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When President Obama eulogized the 29 dead miners of the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion this weekend, he noted that no one should “put their lives at risk by simply showing up to work.”
How can we fail them? How can a nation that relies on its miners not do everything in its power to protect them? How can we let anyone in this country put their lives at risk by simply showing up to work; by simply pursuing the American dream?
Unfortunately, it’s not just miners who fear for their lives while making a paycheck; deaths on the job are unfortunately entirely too common. In its annual report on worker deaths, the AFL-CIO found that 5,214 workers died on the job in 2008. That’s 14 people a day.
Each workday, it’s likely that 14 workers won’t come home because they will be killed on the job, according to the most recent statistics. The AFL-CIO’s 19th annual workplace safety report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect,” also reports that in 2008, along with the 5,214, workers killed, another 50,000 workers died from occupational diseases, while at least 4.6 million workers were reported injured, unreported injuries could push that total to as many as 14 million workers. [...]
“Death on the Job” also reports that Latino workers are most in danger of dying at the workplace. In 2008, the fatality rate among these workers was 4.2 per 100,000 workers, 13.5 percent higher than the fatal injury rate for all U.S. workers.
You’d think that deaths in the workplace would be cause for some concern for both the businesses involved and the government. Think again. Paltry penalties and scattered enforcement make it almost impossible to get real accountability for workplace deaths.
When workers are killed on the job, the report notes that employers face “incredibly weak penalties.” The median penalty in 2009 was just $5,000 in fatality cases investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). In 2009, when an employer was cited for a serious safety violation, the average OSHA penalty was just $965.
In addition, the report says OSHA’s inspector workforce is “woefully inadequate,” with just 2,218 inspectors to monitor the 8 million workplaces that fall under OSHA’s jurisdictions.
Today is Workers’ Memorial Day – to honor those who died, and to fight for the living, urge for passage of the Protecting America’s Workers Act.
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Thanks for the reminder about today and for the great link to 16 Deaths per Day.
I had forgotten. Shame on me.
Thanks, Michael.
So many people died in work related accidents during the construction of the City Center project in Las Vegas that it has been nick named “City Cemetery”! I believe the total is over a dozen and counting.
I have a question: what ever happened to the 40 hour work week?
Some people had to struggle a bit to win that civilized advance.
And in the age of celebrities walking around flashing their bodies on the red carpets in front of paparazzi and where 100 million dollars is the cover charge for entry to being “rich”, what happened to the right of someone who diligently works for a living to live free of economic crisis?
And what happened to vacations? As it stands, the typical American worker is essentially a labor robot expending itself to insure that the richest members of society get as rich as possible, as fast as possible. The typical American worker takes 5 days a year of paid vacation (BLS). This would illegal in a number of western countries.
What happened to the regard for someone who works for a living wherein they are perceived as human beings deserving more than to live and die for the profits of the wealthy?
What happened to the vision for our society where the economy was seen as a thing that functioned to benefit everyone greatly? Why are workers today so typically managed and operated as if they are simply disposable assets of the richest?
For those keeping score, that’s about 1.75 9/11′s.
Although the number dead in the 9/11 attacks doesn’t count those who — that’s right — died on the job (or as a result of doing their job) due to inadequate safety standards, inadequate equipment, and “It’s perfectly safe” lies from our dear leadership. So it might be about par with one 9/11.
And yet, the funny thing is that Republicans would likely not mind if this number got a little bit higher, so long as our damn evil regulatory system (that barely works) gets a little bit weaker.
http://www.gregthecollegestudent.wordpress.com
The last two jobs I had did not allow employees to pee on the clock, and both required so much extra work that employees had to spend breaks and lunches on task or else come in early and work for free. Technically that’s not legal, and yet the last two major corporations I worked for structured the work day so that working off the clock was necessary. They’d put a clause in their handbook about how working off the clock was not allowed, then basically require employees to do it on pain of job loss.
I saw several incidences of near violence in meetings over this–employee versus employee violence–over this issue of working off the clock. About half were terrified of losing the job if they didn’t do it (and they would lose the job too–that was a reasonable fear) and the other half were mad at the ones doing it for validating the company’s already insane productivity demands.
We need EFCA, but if it ever passed (yeah like that is going to happen in this economy) the first result would NOT be tons of new union workplaces, it would lots of employee against employee violence. This is why we need unions. We really, really need unions again. It’s bad out there.
http://www.eyeonlifemag.com/i-hate-my-job/