WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Death On The Job report: Years of progress, long way to go
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
May 5, 2021
In the decades since the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was established, there’s been a lot of progress in cutting worker deaths and injuries on the job. However, there’s still a long way to go. That’s a big conclusion from the data in the AFL-CIO’s 30th annual Death On The Job report, released May 4, a week after OSHA’s 50th anniversary. The Occupational Safety and Health Act, strongly pushed by organized labor, has helped cut deaths on the job from nine per 100,000 workers 30 years ago to 3.5 per 100,000 in 2019. The report with the latest available data shows this. The death rate has stalled at that level ever since the anti-worker anti-safety GOP Trump regime took over in 2017. And the 3.5/100,000 rate still translates into having 275 workers die every day from hazardous working conditions, the report says. Those figures actually understate the case, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told the Zoom press conference unveiling the report. “About 95,000 workers a year die from occupational illnesses,” often contracted long before, she pointed out. And illness and death disproportionately hit workers of color, she added.
Safety + Health Magazine
May 5, 2021
The full extent of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the nation’s workforce will likely remain unclear because of the lack of a comprehensive national system to gather such information, according to the AFL-CIO’s annual report on the state of safety and health protections for U.S. workers. The 30th edition of Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect – released May 4 – states that “employer reporting of COVID-19 cases still is mandatory only in a few states with specific standards or orders.” During a May 4 press conference, AFL-CIO Safety and Health Director Rebecca Reindel noted that the Bureau of Labor Statistics states on its website that it won’t produce COVID-19 estimates. “The Survey of Occupational Illnesses and Injuries relies on OSHA recordkeeping requirements, which mandate employers record certain work-related injuries and illnesses on their OSHA 300 log,” BLS says on its website. “While the SOII may capture some recordable COVID-19 cases reported by employers, the SOII will not produce estimates specifically covering COVID-19 illnesses.”
IN THE STATES
Letter: “Right to Work” laws make Arizona a place where it is right to work for less. (Opinion)
Tuscan.com
By Elizabeth Knepp
May 2, 2021
Wages are lower in Arizona and profits for the rich are higher than in states without the misnamed “Right to Work” law. The PRO Act will change that! Arizona workers are smart enough to decide for themselves whether they should join a union. They do not need the government to make it easier for the bosses to deny workers union protections.
Protest by cake: Special deliveries to Sen. Mark R. Warner urge him to back the Pro Act
The Washington Post
By Meagan Flynn
May 5, 2021
Rain or shine, there will be cake, and on Wednesday, huddling underneath umbrellas, the group of labor rights activists carried their latest to Sen. Mark R. Warner’s doorstep in Alexandria, Va. It was the kind of white sheet cake typically found at children’s birthday parties — the seventh they have delivered to Warner’s home on consecutive Wednesdays, each made by a union-member baker and decorated with a slogan urging Warner to co-sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize Act.
Workers Memorial 2021 Service Held at Lake Mayer
Savannah Tribune
By Staff Writer
May 5, 2021
Last Wednesday, Savannah A. Philip Randolph Institute and the Savannah Regional Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO held a Workers Memorial in honor of workers throughout Georgia who lost their lives while at work in 2020. In 1989, the AFLCIO declared April 28 “Workers’ Memorial Day” to honor the hundreds of thousands of working people killed and injured on the job every year. April 28 is the anniversary of the date the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 went into effect, and when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was formed (April 28, 1971 ). wIt is undeniable that OSHA has greatly improved worker safety and health for all workers. Recognizing the linkage between worker safety and strong trade unions is a critical reason for Congress to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.
Labor unions, leaders commemorate 50th anniversary of OSHA for Workers Memorial Day
Kokomo Perspective
May 5, 2021
The Howard-Tipton AFL-CIO, UAW 292, United Way and the City of Kokomo brought together a coalition of area labor unions last week in Highland Park to remember the lives of worker’s lost in the line of their work and the challenges workers have faced in the time of COVID. The event was a continuation of a decades’ old event as area unions continue to fight for better safety standards and develop new processes to protect workers.
JOINING TOGETHER
Yale Union Staff call on the university for fair contract negotiations
Fox 61
By Dave Puglisi
May 5, 2021
Hundreds of Yale Union staff members rallied on Prospect Street calling for fair contract negotiations. Members of Unite Here Local 34 and 35 say Yale proposed significant cuts to their long-standing contract at a time when the University received record endowments. "These are the best jobs in the region, and we want them to remain the best jobs in the region," said Barbara Vereen.