Let’s Look at the Issues

The recent observance of the 25th anniversary of Workers Memorial Day passed much too quietly in the U.S., and that is unfortunate. The day is intended to remind the public about how important it is to ensure the safest and healthiest workplaces possible and the role that unions have played in making these goals achievable.

It’s sad to say, but a total of 4,628  U.S. workers died from occupational injuries in 2012, the last year measured. That’s more than 13 people a day! There are also approximately 50,000 annual deaths in the U.S. that are caused by illnesses that are related to work. The Department of Labor reported that in 2012 almost four million U.S. workers suffered occupational injuries or illnesses. Four million!

Those numbers are gruesome. But they would no doubt be worse if it weren’t for America’s unions.

One of the major reasons certain workers like mineworkers and steelworkers became union members in the first half of the 20th Century was to obtain better health and safety conditions on the job. But that was just the start.

The entire labor movement banded together to try to make America’s workplaces healthier and safer. They lobbied repeatedly for legislation, and finally, in 1970, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).

Since OSHA was enacted, unions across the country have used the law or their contractual rights to protect members from safety and health hazards in the workplace. These protections have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and prevented millions of workplace injuries. Nonetheless, the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths remains a serious problem. Yes, even today, millions of workers suffer unnecessary workplace injuries and illnesses.

One of the problems with OSHA is that ever since it became law there have been repeated efforts to water it down. The assault on OSHA was especially stepped up during the administration of George W. Bush. The administration did the bidding of corporations and shunned the health and safety needs of working men and women all over the U.S. Many workplace safety and health measures were rolled back. New laws and regulations to strengthen protections in the workplace were repeatedly blocked. There were even roll backs on OSHA’s ergonomic standards, which were designed to help protect workers from the serious injuries that can occur from activities such as heavy lifting or repetitive work.

The Bush administration even went after regulations about record keeping in the workplace. It killed dozens of workplace protection measures under development at OSHA, including rules on cancer causing substances, reactive chemicals and infectious diseases. The Bush administration even refused to issue a rule requiring employers to pay for personal protective equipment such as masks for asbestos removal workers.

While things have improved under the Obama administration and efforts have been made to improve enforcement of health and safety standards in the workplace, many of the unfortunate results of the Bush administration’s assault on OSHA remain.

Considering organized labor’s traditional role in initiating and improving health and safety standards in the workplace, I think all of us can take pride in knowing what our own union has done in this area. As I have said before, I firmly believe that our industry-wide contract has the strongest health and safety language anywhere in the private sector workforce. There have been numerous instances on the pages of this publication where examples of our Union’s enforcement of our contract’s health and safety language have appeared.

Our Union remains determined to make sure that our members’ workplaces are safe and healthy ones. As just one example, we have been successful recently in two separate arbitrations that forced the Capri Whitestone Hotel to hire two different firms, Bell Environmental Services and Emilcott Associates, to investigate serious health and safety concerns in that workplace.

Unions like ours fight for good wages and benefits so that our members can raise their families and, later, retire with dignity and security. But we long ago recognized that good wages and benefits can lose their value altogether if a job has dangers, and that’s why we view very seriously any health and safety issues in the workplace.

The purpose of Workers Memorial Day is to remember those who lost their lives to workplace injuries and illnesses and to remember to fight for the living. Our Union will always do both.