September 4, 2025
By Joel Smith, President and Business Manager of LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota
This September marks National Suicide Prevention Month — a time when our entire country focuses on mental health awareness and suicide prevention. For those of us in construction, this isn't just an awareness campaign — it's a daily reality we face on every jobsite.
While we've spent generations building a culture of physical safety, we're now confronting a sobering truth: we lose more construction workers to suicide than to workplace accidents. That's why this month — and every month — we're committed to protecting what's under the hard hat too.
This year, we took on one of our biggest challenges at the Legislature: making mental health and suicide prevention a vital part of safety culture in construction.
For generations, Laborers raised safety standards, demanded PPE, and created a strong safety culture. Today, our signatory contractors conduct better hazard analysis, investigate incidents more thoroughly, and implement comprehensive safety plans. Union worksites have fewer traumatic injuries and fatalities — period.
However, we lose more workers to suicide every year than we do to job-site accidents. Construction workers die by suicide at a rate four times higher than the national average — five times greater than all other construction fatalities combined.
Our work structure, industry culture, demographics, and the “trades lifestyle” can trigger or worsen anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. Then there is the macho “suck it up” culture — the idea that asking for help makes you weak.
That’s absolute BS, and it needs to change.
This year, with the support of the Building Trades and signatory contractors, we worked with a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Governor Tim Walz to allocate $1 million to promote mental health and suicide prevention in construction. While I was waiting to testify in support of the bill, I got word that one of our members died by suicide. We missed the signs, but we are getting better at recognizing when our brothers and sisters need help.
A LIUNA Brother’s Story of Hope
Photo: LIUNA Local 563 member Travis Burke and his wife cherish a moment during their pregnancy.
Last summer, Travis Burke was facing multiple crises simultaneously—his marriage was in severe jeopardy, he and his wife were dealing with an unexpected pregnancy complicated by a life-limiting diagnosis, and he was experiencing workplace bullying. During an election phone bank call, Travis told a staff member his life was falling apart.
"I literally thought my world was going to completely explode and I was going to lose everything I found hope to live for,” Travis recalls from that moment.
Because our staff are trained in suicide prevention, they recognized the warning signs and Travis was connected to counseling through our EAP program.
"My union immediately connected me to counseling and provided ongoing support with regular check-ins for weeks. I felt like I had people who genuinely cared."
Travis and his wife are working through their healing journey today, including grieving the loss of their baby girl shortly after birth. His courage shows what's possible when we accept help.
“I've struggled before, but this time, instead of self-sabotaging, I reached out for help,” said Travis. “It's okay to be vulnerable and ask for help. It’s the best possible thing that could have happened to me."
This September, during National Suicide Prevention Month, Travis's story reminds us why awareness matters every day of the year.
It Takes All of Us
Earlier generations created the safety standards protecting our bodies. Now it's on us to protect what's under our hard hats. Supporting mental safety isn’t just the right thing to do — it pays off for everyone through safer jobsites and stronger teams that contractors can count on.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health and safety, there is hope and help available. Visit liunaminnesota.org/hope to start with. You can also connect with a LEAN LIUNA program near you and check out the Laborers Health and Safety Fund online at lhsfna.org. Call or text 988 if you are experiencing a mental health and safety emergency.
LIUNA’s got your back — always have, always will.