Worker Safety: An Unfulfilled Promise

April 27, 2007

“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living,” was one of the mottos made famous by the committed labor organizer Mary Harris “Mother” Jones . Her words could not be more appropriate on the eve of Workers Memorial Day, observed every year on April 28 in memory of workers who have been killed or injured on the job. The date coincides with the 37th anniversary of the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the government agency that oversees worker safety. Although official figures show that workplace fatalities have declined since OSHA’s inception, workers still face grave hazards on the job. There were 5,734 fatal workplace injuries in 2005 according to the new AFL-CIO annual study “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.” Over the last three decades, more than 500 dedicated AFSCME members were killed on the job. But there are still some who seem oblivious to OSHA’s crucial mission An April 24 story from The New York Times reports that “[s]ince George W. Bush became president … t]he agency has killed dozens of existing and proposed regulations and delayed adopting others.” As the AFL-CIO report shows, between 2001 and 2006 numerous OSHA regulations were withdrawn from the regulatory agenda. The clock on worker safety must not be turned back. This Workers Memorial Day, let us rededicate ourselves to this fight.