In Honor of Workers’ Memorial Week, each day this week Citizen Vox discussed the need for safe jobs and called attention to the ways the Trump administration is dismantling key worker health and safety protections.
Significant challenges are ahead in the fight for safer workplaces.
Today is the first Workers’ Memorial Day under the Trump administration. And, now, more than ever, our communities should come together to demand strong protections in the workplace. Not one more worker should have to die from a preventable incident at work.
This week, our blog series recapped the ways in which the Trump administration and the Republican Congress are rewarding corporations at the expense of the health and safety of working families. In the first 100 days of this administration, workers suffered devastating rollbacks of workplace safety regulations and were left to wonder whether their political leaders would defund the agencies keeping them safe on the job.
Today, on Workers Memorial Day, people all over the world remember workers who were killed, injured or made sick by their jobs. It’s also a day we commit to fighting for safer working conditions. Most importantly, it is the day we remind ourselves that safe jobs are every worker’s right. more
Muchas personas en todo el mundo arriesgan sus vidas diariamente al ir a trabajar. En las maquilas, rastros y minas, en las granjas, plataformas petrolíferas y en la construcción, las condiciones de trabajo pueden ser extremadamente peligrosas, incluso mortales. Según la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT), más de 2,3 millones de trabajadores mueren en el trabajo cada año (pero este número es una estimación baja, ya que muchos países no monitorean con precisión los accidentes y muertes en el trabajo).
Según la AFL-CIO (la conglomeración de sindicatos estadounidenses), en Estados Unidos en el 2015 murieron 4.836 trabajadores en el trabajo y se estima que entre 50.000 y 60.000 trabajadores murieron de enfermedades relacionadas con el trabajo, lo que significa que 150 trabajadores mueren diariamente debido a condiciones de trabajo peligrosas. Las muertes laborales entre latinas/os y afroamericanos han alcanzado el nivel más alto desde el 2008.
Trabajadores y activistas en todo el mundo y en todas las industrias se han organizado para mejorar las condiciones de trabajo y la seguridad en su lugar de trabajo. En muchos países han logrado horarios más cortos, mejores salarios, provisión de equipo de protección y restricción de muchos de los productos químicos que dañan la salud. Lamentablemente hasta estas protecciones básicas ahora están bajo ataque; reducir las protecciones de seguridad laboral solo conduce a un mayor número de muertes relacionadas con el trabajo.
El libro Salud y seguridad laboral: Una guía para trabajadores de Hesperian, que está en proceso de edición, es un recurso que las trabajadoras y trabajadores pueden usar para aprender acerca de la salud y la seguridad laboral básicas, para convertirse en defensores de su propia salud y para pasar de la lucha individual a la lucha colectiva para lograr lugares de trabajo más seguros. El libro incluye actividades útiles y historias reales de lucha y éxito que apoyarán la organización y los esfuerzos de salud.
Mañana, honramos a las personas que han perdido la vida en y por el trabajo y nos comprometemos de nuevo a la lucha para asegurar que nadie pierda la vida por y en el trabajo. Como la incansable activista laboral Mary “Mother” Jones solía decir: ¡Recordemos a los muertos y luchemos por los vivos!
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April 28th is Workers’ Memorial Day, when we honor and remember those who have lost their lives at and because of their work. This year’s theme “Strong Laws, Safe Work” highlights the importance of fighting for workers’ right to health and safety, especially now, as workplace protections are increasingly threatened in the US and worldwide.  Many people around the world risk their lives daily by going to work. In factories, slaughterhouses and mines, on farms, oil rigs and construction sites, working conditions can be extremely hazardous, even deadly. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), more than 2.3 million workers are killed on the job each year (this number is a low estimate, as many countries do not accurately track workplace accidents and deaths). According to the AFL-CIO, in the US, “4,836 workers were killed on the job in 2015 and an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 workers died from occupational diseases, which means that 150 workers died each day from hazardous working conditions.” Injury and death rates among Latina/o and Black workers are the highest they have been since 2008. Workers and activists have organized to improve working conditions and workplace safety in all types of environments. In many countries, they have achieved much — shorter working hours, better pay, the provision of protective equipment, and restrictions on many of the most dangerous chemicals. But even these common-sense protections are now under attack, and the rollback in safety is sure to increase the daily death toll on the job. Hesperian’s Workers’ Guide to Health and Safety is a resource workers can use to learn about basic health and safety, to become leaders of their own health, and to move from the individual to the collective fight for safer workplaces. The book includes activities and real-life stories of struggle and success that will support organizing and health efforts. Tomorrow, let’s all join the day of remembrance for the people who’ve lost their lives at and from work. But the day after that, let’s join the fight to ensure nobody loses their lives because they went to work. As Mary “Mother” Jones said: Mourn for the dead and fight like hell for the living! |
via Jordan Barab – Confined Space
“Workers Memorial Day is Friday. Events are being organized all over the world, and the AFL-CIO has just issued its 2017 edition of Death on the Job.
“This is the 26th edition of Death on the Job. Download it and read it: it’s the bible of what’s happening in workplace safety and health in this country. It’s the most valuable tool you will find to fight the lies and myths that are being used to undermine worker safety in this country.”
Death on the Job the 26th annual report now is now available on the AFL-CIO webpage along with Infographics with highlights from the report. https://aflcio.org/reports/death-job-toll-neglect-2017 and https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1itGrF4AaHAOVdjZUdXS2pKNzA .
The Executive Summary outlines key findings and tables summarizing the Obama and Trump Administrations’ worker safety and health records have been included.
The 2017 Workers Memorial Day materials are ready. The theme this year is “Safe. Jobs. Every Worker’s Right.” The materials have been posted on the AFL-CIO website.
Multiple copies of materials are available for ordering (order form available on the AFL-CIO website). I urge you to distribute the materials widely and to organize or participate in Workers Memorial Day events. (A website for posting and listing events will be available shortly).
After years of struggle we won new rules to protect workers from deadly silica dust and beryllium, a tougher coal dust standard for miners and stronger anti-retaliation protections for workers who report job injuries. But these hard-won gains are now threatened. The Trump administration has launched an all-out assault on regulations. The president has ordered that for every new protection, two existing safeguards must be removed from the books. At the same time Republicans in Congress have moved quickly to overturn new rules issued by the Obama administration. Agency budgets and enforcement programs are on the chopping block. The safety and health of workers and the public are in danger.
We need to organize and fight back. Please get involved and organize actions, activities, or observances in your workplaces and communities to highlight the toll of job injuries and deaths. Demand that elected officials put workers’ well-being above corporate interests. And demand jobs that are safe and healthy and pay fair wages. Make it clear that the labor movement will defend the right of every worker to a safe job and fight until that promise is fulfilled.
For additional information and to order copies of materials, please contact the AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department at 202-637-5366, or visit the AFL-CIO website at: www.aflcio.org/WorkersMemorialDay.
In Solidarity,
Peg Seminario
Safety and Health Director
AFL-CIO