Jon Kelley Wright Workers Memorial Fund

This site is the home of the Jon Kelley Wright Workers Memorial Fund. This is a project of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change and Haymarket Books to publish an annual series of books about the labor movement and other struggles of working people to change the world in honor of workers who have been killed on the job.

The fund gets its name from my uncle, Jon Kelley Wright, who was killed by the Chrysler Corporation on September 22nd, 2007. Kelley named me as the beneficiary on one of his modest life insurance policies. To turn some of my grief and anger into positive action, I decided to use the money to endow this fund and launch the Book Series.

I hope that the Jon Kelley Wright Workers’ Memorial Book Series will inspire others to dedicate their lives to the struggle for a world where safety on the job is more important than profits, and that it will help keep the memory of our beloved family and friends alive. We’re inviting anyone who has lost someone they love due to an unsafe workplace to memorialize that person through this fund. We'll publish a memorial page on this site, and print all of the names on the dedication page of each book in the series.

With love and solidarity,
-Derek Wright

You can give a tax-deductable donation to this project by making a check payable to “CERSC”, writing “Workers Memorial Fund” in the memo line, and sending it to:

CERSC
P.O. Box 258082
Chicago, IL 60625