Inverness ceremony to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day includes tributes to health workers and journalists killed in Gaza
Tribute has been paid during a poignant ceremony in Inverness to health workers and journalists who have been killed while carrying out their jobs in Gaza.
Trade unionists, politicians from across the political spectrum, community leaders and others gathered at the workers’ memorial by the River Ness to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day.
Speeches covered themes from attacks on shop workers to encouraging employers to make health and safety their top priority.
Wreaths were also placed on the memorial and a short silence was observed to reflect on the annual event’s message to “remember the dead and fight for the living”.
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Dr Kay Kelly, a retired consultant clinical oncologist, spoke on behalf of a group of Highland healthcare workers concerned about the situation facing their counterparts in Gaza as the war between the Israeli military and Hamas continues.
She said doctors were some of the first people to realise the scale of the genocide in Gaza because of the numbers of casualties and injuries and that hospital staff, first-responders, aid workers and ambulance crews were among those being targeted.
“Patients are often afraid to use an ambulance for fear of being targeted by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces),” she said.
She also cited last month’s incident in which 15 paramedics and other first-responders were murdered by the Israeli military in Rafah.
“Doctors, nurses, ambulance crew and hospital workers should never be a target,” Dr Kelly said.
Flowers were also placed on behalf of the Highlands and Islands branch of the National Union of Journalists in memory of journalists killed in Gaza.
The gathering heard that since the Israeli military launched its offensive in response to the horrific attack by Hamas in October 2023, at least 171 journalists and media workers in Gaza have been killed - a mortality rate of more than 10 per cent, the highest of any occupational group.
Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant highlighted the issue of rising attacks on workers including those in the emergency services and shop workers.
“People need to learn respect and recognition that they are providing a service for them,” she said.
Highland Councillor Chris Ballance, of the Green party, drew on personal experience in relating how he attended the recent funeral of an old comrade in Clydebank who at the age of 82 was one of the Clyde shipyard victims to die of asbestosis.
The ceremony was organised by the Inverness and District Trades Union District Council whose acting secretary Munro Ross said all employers should be encouraged to keep health and safety at the top of their agenda.
Trade unions represented included the GMB, Unite, Unison, the Communication Workers Union and the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians.
The memorial, located by the River Ness, was installed in 2017 and funded by the trade union movement, the Inverness Common Good Fund, Highland Council’s ward discretionary budget and private contributions.
