Mock coffins fill a square in Milan in a protest over workplace safety in Italy

MILAN (AP) — Mock coffins have filled one of Milan’s most famous squares in a protest organized by Italy’s second-largest union to raise awareness over workplace deaths. Protesters lined up 172 cardboard coffins in Piazza La Scala on Friday to symbolize the exact number of workers who died on the job last year in the northern Lombardy region alone. The UIL labor union said that it was demanding that both the government and businesses do more to protect Italian workers. The protest comes amid a heated debate over workplace safety in Italy following a series of fatalities across the country.