More than a century ago, legendary labor organizer Mother Jones said, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
On Workers Memorial Day, we honor the more than 5,000 workers — including AFSCME members — who die on the job every year while serving their communities. In 2023, the most recent year for which we have exact figures, that number was 5,283.
An additional 135,304 workers died from occupational diseases. These still count as work-related deaths though they are separate from the fatal work injury tally above.
Many of these deaths were preventable.
Today marks the 55th anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), which sets and enforces workplace safety standards. Over the decades, this law has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers by preventing workplace deaths and injuries.
New president, new disregard for worker safety
But the successes of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), established by a 1970 law, are under threat. The new administration isn’t fighting for the living; instead, it’s putting workers’ lives at risk.
“The sad truth is that even as workplace injuries rise across the country, we have a White House hell-bent on dismantling the very institutions meant to safeguard workers — all to hand tax breaks to billionaires who want to trample their rights,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in a statement in recognition of Workers Memorial Day. “They are shuttering OSHA field offices, firing federal employees who investigate workplace incidents, and making it easier for employers to silence those who speak out about feeling unsafe.”
Over the past three months, the White House has announced plans to close 11 OSHA field offices and has closed at least one — in one of the nation’s most dangerous states for workers, Louisiana.
This administration is also laying off at least two-thirds of the staff of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. NIOSH is a critically important agency because it:
- Conducts research and makes recommendations to OSHA for preventing work-related injuries, illnesses and deaths.
- Ensures that the personal protective equipment workers use to safeguard against chemicals and illness is effective.
- Investigates diseases and cancer clusters to determine which workplace chemicals are making people sick.
Without the valuable work NIOSH and OSHA perform, more workers will almost certainly get hurt, become sick or die on the job.
The new administration’s actions are nonsensical and cruel given how little money it takes to protect workers’ lives and, from an economic perspective, how well that money is spent. NIOSH’s budget is only about $2.20 per worker in the United States annually, or $338 million, yet occupational injuries and illnesses drain our economy of some $250 billion each year.
Key legislation to boost worker safety
In nearly half the country, public service workers aren’t protected by OSHA standards. That’s why AFSCME supports the Public Service Worker Protection Act, which will be reintroduced in the House this week by Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) The bill is to be introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in the Senate.
The legislation would ensure that public service workers nationwide have the same health and safety workplace protections as private sector workers. It would also make sure all existing OSHA safety rules as well as future standards to protect workers from heat illness and workplace violence apply equally in the public and private sectors.
Fight for worker safety. Get Organized
As we observe Workers Memorial Day, we must do more.
AFSCME has launched the Get Organized campaign to fight for workers amidst attacks from billionaires and anti-union extremists.
The GO campaign is about making sure everyone understands what’s at stake in this fight, and about defeating any efforts to gut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. It’s about bringing more workers without a voice on the job into the AFSCME family and increasing engagement among current working members and retirees alike.
Let’s get involved. Let’s GO.