Tag Archives: USA

2020, 2020 USA, Events listing, News

USA: This Sunday 26 April Workers’ Memorial Day Virtual March

The New Jersey Work Environment Council (WEC) is holding a Virtual March for Workers’ Memorial Day on Sunday 26 April. Read their invite below:

Please Join Us  Sunday @ 1pm (US east coast) for a Virtual March for Workers’ Memorial Day 

RSVP HERE 

In this time of COVID-19, please spend an hour with us for a virtual  Workers’ Memorial Day march to honor workers who have fallen ill or died from this deadly virus. This is a time to thank and honor essential workers’ who put their health and lives on the line every day when they leave the safety of their homes to go to work. From nurses and emergency responders to transit workers, grocery store clerks, warehouse workers and more. All workers are at risk!

Workers’ Memorial Day is a day to honor all workers who have suffered an occupational illness or disease or have suffered a workplace fatality. The sad truth is, most workplace deaths are preventable. As a society, we must put more of an emphasis on worker health and safety and an end to the injustice and the damage corporate greed causes working families.

On average, a worker dies every 100 minutes in the United States. Every 100 minutes a family is ripped apart. This must end.

Please join us to mourn those we lost, honor those who continue to work during the pandemic and fight like hell for change. You can do all of this from the comfort of your living room.

NJ Work Environment Council

172 West State Street, 2nd Floor
Trenton, NJ 08608, USA.
phone: 609/882-6100
website: www.njwec.org

2020, 2020 USA, Events listing, News

USA: Protecting black workers in the time of Covid-19

To remember and raise just demands for workplace safety and health and freedom from all forms of discrimination, the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights invites you to attend their Webinar: Dark Work—Devalued and Unprotected: Protecting Black Workers in the Time of Covid-19, Wednesday April 29th 6pm CST/7pm EST.  Read their message below.

Dear Friends, Partners and Allies:

For the past 20 years, on or around April 28th (Workers’ Memorial Day), the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights, has held its Annual Workers’ Memorial Day Rally (WMD) to honor Workers who lost their lives, while trying to make a living. As Black “essential”  Workers continue to die at beyond alarming, disproportionate rates in the time of Covid-19, during this year’s memorials we must remember them and in their names, we must fight harder for all those forced to risk their lives to feed and house their families.   To remember and raise just demands for workplace safety and health and freedom from all forms of discrimination, we invite you to attend our Webinar: Dark Work—Devalued and Unprotected: Protecting Black Workers in the Time of Covid-19, Wednesday April 29th 6pm CST/7pm EST.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Our program is part of a weeklong series of WMD events. Hear the stories of Black Workers, who are forced to work in life-threatening conditions with little or no protection. Hear from advocates and organizers who are standing in solidarity with them and their families.

Support WMD Week, April 25-May 2, 2020

I have attached two promotional flyers to this email (Flyer 1 and Flyer 2)

“No one should have to die to make a living”

Participating Organizations:

Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights
Resist the Rona
National Employment Law Project
Concerned Citizens for Justice
National Domestic Workers Alliance
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
LA Black Worker Center
Southern Human Rights Organizers’  Conference (SHROC)
Stand With Dignity of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice

Stand Up KC

Featuring stories from the frontlines!

2020, 2020 USA, Events listing, News

USA: USMWF- Workers’ Memorial Day Events

US campaign and support group Unite Support and Memorial for Workplace fatalities (USMWF) invites everyone to join them in a day of honoring, recognising and remembering fallen workers on 28 April. They hope you will help them get the word out and share with your family, friends and co-workers.

There will be a day of events;  in particular, they hope you will join them on April 28, 2020 at 7pm cst. for their ceremony LIVE on Facebook.

More details on USMWF’s 28 April activities

Enquiries Tonya Ford, Executive Director
USMWF.ORG, Inc (A 501 c3 non profit)PO Box 85171
Lincoln, NE 68501 402.326.3107

Facebook
USMWF Family Reunion/Support Group
Donate
Workers Memorial Day

2020, 2020 USA, News, Resources, Videos

USA: AFL-CIO COVID-19 Resources

Video

The AFL-CIO has put together a list of resources for working people impacted by COVID-19. The site includes information about unemployment benefits, paid leave, health insurance and community assistance resources.  Find them here: aflcio.org/resources

2020, 2020 USA, Events listing, News, Uncategorized

USA: COVID-19 strike wave interactive map – Payday Report

Payday Report has launched an interactive Covid-19 strike tracking map so that workers can follow the wave of strikes hitting the country. Each point contains a link to more information on the strikes occurring. More

2020, 2020 USA, Events listing, News

USA: Worker health is public health

In the Covid-19 pandemic, worker health is public health – but worker safety and health is in crisis, a top US safety law expert has said. Debbie Berkowitz of the National Employment Law Project (NELP) said the US federal government “is failing to ensure the safety and health of workers – including those most at risk, health care workers. The government has also abandoned its role in keeping all other essential workers safe – those in supermarkets, delivery, warehouses, factories, public transportation and sanitation.”

But she added: “As the federal government walks away from its responsibility to protect workers in this crisis, unions and worker activism are helping to fill the vacuum.” Berkowitz noted that dangerous shortages of protective gear were being compounded by a lack of official oversight of working conditions. She criticised the lack of action by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), “the government agency responsible for protecting worker’s health and safety on the job. In a sharp departure from previous pandemics and crises, OSHA is not conducting any Covid-19 enforcement—even for health care workers at risk.

This kind of ‘dereliction’ is unprecedented, she wrote, adding: “It’s the unions and an amazing exercise of worker power and activism that have come to the rescue.” The safety law expert concluded: “It is stunning for most of us to realise the weakness of the legal protections for worker safety and health. It is amazing to see the incredible efforts of the unions and rank and file workers – both unorganised and organised – to stand up and demand protections from employers.”

2020, 2020 USA, Events listing, News

USA: USMWF will hold a Facebook live event to mark 28 April

The organisation Union Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities (USMWF) has taken a creative approach to marking International Workers’ Memorial Day in the time of the Covid-19 outbreak.

On April 28, 2020 at 7pm cst  USMWF will host a Facebook LIVE event that you can watch from the safety of your own home.

The event will mark the USMWF’s First National Workers’ Memorial Day Ceremony.

2020, 2020 USA, Events listing, News, Resources

USA: Workers’ Memorial Week resources from NationalCOSH

On February 26 the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health ( National COSH) hosted an informative webinar outlining resources available to ensure an engaging and powerful Workers’ Memorial Week (WMW). WMW webinar and PPT slides

National COSH has also produced a very comprehensive WMW Resource page.

You can submit  your own WMW event info via this link and National COSH will list your events and help you promote it.

National COSH Team
Jessica E. Martinez, MPH
Co-Executive Director
National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH)
www.coshnetwork.org
jessica@nationalcosh.org

2019, 2019 USA, Events listing, News

USA: USW on The Leslie Marshall Show – Safety is every worker’s right

Ashlee Fitch from the USW’s Health, Safety and Environment department joined The Leslie Marshall Show to talk about Workers’ Memorial Day, as well as the rolling back of many critical Obama-era worker protections and the risk that places on America’s work force.

“A lot of workers’ rights have been coming under the microscope and coming under attack, and health and safety is no different,” Fitch said regarding the Trump administration’s slashing of OSHA staff and regulations.

“We fought for almost 40 years to even get a beryllium standard pushed through,” she said, “and once we did, the [Trump] administration quickly rolled back those protections for workers who are in the construction industry and in the maritime industry.”

Each year, 11,500 shipyard and construction workers, including Steelworkers at Newport News, Va., are exposed to beryllium, a toxic element laced through the coal waste often used in abrasive blasting grits. Beryllium inhalation has long been known to cause lung cancer and berylliosis, a debilitating and often fatal respiratory illness.

Workplace violence is also a major health and safety issue for all working people, but particularly health care workers, and the union is currently working in Washington to urge Congress to pass the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act. The vital bill would issue an occupational safety and health standard that requires covered employers within the health care and social service industries to develop and implement a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan.

“When you look at the rates of violence against health care workers, the rates are 12 times higher than the overall work force,” Fitch said. “We saw this and recognized that we have a lot of things going on in our workplaces that don’t align with the Occupational Safety and Health Act.”

One of the hopes for the bill is that it will strengthen workers’ ability to report acts of violence they experience on the job, especially immigrant workers, who often fear punishment via harassment and even deportation.

Listen to the full Leslie Marshall interview on Soundcloud

https://m.usw.org/news/media-center/articles/2019/usw-on-the-leslie-marshall-show-safety-is-every-workers-right

2019, 2019 USA, Events listing, News, Resources

USA: AFL-CIO releases yearly worker safety report – Death on the job

In recognition of Workers Memorial Day, the AFL-CIO has released its 2019 edition of “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect,” a national and state-by-state profile of worker safety and health in the United States.

In 2017, 5,147 workers lost their lives on the job as a result of traumatic injuries, according to fatality data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each day in this country, an average of 14 workers die because of job injuries—women and men who go to work, never to return home to their families and loved ones. This does not include those workers who die from occupational diseases, estimated to be 95,000 each year.

Violence is also a growing threat to workers’ safety, especially in the health care industry. Rates of violence against health care workers are reported to be up to 12 times higher than rates for the overall workforce.

The cost of these injuries and illnesses is enormous—estimated at $250 billion to $330 billion a year, according to the AFL-CIO report.

To access the entire report, click here.

2019 Death on the Jobs Report release video, AFL-CIO Latino

USW News release