Tag Archives: OSHA

150 Workers Die Every Day From Injuries Or Occupational Diseases

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 8, 2013 - 9:16 am | , ,
Comments
Asbestos Abatement Workers

Asbestos Abatement Workers

“Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect” details workplace fatalities
www.aflcio.org/death-on-the-job

 In 2011, 4,693 workers were killed on the job, according to a new AFL-CIO report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.” That is an average of thirteen workers every day. In addition, another estimated 50,000 die every year from occupational diseases – an average of 137 a day, bringing the total worker fatalities to 150 a day.  North Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska and Arkansas had the highest workplace fatality rates, while New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Washington had the lowest. Latino workers, especially those born outside of the United States, continue to face rates of workplace fatalities fourteen percent higher than other workers, the same as last year.

In 2011, 3.8 million workers across all industries experienced work-related illnesses and injuries. The true toll is estimated to be two to three times greater, but lack of reporting in this area results in lower official figures.

The job fatality rate had been declining steadily for many years, but in the past three years the rate has essentially been unchanged, at 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers. Similarly, for the past two years, there has been no change in the reported workplace injury and illness rate (3.5 per 100 workers). If we are to make progress in reducing job injuries and deaths, we will need more concerted efforts and additional resources.

This year’s report comes on the heels of a horrific explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, which killed 15 people, injured hundreds more and caused widespread destruction, as well as the tragic collapse of a building that housed garment factories in Bangladesh, which led to the death of over six hundred workers.

The report also examines the role of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 43 years after its creation. It finds that OSHA remains underfunded and understaffed, and that penalties are too low to deter violations. Because of the underfunding, federal OSHA inspectors can only inspect workplaces once every 131 years on average, and state OSHA inspectors would take 76 years to inspect all workplaces.

OSHA penalties are too low to be taken seriously, let alone provide deterrence. The average penalty is only $2,156 for a serious federal health and safety violation, and only $974 for a state violation. Even in cases involving worker fatalities, the median total penalty was a paltry $5,175 for federal OSHA and $4,200 for the OSHA state plans. By contrast, property damage valued between $300 and $10,000 in the state of Illinois is considered a Class 4 felony and can carry a prison sentence of 1 to 3 years and a fine of up to $25,000.

Criminal penalties under OSHA are also weak. While there were 320 criminal enforcement cases initiated under federal environmental laws and 231 defendants charged in FY 2012, only 84 cases related to worker deaths have been prosecuted since 1970.

In the face of an ongoing assault on regulations by business groups and Republicans in Congress, progress on many new important safety and health rules has stalled. The White House Office of Management and Budget has delayed needed protections, including OSHA’s draft proposed silica rule, which has been held up for more than two years.

“In 2013, it is unacceptable that so many hardworking men and women continue to die on the job,” said AFL-CIO President and third-generation coal miner Richard Trumka. “No one should have to sacrifice his or her life or health and safety in order to earn a decent living. Yet, elected leaders, business groups and employers have failed to provide adequate health and safety protections for working families. At the same time, too many politicians and business leaders are actively working to dismantle working people’s right to collectively bargain on the job and speak out against unsafe, unjust working conditions. This is a disgrace to all those who have died. America’s workers deserve better.”

“Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect” was released after hundreds of Workers Memorial Day vigils, rallies and action were held across the country to commemorate all those workers who died and were injured on the job.

May Day Is For Immigrants Too (From Arnie Alpert)

  By New Hampshire Labor News | May 3, 2013 - 11:00 am | ,
Comments
Arnie Alpert Thumbnail pic

NHLN Editor Note: Below is an Op/Ed from New Hampshire AFSC Coordinator Arnie Alpert who is routinely is reposted here in on the NHLN.  Arnie and AFSC have been tirelessly working to push forward on immigration reform and the labor issues associated with immigrant workers.

From CNN Blog

Imagine that you have made it to the United States from a country where economic opportunities are absent. You’ve found work in a laundry, a restaurant kitchen, a nursing home, or on a construction site. The pay is low by U.S. standards, but you save enough to send some every month to your family back home.

Every day you put up with hazards and harassment, knowing that if you raise your voice in protest you risk, not only getting fired, but getting reported and deported. Some weeks you don’t get paid at all, but you keep your mouth shut and live with the abuse.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrant families across the country live this each day. Now, as Congress considers sweeping changes to a broken immigration system, we must press the case for a more humane approach to immigration — and protections for all workers, immigrant and native-born alike.

International Workers’ Day, or May Day, started in 1887 as a day for workers to press their demands for an eight-hour work day. It commemorated a violent suppression of a Chicago labor rally the year before. Immigrants, their advocates and allies took the holiday observed on the first of May to another level in 2006, when they connected workers’ rights to the need for repairs to a broken immigration system.

On this May 1, the American Friends Service Committeewill join them in cities from Concord, New Hampshire, to San Diego, California.

It’s not only workers without the right papers who suffer; when employers can get away with exploitation, the whole workforce suffers and deplorable conditions ripple through the entire labor market.

Immigration reform legislation offers the prospect of ending such exploitation, by providing a path to citizenship for qualifying individuals and a provisional legal status along the way. This would enable workers to stand up for their rights without fear of deportation simply for being an unauthorized worker.

That could be one of the outcomes of passing the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act,” the official name of the massive immigration bill now pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

For future immigrants, the creation of a new visa category, the W visa, would provide opportunities for low-skilled workers to move from one employer to another without losing the authorization to work. This category would ensure that pay levels are set between minimum wage and medium wage for the particular job, and also would require that labor recruiters be registered and regulated. Additionally, holders of “W” visas would be able to seek Legal Permanent Residency for themselves and their immediate family members.

The bill also would create a “blue card,” an improvement for agricultural workers. Those who qualify for these visas would be offered a faster track to permanent residency status.

The bill is not without problems, such as the provision that mandates that all employers, public and private, use the federal E-Verify system, which checks workers’ immigration status. This ties access to jobs to a massive data-management system with a long history of errors and abuses. Making participation in this flawed system obligatory as a condition for a immigration bill is misguided and wrong.

About 8 million of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S are workers. They want what workers everywhere want: safe working conditions, fair wages, and protection from abuse. The American Friends Service Committee sees that as a reasonable desire, consistent with a belief that all work should confer dignity on workers, employers, and consumers. As we say in our policy paper, “A New Path Toward Humane Immigration Policy,” all workers are entitled to humane polices that protect their labor and employment rights.

This year we must take the opportunity to set a long-sought pathway to protection for workers’ and immigrants’ rights — so that May Day 2014 can be a day to celebrate the progress we have made together.

CNN Editor’s note: Gabriel Camacho is the coordinator of Project Voice in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Arnie Alpert is the coordinator of the New Hampshire program. Both are part of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization working for peace and justice in the U.S. and around the world.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka Reflects On Workers Memorial Day

  By New Hampshire Labor News | April 30, 2013 - 8:46 am | , , ,
Comments
20130428-105947.jpg

On Workers Memorial Day, we come together to recognize the inherent dignity and value of every person and to remember all those who have perished on the job. As a third-generation coal miner, I’ve known firsthand the uncertainty of whether my loved ones would return home at the end of the day safe and healthy, and my heart goes out to all the communities who have endured terrible losses.

Each day in this country, 150 workers die from job injuries and occupational diseases. Last year in the United States more than 3.8 million workers were reported injured on the job, but this number understates the problem. The true toll of job injuries is likely two to three times greater. Around the globe, the toll is vast, with 2.3 million workers dying and 317 million workers injured on the job each year.

This year our thoughts are particularly with the families of West, Texas, where two weeks ago a horrific explosion at a fertilizer plant killed 15 people, injured hundreds more and caused widespread destruction. While the investigation is still under way, from all reports regulatory authorities had not inspected this dangerous facility in years.

We are outraged by the deaths of our sisters and brothers in Bangladesh, where over three hundred workers have perished, and hundreds have been injured, in the collapse of a building that housed garment factories.  Despite warnings by authorities that there were cracks in the building that made it unsafe, factory owners told the workers there was no danger and ordered them to work.  No worker should have to sacrifice life, limbs or health to earn an honest day’s pay – not here in the United States, not in Bangladesh or anywhere else. Yet, corporations continue the push for profits, seeking to avoid regulation and oversight.  They claim that stronger worker protections and enforcement kill profit, when the reality is that failure to act kills workers.

This is especially true for the millions of immigrant workers who live in the shadows and face even greater risks of death and injury on the job. Until all workers, regardless of where they were born or what country they live in, have the ability to come together on the job and speak out against dangerous conditions, we will continue to mourn needless deaths and preventable tragedies.

This Workers Memorial Day we must speak out against all those who value profit over life and wealth for the few over prosperity for all. Corporations that exploit workers and put them in danger must be held accountable.  We call on the Obama Administration to act without further delay to implement important regulations on silica, coal dust and other hazards.  And we must strengthen our job safety laws to give all workers the protection they need and deserve.

Mourn For The Dead, Fight For The Living. A Contrasting View Of Safety In The Workplace

  By Bill Brickley | April 23, 2013 - 7:29 am | , ,
Comments
Workers'-Memorial-Day-Banner

Workers'-Memorial-Day-Banner

With Workers Memorial Day approaching Sunday April 28 two high-profile safety situations this week have helped further illustrate the gulf  between a union and non-union workplace. Union leaders have called out the Postal Service for being slow in handling one situation while in Texas a completely different regulatory atmosphere turned into a catastrophe.

Postal employees were reminded of the risks in moving the mail.  Ricin tainted letters passed through mail plants in Tennessee, Maryland and Washington DC.  The media reported the story before the USPS told its employees according to the  American Postal Workers Union (APWU). The hope is the Postal Service will communicate faster with employees if a similar problem occurs in the future.

The APWU was displeased with the Postal Service not telling his members sooner about the Ricin tainted letters sent to President Obama and Senator Wicker. Especially considering the deaths of Postal Workers during the Anthrax mailings in 2001 the APWU expected a quicker response.

“It is unacceptable that postal officials did not contact the union immediately to notify us of this potentially deadly hazard,” Union President Cliff Guffey said. “Postal workers have learned through bitter experience of the dangers we face when poisons are sent through the mail.”

“We intend to demand that this lapse be corrected,” Guffey said. “The safety of postal workers must be management’s first concern in an incident like this. Postal workers have a right to be informed immediately and to have the assistance of their union immediately to make sure that everything is being done that can be done to protect their safety!”

Seemingly the Postal Service was slow in handling this. In the big picture the Postal Service preaches safety constantly and OSHA inspectors frequently visit. It can be legitimately questioned if the Postal Service focus on safety is being done for the right reasons, but there is no doubt safety is emphasized. Lets contrast that to the travesty in Texas.

We are learning grim new details of the West Fertilizer Plant fire last week that killed at least 14 people and injured over 200. Astoundingly this plant was last inspected by OSHA in February 1985.

That is right a non-union fertilizer plant next to both a school and a nursing home went over 27 years without a OSHA inspection. The EPA found numerous safety violations 5 years ago but that was never followed up on. What could possibly go wrong in this situation?

OSHA inspectors have been reduced consistently over the past 30 years  and currently there are only 2,200 inspectors for the country’s 8 million workplaces and 130 million workers. So OSHA could be expected to visit each plant every 129 years.  With no union voice workers are not really empowered to make a call on their own. The whole community in West, Texas is now paying the price.

Routinely government leaders side with industry profits  over public safety.  If you are a union worker and contact OSHA they will undoubtedly respond.  Union officials called out the Postal Service for being 2 days late in notification. Contrast that to the 27 year delay in Texas. If you are a non-union worker and you report a violation most likely your next call will be to the State Unemployment Office.

With Workers Memorial Day being later this week its time for our Congress and Administration to address worker safety. People somehow have to be placed above profits.

 

 

The Cost of Cheap Clothing

  By Liz Iacobucci | November 25, 2012 - 3:00 pm |
Comments
Hasan Raza/Associated Press

 

Hasan Raza/Associated Press

More than 100 people have died in a fire at a nine-story garment factory outside Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Most of the workers who died were on the first and second floors and were killed, fire officials said, because none of the exits opened to the outside.

Sound familiar?  About a century ago, 146 garment workers were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City.  [This video includes images of a 2010 fire in a different Bangladesh garment factory. Be warned the video is graphic and may be disturbing]

The Bangladesh factory that burned yesterday employed about 1,500 workers, making T-shirts, polo shorts and fleece jackets. It had sales of $35 million a year.

Babul Akhter, president of the Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers’ Federation, said mid-level management of the garment factories are mostly concerned with how many clothes can be produced and forget the safety issues.

Bangladesh garment industry workers have been battling for union rights for years.  The fight is becoming increasingly violent. Just eight months ago, the “tortured body” of an organizer for the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity was found near the police station of a city outside Dhaka.

Read how the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire transformed American worksites here.

Read more about efforts to improve working conditions in Bangladesh here.

And when you are shopping this holiday season, think about the true cost of what you’re buying.  According to press reports and labor activists, the factory that burned yesterday makes clothing for Walmart, as well as other retailers.

 

 

This Is What De-Regulation Really Looks Like

  By Matt Murray | September 21, 2012 - 9:22 pm | ,
Comments
Wage Theft

For anyone who believes that your employer has your best interests in mind, I have a story for you.  Now this story takes place in and around the Chicago area, but do not be concerned with that because this happens in every major city around the country.

Over the winter and spring of 2012 the University of Illinois surveyed 204 employees at 57 different car washes in the Chicagoland area.  Their results were shocking even to me, and I scour the internet looking for employers who abuse their employees.

Employment law violations that were measured in the Chicago Car Wash Study include:

Not being paid the legal overtime rate, being forced to share tips with management, not being compensated for time worked off-the- clock, and not being paid on time or being paid all wages owed.

Other violations of workplace law that were captured concern occupational health and safety standards. These include: no provision of free personal protective equipment to safeguard against hazards; no notification of workplace dangers and their potential harmful health impacts; no access to clean and free drinking water; and no separate and sheltered area for meal breaks.

With all of todays laws, rules, and regulations surrounding workers pay and safety how could this happen? The answer unfortunately is that many of the workers probably do not know they are being taken advantage of.  This answer becomes more evident when you look at the breakdown of the employees who were surveyed.

As you can clearly see less 20% of the workers speak English well (above), and only 16% have a high school equivalent education (below).

It is very easy to see that many of these people probably do not know the labor laws that are being violated.  Many of them did not know they were loosing over $4,000 in wages.  While $4,000 may not seem like a lot to some, consider that one of the major violations exposed in this study found many of the workers were being paid below the minimum wage.  Minimum wage in Illinois is $8.25 per hour.  Calculated out for a 40 hour week ($330 before taxes) for 52 weeks you end up with $17,160 (pre-tax).  $4,000 is just a little more that 25% of their overall wages.

One of the largest reasons that workers unionized was safety.  Many companies routinely put the safety of the workers far behind the all mighty dollar.  These car washes are no different.  They violated OSHA regulations left and right resulting in:

  • 5% suffered burns
  • 13% received injuries due to falling
  • 24% routinely experienced nausea and dizziness.
  • 40% of the workers received rashes
  • 50% of workers were cut on the job

This is what one of the workers said:

There’s a cleaner for rims – for wheels – the metal, that’s very strong and sometimes you use its pure form, they don’t dilute it, and there were people that were hurt because of this, that were burned by the liquid, and one time it splashed directly on my face, in my eyes, and I washed myself with cold water and I said to myself that with protective eyewear that would never have happened. But we didn’t have any type of protection.
-Martín, car wash worker

 As you can see from this chart over 80% of surveyed workers did not have personal protective equipment to guard them from dangers on the job nor were they provided information from their employer about harmful occupational health hazards. To make matters worse, almost two-thirds of survey participants did not have clean and free drinking water at work and close to 60 percent had no access to a sheltered meal break area separate from their hazardous work environments.

These conditions are appalling.  We need to bring attention to the blatant worker abuse at these car washes and at millions of other businesses in the United States.  This is a byproduct of the ‘smaller government’.  With less inspectors from OSHA to inspect conditions and ensure worker safety that task then falls to the employer.  I highly doubt the employer is going to turn themselves in for a OSHA violation.

Give us water and safety equipment so our health isn’t put at risk. Because if we are good our families are good, too.
-Samuel, car wash worker

The University of Illinois has three recommendations that will help these workers.

  1. Increase and improve government enforcement of employment laws in car washes.
  2. Create special oversight for the car wash industry in Illinois.
  3. Support educational efforts about worker rights, including health and safety training, for car wash workers.

With these simple steps we can better the working conditions for these workers and workers across the country.

Download the report in English:  CLEAN CARS, DIRTY WORK: Worker Rights Violations in Chicago Car Washes
Or in Spanish: AUTOS LIMPIOS, TRABAJO SUCIO: Violaciones a los derechos de los trabajadores en los lava-autos de Chicago
See the entire press release video

NH Labor News 8/24/12: LGC to Appeal $50 Mil Refund Order, Berlin Health Better With ACA, ED SHOW Says Save The USPS, OSHA

  By New Hampshire Labor News | August 24, 2012 - 9:37 am |
Comments
OSHA Violation

LGC to appeal $52M refund order | SeacoastOnline.com:The Local Government Center announced Thursday that it will appeal an order mandating that it refund more than $52 million to public employees, retirees and municipal members who bought its health and/or property liability insurance.

In announcing its willingness to take its appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the LGC also stated it plans to lay off 18 employees, reducing its 2013 budget by $1.5 million.

Healthcare has improved in the Berlin area, but paying for it is a problem: “Only in physical environment does Coos County do well, scoring 5th among the 10.
At this point in the discussion, AVH CEO Russ Keene became the speaker.
“The issue with health care is that there is not much clarity,” said Keene. “The key event for the next 12 months is what happens with the Affordable Care Act. It’s still very muddled.”
Keene noted that if Romney is successful, there is a possibility that the Affordable Care Act may no longer be in effect.
“If that happens, two things are important to us,” Keene said. “What happens with the individual mandate and what happens with the exchanges (where individuals are supposed to be able to shop for insurance programs).
“We will be concerned if the individual mandate does not proceed as we thought it would,” he said.”

Ed Schultz:‘Most Dishonest Campaign Ever’: ““I want to tell you a little bit about what we’re going through at the Ed Show,” he told the delegates. “Every day we have to come to work and debunk a new lie.  This is the most dishonest national campaign this country has ever seen with Romney and Ryan.”

“It’s a misinformation campaign, and in some parts of the country it’s working.”

“They’ll tell seniors in Florida that ‘we won’t touch Medicare,’ but when you look at their budget, it’s a whole different story.”

“Postal workers are living what the Republicans are all about.  Republicans came up with the pre-funding requirement.  They want to privatize everything.

“If the Republicans had their way, you wouldn’t be here.”

AFSCME | Wisconsin Private Health Care Workers Vote to Unionize with AFSCME:
MADISON, Wisc. – Nearly 300 employees of Journey Mental Health Center voted overwhelmingly last week to join AFSCME Council 40.

Journey is a private, non-profit organization. Its employees provide mental health services from nine sites in Dane County, Wisconsin.

Last year’s historic opposition to Gov. Scott Walker’s attack on public employee rights helped sow the seeds of unionization at Journey, said Kevin McConeghey, a 20-year worker there who helped lead the union organizing drive. Journey employees identified with this larger struggle.

Image and Article to share:
From We Part Patriots: GRAPHIC: As OSHA’s Budget Drops, Workplace Fatalities Rise (and Other Obvious, Important Conclusions)

“Newly compiled data in the form of a stunning infographic from Compliance and Safety analyzes the latest information on workplace fatalities. While workplace fatalities have been dropping, there remains a clear correlation between the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) budget and the number of victims at work. Small steps could easily save lives on the work site, the graphic suggests.”

Solid As Granite Series part 8: NH COSH Al Bouchard

  By The New Hampshire Labor News | May 19, 2012 - 4:00 pm | Uncategorized
Comments

Al Bouchard is a advocate for the New Hampshire Coalition of Occupational Safety and Health, (COSH).  This short story is powerful and shows why it is important to be union members and why workplace safety is one of the most important protections a union can provide.

To quote AL, “Do not trust your employer when he tells you it is safe”.

End the Delays Deadly to Workers, by Leo W Gerard (USW International President)

  By The New Hampshire Labor News | April 27, 2012 - 4:00 pm | Uncategorized
Comments
USW International President
LEO W GERARD

By Leo W. Gerard
USW International President

Wear black on Saturday. It is Workers’ Memorial Day, a time devoted to commemorating those killed on the job.

A month later, on soldiers’ Memorial Day, the nation will recognize those who sacrificed their lives for American ideals, for a nation’s freedom. That ultimate gift is given in most cases valiantly and voluntarily. No one, however, volunteers to sacrifice their life for corporate profit. Every day in workplaces across this country, the lives of 12 workers are taken, not given.

The shield Congress erected in 1970 to protect workers – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) – is mutilated from relentless attacks by corporations and their battering ram — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The delays in OSHA rule-making that corporate carping achieves cost workers their lives. Congress must intervene to restore OSHA’s power to act swiftly.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) detailed the delays in a report issued last week titled, “Multiple Challenges Lengthen OSHA’s Standard Setting.” The GAO found it takes OSHA longer than seven years to issue a new standard. In one case, it was 19 years. And it’s getting worse. It took 70 percent longer to finalize standards in the 1990s than it did in the 1980s, and another 30 percent longer in the 2000s.

The GAO determined that this was a result of increasing demands on OSHA. These occurred as corporations sued to stop enforcement and new mandates for review of proposed rules were stacked on top of existing ones. The GAO said defenders of the delays argue that the layers of obligations balance worker protections with employer costs.

So the very corporations and Chamber of Commerce that constantly deride government red tape demand it for this special case — to delay implementation of rules to protect workers. And this is their justification: Corporate profits trump worker lives.

There’s no doubt that the rules OSHA implements actually save lives. Members of my union, the United Steelworkers (USW), are alive today because of OSHA’s lockout/tagout rule. The GAO noted this in its report.

The lockout/tagout standard, established in 1989, requires corporations to install devices and adopt procedures that prevent workers from accidently switching on big machines while co-workers are cleaning or repairing them. The GAO wrote about this rule:

“In a 2000 review, OSHA attributed a 55 percent reduction in machinery-related fatalities at 10 steel-producing companies between 1990 and 1997 to the provisions in this standard.”

The quicker such a regulation is implemented, the more worker lives saved. But now, for OSHA, “quick” is anything less than seven years and nine months. For standards limiting exposure to some highly-toxic substances, including silica and beryllium, exposed workers have waited much longer than seven years. OSHA has been working on a silica standard for 15 years and a new beryllium standard for 12.

Beryllium is so dangerous that no safe level has ever been established. It causes a devastating lung disorder called chronic beryllium disease (CBD). It is so hazardous that office workers in factories where it’s used and family members of workers who handle it can be struck down by tiny particles carried on shoes or pant cuffs. This year, my union and Materion Brush, the only U.S. producer of pure beryllium metal, recommended a new standard that is 90 percent lower than the current limit.

That, however, followed years of obstruction by industry officials. This is typical of corporations fighting standards that will save lives but cost money. They strangle proposed standards by suing and by entangling them in red tape. The lawsuits, the GAO report says, mean OSHA must provide extraordinary levels of proof. And the suits have restrained OSHA from using its full powers to protect workers.

For example, theoretically, OSHA has authority to issue emergency temporary standards. OSHA hasn’t done that in 29 years, despite 23 requests from workers or health officials. That’s because of industry lawsuits. In the 13 years from the agency’s creation until 1984, OSHA used the authority nine times, but five of those orders were invalidated or frozen by industry lawsuits.

One of the nine was for asbestos. In 1983, OSHA issued an emergency temporary standard lowering the exposure limit for this cancer-causing material. Using mathematical projections from long-term epidemiological studies, OSHA estimated that the six-month-long emergency rule would prevent at least 80 eventual asbestos-related deaths.

The industry sued to stop implementation of the emergency standard, and a judge killed the OSHA effort. The court contended the agency’s projection was inadequate to establish grave risk. And it said if OSHA intended to use such estimates, then a new standard based on them should not be enforced until after public notice and comment.

That would delay implementation of a lower exposure standard, which, when dealing with toxic substances like asbestos and beryllium, costs lives. But industry won. And who knows how many workers suffered early deaths across the country.

Last Workers’ Memorial Day, Robert Stubblefield, 66, a member of my union, was killed on the job at Republic Special Metals in Ohio.

Over the next 12 months, 34 more Steelworkers died, one every 10 days. They made glass, tires, cement, aluminum and steel. They refined oil and mined potash, platinum and palladium. They logged forests and constructed earthmovers.

They produced the products that build North America. They should not die for that. No worker should die for a job.

Traditionally, Memorial Day is the first day of the season when women wear white — white shoes, white purses, white hats.

On Workers Memorial Day, Saturday, April 28, wear black for the workers who perished on the job last year. Hold loved ones close and hope that the delays imposed on OSHA won’t cause for another worker’s family the suffering endured by Robert Stubblefield’s widow, five children and nine grandchildren.

***

Leo W. Gerard also is a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Committee and chairs the labor federation’s Public Policy Committee. President Barack Obama appointed him to the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. He serves as co-chairman of the BlueGreen Alliance and on the boards of Campaign for America’s Future and the Economic Policy Institute. He is a member of the IMF and ICEM global labor federations and was instrumental in creating Workers Uniting, the first global union. Follow @USWBlogger

OSHA Fines Concord Company $176,000

  By The New Hampshire Labor News | September 9, 2011 - 4:30 pm | ,
Comments

Unions throughout history have always stood for safety in the workplace.  The safety of the workers is one of the most important thing a Union can do.  This becomes more evident when you see a press release (below) from US DOL (OSHA) who is fining a Concord company $176,000 in fines.  It should be noted that the fines proposed “reflect both the severity of these hazards and the fact that the company was well aware of the machine gaurding and lockout hazards”.  

Remember that without Labor Unions we would have no OSHA. And without a Union and OSHA you could end up working in a place like this that is willfully placing you health at risk.



Region 1 News Release: 11-1295-BOS/BOS 2011-311
Sept. 8, 2011
Contact: Ted Fitzgerald
Phone: 617-565-2074
Email: fitzgerald.edmund@dol.gov

US Labor Department’s OSHA proposes $176,000 in fines
against Stowe Woodward LLC for hazards at Concord, NH, plant

CONCORD, N.H. – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Stowe Woodward LLC for 16 violations of workplace safety standards following an inspection at its Concord plant. The company, which refurbishes large metal rolls for the paper industry, faces $176,000 in proposed penalties.

Inspectors found several instances where operating machinery – including grinders, extruders and lathes – lacked proper guarding to prevent workers from coming in contact with moving parts. The machines also lacked adequate procedures to lock out their power sources to prevent unintended startup during maintenance. As a result of these conditions, the company was cited for two willful violations with $125,000 in fines. A willful violation is one committed with intentional knowing or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health.

“The sizable fines proposed here reflect both the severity of these hazards and the fact that the company was well aware of the machine guarding and lockout hazards,” said Rosemarie Ohar, OSHA’s New Hampshire area director. “Stowe Woodward has been cited in the past for similar or equivalent hazards, including citations issued in 2005 and 1999 for machinery-related fatalities at its facilities in Louisiana and Georgia. For the safety and health of its workers, this employer must take effective steps to correct and prevent these hazards not only in Concord but at its other locations.”

Eleven serious violations with $49,000 in fines involve a lack of frequent crane inspections, ungrounded fans, inadequately guarded grinders, propane cylinders stored near an exit door, blocked access to an electrical disconnect panel, respiratory protection deficiencies and the company’s failure to inspect forklifts. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

Three other-than-serious violations with $2,000 in fines were cited for inadequate record keeping. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm.

TheStowe Woodward LLC citations are available at http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/StoweWoodwardLLC_314046335_0906_11.pdf* andhttp://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/StoweWoodwardLLC_29229_0906_11.pdf.*

Stowe Woodward LLC has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, meet with OSHA’s area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The inspection was conducted by OSHA’s Concord Area Office; telephone 603-225-1629. To report workplace incidents, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, call the agency’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742).

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov