Rally Assails Proposed OSHA Cuts : Labor: Workers and union leaders stage a protest Downtown decrying plan to slash agency’s budget.

Sadie Sanchez came clutching a brightly colored family photo album. Inside were pictures of her father, Francisco Sanchez, in his casket.

The elder Sanchez, who was caught in a conveyor belt and crushed at a Wilmington refuse center in March, 1994, is one of about 57,000 workers who die or are injured on the job each year.

Workers and union leaders came together Thursday in front of the Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles to honor those workers. At the same time, they worried about what they see as an attack against the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act.

With a rallying cry of “Mourn for the dead, fight for the living,” union leaders vowed to battle proposed budget cuts for OSHA and other job safety agencies.

For the 18-year-old Sanchez, who came to the memorial service with her mother, Magaly, the cuts mean that more daughters will face the agony of losing a parent.

“My father should have never died,” she said, tears welling in her eyes. “I miss my daddy.”

According to OSHA, there are 225 safety and health inspectors to help protect 14,000,000 workers in California. Union members complain that while the work force has swelled, OSHA has been consistently targeted for cutbacks that they say would weaken the agency’s ability to maintain tough safety regulations against industries.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti reiterated his office’s commitment to help OSHA safeguard the right of employees to have a safe working environment.

“We need OSHA,” said Garcetti, who pointed out that one industrial death or serious injury occurs in the county every three days. “Without it, I can almost guarantee there will be more industrial-related deaths.”

Speakers were surrounded Thursday by wreaths and enlarged photographs of stories about work-related deaths and injuries. Among the pictures of hazardous spills and accidents stood a photo of the now most famous site of work-related deaths--the bombed-out Oklahoma City federal building.

Calling for a moment of silence for the Oklahoma City victims, Jim Wood, secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, asked the crowd to “enlarge your compassion and embrace all those who have lost their lives because of industrial accidents.”

“There is a difference between a willful act and a negligent act, but the outcome for the family is the same,” Wood said, comparing the bombing victims to industry accident victims. “The safety issue is an issue that we want to keep in front of the decision-makers.”