It's not an official holiday, but that will matter little when a crowd gathers around a shiny, flower-coated new memorial site to honor those who have suffered or perished trying to feed their families.

Unlike the Memorial Day, a national observance, Workers' Memorial Day ¬ April 28 ¬ is far less ubiquitous, and not nearly as recognized. Rather than for saluting those lost on the battlefield, the day is meant for paying respect to those lost on the job. The Long Island Workers' Memorial Day Committee, with help from a Woodbury law firm, is trying to familiarize the local public with this budding concept. One of their big steps in achieving this goal took place on Tuesday, April 7, in Woodbury, where a major fund raising event was held, and the design for the committee's Long Island Workers' Memorial Day monument was unveiled.

Sitting in the meeting room of Scheine, Fusco, Brandenstein & Rada, the local law firm which organized the event, was an artist's sketch of the monument, which will be erected in front of the State Office Building in Hauppauge ¬ where the committee's offices are located ¬ in time for Workers' Memorial Day 1999. Stretching across a garden of flowers will be walls of black marble, on which will be carved an image of Long Island and a candle burning. The inscription to the monument will be revealed at this year's Workers' Memorial Day ceremonies in Hauppauge.

The firm believed it was a natural fit to be the primary organizer and host of the function, according to partner Edward R. Scheine, Esq., as it primarily handles clients who are disabled in the workplace. Unfortunately, explained Scheine, too many workers fall victim to hazards on the job, and those who do are often not compensated because they are unaware of their rights. "Ninety-five percent of people are not even aware that they have a claim," said Scheine.

Workers' Memorial Day, a creation of the AFL-CIO, first premiered in 1989. Though it is not officially recognized nationally, or by New York, the state did supply a portion of its Hauppague property specifically for this observance. Approximately 10,000 people are hurt, made sick or killed in the United States at work per year, according to the committee's figures, and so the need of such a memorial site is not hard to understand.

Workplace health statistics more specific to Long Island are not nearly as clear, however, said Workers' Memorial Day Committee President Melodie Guerrera, which is one of many reasons why she and other committee members are trying to increase the observance's recognition with similar fund raising events and the upcoming memorial project.

In commanding more attention, Guerrera said that the committee, founded in 1991, will better research job safety on Long Island and more easily communicate with businesses "so that employers doing wrong will stop, and so workers taking [dangerous] shortcuts will stop." The committee is comprised of 18 members of various union and labor organizations.

Of those who attended the event, which included union officials, many agreed that a monument would provide a place for distraught workers, saddened by a co-worker's death, to properly pay respect to the deceased.

"Leading up to the monument there will be a brick walkway. We hope to have available to people the chance to buy a brick," said Donald Pagel, committee secretary. Such a gesture may be a way for co-workers to express themselves.

New York State has final approval of the monument.

Following the monument's unveiling at this April's ceremony, there will be a candlelight service and a planting of flowers at the Workers' Memorial Square. According to Guerrera, approximately two million people per year will pass by the Hauppauge memorial.