April, 27 2010, 11:56am EDT
AFL-CIO Death on the Job Study Reveals Dangerous Workplaces, Inadequate Enforcement
The nation's workplace safety laws and penalties are
too weak to effectively protect workers, according to the new AFL-CIO
annual report released today: Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.
As the country reels from the loss of the 29 miners at the Massey Upper
Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, the report shows that there were
a total of 5,214 fatal workplace injuries in 2008. Because
underreporting of workplace-related injuries and illness remains a
persistent problem, the true toll is estimated to be as many as three
times the 4.6 million reported incidents.
WASHINGTON
The nation's workplace safety laws and penalties are
too weak to effectively protect workers, according to the new AFL-CIO
annual report released today: Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.
As the country reels from the loss of the 29 miners at the Massey Upper
Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, the report shows that there were
a total of 5,214 fatal workplace injuries in 2008. Because
underreporting of workplace-related injuries and illness remains a
persistent problem, the true toll is estimated to be as many as three
times the 4.6 million reported incidents.
On average, 14 workers were fatally injured each day in 2008. This
statistic does not include death from occupational diseases, which
claims the lives of an estimated 50,000 - 60,000 more workers each
year. The report shows that Latino and Hispanic workers continue to
face much higher risks of death on the job. In 2008, the fatality rate
among these workers was 4.2 per 100,000 workers, 13.5 percent higher
than the fatal injury rate for all U.S. workers.
This year's report also examined job safety enforcement in cases of
worker deaths, finding that the median penalty in fatalities
investigated by federal OSHA and the OSHA state plans was just
$5,000. Utah had the lowest median penalty in fatality cases with a
paltry $1,250 in penalties assessed, followed by Washington with a
median penalty of $1,600 and Kentucky with a median penalty of $2,000.
Both OSHA and MSHA are moving to step up enforcement against
employers with repeated violations, and the Administration has increased
the job safety budget and is hiring hundreds of new inspectors.
However, as the Death on the Job report reveals, there are only
2,218 OSHA inspectors (885 federal and 1,333 state inspectors) for the
approximately 130 million workers in the United States today. At this
rate, federal OSHA inspectors are only able to inspect workplaces, on
average, once every 137 years, and state OSHA inspectors on average once
every 63 years. And, as the recent wave of workplace tragedies makes
clear, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and Mine Safety and Health
Act are still too weak to deter future violations.
"In less than 3 months time, 42 workers have been killed in 3 major
industrial.disasters - at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine, the Tesoro
Refinery in Washington State and the Kleen Energy plant in Connecticut.
And eleven workers are missing and likely dead following last week's
catastrophic explosion at the Transocean oil rig off Louisiana," said
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "There's no question that eight years
of neglect and inaction by the Bush Administration seriously eroded
safety and health protections, and put workers' lives in danger. Wall
Street was allowed to do as it pleased with little oversight or
accountability. And now, with 11 million jobs and thousands of lives
lost, we're fighting to create the jobs--good jobs, safe jobs--that
America's working families so desperately need."
Also in conjunction with Workers Memorial Day, on Tuesday, April 27,
the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee is
holding a full committee hearing examining safety and health conditions
and protections under MSHA and OSHA. Peg Seminario, Director of Safety
and Health at the AFL-CIO, will testify before the committee, arguing
that the OSHAct is too weak to protect workers and to deter employers
from violating the law. The hearing will take place in Room 430 at the
Dirksen Senate Office Building at 2:00pm.
On April 28, the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the
Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on legislation to
strengthen the anti-discrimination protections and victims rights under
the OSHAct. AFL-CIO General Counsel Lynn Rhinehart will testify at the
hearing, which will take place in Room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office
Building at 10:00am.
AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler will speak at the dedication
of the National Labor College's recently completed Workers Memorial on
April 28 at 2:00pm. She will be joined by David Michaels, Assistant
Secretary for Labor for Occupational Safety and Health at OSHA, and
United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts Jr.
For a copy of the AFL-CIO Death on the Job report, go to https://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/doj_2010.cfm
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) works tirelessly to improve the lives of working people. We are the democratic, voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women.
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