MUST READ
American workers are still dying from injuries on the job — here’s who is most impacted
MarketWatch
By Emma Ockerman
April 27, 2022
“Worker injuries and deaths are still far too common,” Liz Shuler, the president of the AFL-CIO, said in a press conference Tuesday. “Every single day, 340 people die because of hazardous working conditions.”
AMAZON
Amazon Bessemer warehouse reflects danger on the job nationwide
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
April 27, 2022
Shoving merchandise around Amazon’s giant warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., isn’t easy, Isaiah Thomas says. It also isn’t safe. And, according to the AFL-CIO’s 31st annual Death On The Job: A Toll Of Neglect job safety and health report, it’s not unusual either, nationwide. That’s because federal fines against bosses for job safety and health violations are still too low “to be a deterrent” to lawbreakers on safety, the report adds. “I’m 20 years old, and I already have back problems,” says Thomas, a lead advocate in the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union’s unionization drive at the monster facility. And since Bessemer opened two years ago, six of his co-workers have died. “The company I work for, Amazon, puts profits above safety of its workers,” Thomas told an April 26 zoom press conference the AFL-CIO hosted to release the report, honoring Workers Memorial Day, which is tomorrow, April 28. “Every single day, 340 people die from work-related injuries and illnesses,” an angry Shuler said. That includes deaths of former workers from ailments such as black lung disease. But not all the Covid-19 illnesses.
JOINING TOGETHER
Maine Medical Center nurses call for better working conditions
News Center Maine
By Griffin Stockford and Jack Molmud
April 27, 2022
Maine Medical Center nurses are picketing Wednesday over contract negotiations. The nurses' union hasn't come to an agreement with the hospital over patient safety, employee safety, and staffing levels.
This is the union's first contract since nurses voted to unionize in April 2021 — about a year ago. The nurses are part of the National Nurses Organizing Committee and the Maine State Nurses Association.
Maine Med nurses picket amid first union contract negotiations
Maine Public
By Patty Wight
April 27, 2022
Dozens of unionized nurses at Maine Medical Center in Portland picketed Wednesday morning outside the hospital amid contract negotiations that have gone on for eight months. Jonica Frank, a registered nurse who works in the operating room, says a major sticking point is staffing ratios. She says the workload that nurses have shouldered in recent years is unsustainable and unsafe. "We leave here exhausted at night and in the morning. Because, you know, we try so hard. We've gone without breaks," she says.
1 year after unionizing, Sterling hospital workers still waiting for first contract agreement
WQAD
By Shelby Kluver
April 27, 2022
One year after health care workers at CGH Medical Center voted to unionize, there still is no first contract agreement between employees and the hospital. Some union members blame hospital management for purposely stalling contract negotiations — a claim CGH is vehemently denying. On April 28, 2021, roughly 850 hospital and clinic staffers officially formed the CGH Employees Union under the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31. AFSCME staff representative Lori Laidlaw says negotiations over the first contract agreement began that fall but have since dragged on.
IN THE STATES
AFL-CIO on Memorial Day: ‘We mourn our dead by fighting for the living’ (Opinion)
NJ.com
By Charles Wowkanech
April 27, 2022
Tomorrow, on April 28, 2022, we observe Workers Memorial Day and remember the workers — our family, friends, and neighbors – who we have lost to workplace accidents, injuries or illness. Workers Memorial Day commemorates the anniversary of when the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) became effective. In addition to creating standards for workplace safety, OSHA establishes workplace safety as a fundamental right of every worker.
Rally planned to support maritime projects in Lordstown, Lorain
The Vindicator
April 27, 2022
“Union workers built this country and strengthened our national security. Ohioans in Lorain, Lordstown and across the state are ready now to do our part by expanding and improving our Naval shipyard performance,” said Tim Burga, president, Ohio AFL-CIO. “Strategic investments in the Marine Highway are crucial to the Navy’s efficiencies and readiness and workers in Ohio and the Great Lakes region have what it takes to advance this mission.”
AFL-CIO and United Way hold Workers Memorial Day service in Howard Park
WVPE
By Gemma DiCarlo
April 27, 2022
Thursday is National Workers Memorial Day, which promotes workplace safety and commemorates those who died on the job. The Indiana legislature formally recognized the memorial in 2020. It’s held every year on April 28, when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was signed into law in 1971. OSHA created many of the workplace safety standards and enforcement procedures still in place today. In honor of the day, the United Way of St. Joseph County and the AFL-CIO Northern Indiana Area Labor Federation will hold a memorial service in Howard Park. Joe Carbone, president of the South Bend chapter of the Northern Indiana Area Labor Federation, said workplace fatalities have almost doubled in Indiana over the last three years.
Construction workers, immigrants among 62 worker deaths in 2021, new report shows
Boston Globe
By Katie Johnston
April 27, 2022
Two men killed at a downtown Boston construction site last year were risking their lives on many fronts, according to a new report about workplace fatalities detailing the state’s most perilous jobs and the workers who do them. Jordy Alexander Castaneda Romero and Juan Carlos Figueroa Gutierrez, who were hit by a dump truck and knocked into a nine-foot-deep trench on High Street, worked in the most dangerous industry in the state, which in 2021 once again accounted for the largest share of fatal workplace injuries in the state, according to the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. Like all 15 construction workers killed on the job last year, they worked for a nonunion employer, which research has shown to be significantly less safe than union companies.