Writing in Jacobin, Joe Allen says ” on Workers Memorial Day, we should remember that thousands die on the job every year — deaths made all the more tragic because they could have been prevented by bosses who valued workers’ lives.” Read the full story here
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) has published its Dirty Dozen 2019 report, which shines a spotlight on companies that egregiously put workers’ in harm’s way.
It is released in honor of Workers’ Memorial Week – joining countless others in remembering workers who have suffered injury, illness or death on the job.
National COSH has asked for help spreading the message and have asked reader to:
Further details National Council for Occupational Safety and Health
Semana de lxs Trabajadores Fallecidxs es un buen momento para preguntar: “¿Están los empleadores haciendo lo suficiente para prevenir las muertes en el lugar de trabajo?” La mayoría de las lesiones y muertes en el trabajo se pueden prevenir cuando los trabajadores pueden hablar sobre los peligros sin castigo. Podemos hacer más de 5,100 muertes por trauma y más de 95,000 muertes por enfermedad ocupacional.
http://coshnetwork.org/workers-memorial-week-events-2019
California ● Connecticut ● Florida ● Georgia ● Idaho ● Illinois ● Indiana ● Iowa ● Kentucky ● Maine ● Massachusetts ●Minnesota ● Nebraska ● New Jersey ● New Hampshire ● New York● Oklahoma ● Oregon ● Pennsylvania ● Puerto Rico ● Rhode Island ● Texas ● Washington ● West Virginia ● Wisconsin
Thank you to the worker health and safety activist community for all the work going on around the world to remember those who were injured, made ill or killed on the job. This annual activity fuels our work to fight for more prevention programs to stop the daily physical and emotional toll that work has on so many workers.
Below are some links to specific information about workplace fatalities that may be helpful as we try to highlight specific recent fatality cases.
Other resources are available on the COSH Website and AFL-CIO’s toolkit
If you have additional information on fatality cases that should be included in the COSH Fatality Database, please let us know. peter@nationalcosh.org
Peter Dooley,MS,CIH, CSP
Senior Project Coordinator, National COSH
3360 E 25th ST
Tucson AZ 85713
734-320-5160 [c]
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
Several organisations, including the United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities, the Center for Construction Research and Training, the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, NENYCOSH, the National Council on Occupational Safety and Health and Global Worker Watch have compiled the largest open-access data set of individual workplace fatalities collected in the United States to date.
Also published is a listing of the details of 1,600 of the approximately 4,000-5,000 workers who die every year from a work-related injury in the United States.
90 minutes before he was killed on his first day of work as a temporary employee, 21-year-old Day Davis texted a selfie to his girlfriend, excited for their future. Now Day’s younger sister Antonia searches for answers. An investigation reveals how the $100B temporary staffing industry endangers American workers. The company hiring temps does not consider them “real” employees, while the temp agency may not take responsibility for thorough training. The screening of this film at Reel Work 2015 will be its world premiere.
4/28 Santa Cruz Workers Memorial Day With Film “A Day’s Work
http://reelwork.org/schedule.htm
Tuesday, April 28, 7 pm
Resource Center for Nonviolence, 6112 Ocean St, Santa Cruz
In commemoration of Worker’s Memorial Day
Speakers include: Dave DeSario, filmmaker; Gail Bateson, Executive Director of Worksafe; Eric Berg, Cal/OSHA Acting Deputy Chief for Health; Alejandro Rayburn, Organizer for Teamsters Local 890
(Dave DeSario & David M. Garcia, 2014, 54 min, USA)
Link to the trailer for A Day’s Work.
Workers’ Memorial and May Day Mobilizations Join to Highlight
Disproportionate Injuries and Fatalities to Latino and Immigrant
Workers, Immigration Relief, and Fair Wages
Los Angeles – The Los Angeles Workers Memorial and Los Angeles May Day Coalition, two strong and diverse networks led by workers, labor, community organizations, immigrant rights and health and safety advocates, and allies gather in Los Angeles Tuesday, April 28, 2015 to: a) highlight occupational health and safety trends
disproportionately afflicting immigrant and Latino communities, and
b) issue a call to action on May 1, International Worker’s Day, in
Los Angeles during back-to-back press conferences.
The 10 a.m. dual program at the West Steps of Los Angeles City Hall
commemorates fallen and injured workers and kicks off efforts to
engage thousands in the historic May Day gathering of people downtown Los Angeles.
Injured workers, community, faith, labor, economic justice, and human rights organizations, along with immigrant families, will provide testimonies and urge Angelinos and other stakeholders to do more to create injury-free and fatality-free workplaces, and to join the May Day march, rally, and, new to 2015, an immigration resource fair at Grand Park.
WHAT: Press conference to observe Workers Memorial Day and announce May Day mobilizations, including an Immigrant Families Resources Fair, in Los Angeles May 1.
WHEN: Tuesday, April 28, 2015, 10 AM.
WHERE: West Stairs, Los Angeles City Hall, N. Spring Street
WHO: Workers, including a nurse, garment worker, port truck driver, airport worker. Families eligible for DAPA. LA City Councilmember Gil Cedillo; Linda Lopez, Office of the Mayor, Immigrant Affairs (invited); Pilar Marrero, Office of Supervisor Hilda Solis (invited); Angelica Salas, CHIRLA; Dan Barnhart, UTLA; Steve Zimmer, LAUSD Board; Jim Manguia, St. John’s Well Child and Family Center; Becky Ronquillo, KIWA.
The Los Angeles Workers Memorial and the Los Angeles May Day
Coalition are led by the following organizations: Asian Americans
Advancing Justice, CARECEN, CHIRLA, KIWA- Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, CLEAN Carwash Campaign UCLA Labor Center LA County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, SEIU 121RN, SEIU USWW, SEIU ULTCW, SEIU 721, Fight for 15, NDLON, St. John’s Well child and Family Center, CD Tech, CLUE-LA ,Miguel Contreras Foundation , UTLA , SoCal COSH, SEIU 99, ELACC , ROC-LA ,CCED , UFCW 770, MLK Coalition of greater Los
Angeles , PWC , UTLA, Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, LA Brown Berrets, Unite Here, Sierra Club, ELACC, SoCal 350, Roofers Local 36, ICE Out of LA Coalition, LA Coalition Against Wage Theft, CIYJA, Garment Worker Center, IDEPSCA, UCLA-LOSH, IDEPSCA, LAANE, Cal – State Dominguez Hills Labor & Social Justice Club, Cal – StateDominguez Hills Labor Studies Program.