black granite, serving as a somber reminder of workers’ lives lost not just in one horrible explosion, but every day.

“So far this year, 20 miners have died in work-related accidents across America,” Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said in a blog post about the memorial. “Mining can be a safe job. And no miners – in fact, no workers – should ever have to risk their lives for their livelihood.”

Hopefully the memorial will be the last of its kind that has to be built.

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