In the wake of the tragic deaths of three transit workers in less than a week, an AFL-CIO annual report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect," is even more timely than anticipated. The study was released to coincide with Worker’s Memorial Day, May 28. Worker’s Memorial Day is a day that commemorates workers who died or were injured in the past year and draws attention to the “unfulfilled promise” of worker safety. A slogan often associated with the day is one coined by the famous labor activist known as Mother Jones, which declares, “Don’t mourn. Organize!”
According to the AFL-CIO study, in 2005, there were 5,734 fatal workplace injuries with significant increases in fatalities among African-American, Latinos, foreign-born and young workers. In fact, each day of 2005 – the year surveyed for the study – 16 workers died and more than 12,000 workers were injured. These statistics do not include deaths from occupational diseases, which claim the lives of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 workers each year.
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, transportation and warehouse workers, at 15 percent, were the second largest category of workers to be killed on the job. Construction workers were the highest at 21 percent.
Demanding better funding and enforceable safety laws, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has called on the Bush administration to “meet its responsibility to provide needed protections for America’s workers and find real solutions to this problem.
“The number of workers killed, injured and diseased on the job each year is a national tragedy and disgrace,” Sweeney said.
Labor advocates insist that worker safety doesn’t seem to be a high priority for the Bush administration since its proposed 2008 fiscal year budget for worker safety and health programs provides $490 million for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which, adjusting for inflation, represents a $25 million cut since the Administration took office. Federal OSHA enforcement staffing levels have also been cut dramatically, as has staffing for the development of safety and health standards.
In fact, labor leaders say current OSHA staffing levels make it impossible for the agency to do an effective job. An AFL-CIO spokesperson said that, as things stand, it would take federal OSHA 133 years to inspect each workplace.
Peg Seminario, head of the AFL-CIO’s workplace safety and health protections, testified last week before one of two congressional hearings on the subject, arguing that enforceable safety regulations are crucial to protecting today’s workforce.
