2024 Year in Review

As 2024 thankfully disappears into the sunset, now we can all look forward, with great confidence to….2029?

The one definite thing we can say about 2024 is that it’s over.  But before we head out into the exciting future, let’s take a moment to look back one more time to the high and low lights of the year that was.

1. Chevron Runs Out of Gas

American business got finally the main reward it was seeking for supporting the (first) Trump administration. No, not tax cuts. The reward was the death of Chevron Deference. In June, the Republican Supreme Court (with three Trump appointees)issued the Loper Bright Enterprises Et. Al v. Raimondo which rescinded the 50 year old “Chevron Deference” doctrine. For 40 years Chevron deference had directed courts to defer to expert agencies when legislation was not clear or specific enough.  Getting rid of Chevron had been a top priority of the business community.  The Supremes thought that judges, not agency scientists and other experts,  knew best how to implement the laws that Congress passed, whether a regulation issued by OSHA or the EPA met the intent of Congress or not.

For workers or anyone concerned about the environment, climate change, safe food or consumer protections, this was not good news.

But this was great news for corporate America — that is if you’re comfortable allowing (Trumpy) judges to use their own judgement (or ideology) to determine what a safe level for silica or asbestos or air pollution is, or maybe if you’re confident that Congress is capable of writing detailed regulations or even authorizing an agency to issue specific worker protections or environmental regulations.

Because who among us wouldn’t trust a Trump-appointed judge over an industrial hygiene expert or toxicologist to determine how best to protect workers? We don’t know yet what the impact of Chevron will be on future (or current) OSHA or MSHA standards. Loper says that it doesn’t apply to standards and regulations already on the books. But they’ve been known to change their minds. And Elon doesn’t think he needs to listen to any stinkin’ Supreme Court.

But never fear, it can only get worse. This isn’t enough for corporate America. They’re exploring ways to reach a Supreme Court decision that would declare OSHA safety standards to be unconstitutional. But why stop there? They’re also planning and plotting to put cases before the Supreme Court that satisfy Steve Bannon’s fever dream of completely “deconstructing” the entire regulatory state and leaving the welfare of the state up to the corporations that control the state.

2. Miners Can Breathe

When OSHA finally updated it silica standard in 2016 to protect construction, foundry and other workers from the cancer-causing dust, miners, who are exposed to increasing amounts of the deadly dust were left behind with the same old antiquated standard that was killing them with a severe form of Black Lung disease. Several years ago, epidemiologists at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health identified the largest cluster of advanced black lung disease ever reported, according to an NPR story by Howard Berkes in 2018. The cause was not just coal dust, but also silica exposure, caused by cutting through more quartz rock as the coal seams get smaller.

Finally, last April, MSHA issued its updated silica standard. The new MSHA standard comes 50 years after a report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that recommended reducing worker exposure to silica, and over 90 years after at least 764 workers died digging the Hawks Nest tunnel through a mountain of solid silica near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia.

Unfortunately for mine operators and Republicans who have never met an MSHA standard (or miner) that they didn’t want to kill, the issuance came well before the deadline for rescinding the rule using the Congressional Review Act. Instead, they tried to kill this lifesaving standard by introducing language in the FY 2025 Appropriations bill that would have outlawed MSHA from spending money to enforce the standard.  That language was left out of the final version of the bill, but nevertheless it tells us how much Republicans and mine operators care about the health and lives of America’s coal miners. We’ll see what the new Republican majorities in the Senate and House have in mind for the future.

Happily, Trump’s MSHA cannot go back to the drawing board to weaken the silica standard because the Mine Safety and Health Act prohibits the agency from diminishing safety relative to an existing standard.

[Speaking of mining, MSHA Assistant Secretary Chris Williamson reminds me that mining fatalities reduced by 30% from 2023 to 2024. Now that’s an accomplishment!]

3. Standards Surrender: The Best Laid Plans…

One of the bigger stories of last year is what did NOT happen at OSHA; the dog that didn’t bark. Although the Biden administration did issue its walkaround regulation earlier this year (see below), Biden OSHA set a rather unfortunate record: During the entire 4-year term, the agency did not issue a single major health and safety standard.

Although you wouldn’t know it from the incessant whining form the business community about the tsunami of job-killing OSHA regulations, this is the first Democratic administration in the 54-year history of the agency not to issue a major health or safety standard during an entire term. Left behind to the (in)actions of the incoming Trump administration are not only the heat standard and a standard to protect emergency responders  (both of which have advanced to the proposal stage), but also workplace violence, infectious diseases (as well as a COVID in health care standard that has been under review at OMB for a year), and a crucially needed update to OSHA’s Process Safety Management Standard that protects workers in chemical plants and petroleum refineries.   This failure to regulate was especially tragic is that Republican Administrations don’t issue OSHA standards any more. No Republican President has issued a major new OSHA health or safety standard since the first George Bush — except those ordered by the courts.

(OSHA did issue one small safety standard that required that safety equipment for construction workers must actually fit the workers that use it. Yes, in 2024, OSHA has finally realized — in a regulatory sense — that women are not just smaller versions of men.)

The lack of regulatory action is not entirely OSHA’s fault. OSHA lost the first year of the Biden administration cleaning up after Trump’s disastrous handing of the COVID pandemic which left thousands of health care, meat processing and other workers to needlessly die of the disease.  The result was two Emergency Temporary Standards (one of which expired, and the other overturned by the Supreme Court). Another standard to protect healthcare workers from COVID was never issued — because who wants to talk about COVID anymore.

The main problem was a bad bet: OSHA wagered that it would have two Biden terms to complete multiple standards and spent almost the entire first term doing preliminary work that would theoretically bear fruit in a second Democratic term.

Not a safe bet. During the Obama administration, we operated under the “Sand-Concrete doctrine.”  Final standards were “footprints in concrete” — hard to get rid of.  Anything less than a final standard — even a strong proposal — was a footprint in the sand — easy for a potential incoming (Republican) tide to wash away with no trace should things go south next election day.

Biden’s OSHA planned to have another four years to set footprints in concrete.

But as the old Yiddish proverb says, “Man Plans, God Laughs.”

And She is laughing up a storm now.

4. OSHA Accomplishments

Despite the lack of progress on standards, OSHA has made major strides over the last year enforcing safe working conditions and providing valuable information to researchers and the public. One of the biggest of course, is fewer deaths in 2023. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 5,283 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2023, a 3.7-percent decrease from 5,486 in 2022.  There are a lot of factors that go into changes in the number and rate of workplace deaths, but strong enforcement is certainly a major factor.

There are too many other accomplishments to list here, but these are examples of accomplishments that we’re unlikely to see again for a few years.

Data: A few weeks ago, OSHA announced the release of comprehensive data collected on more than 890,000 workplace injuries and illnesses at more than 91,000 workplaces in calendar year 2023, This isn’t just injury and illness numbers, but incident level details on the conditions and circumstances of injury and illness events. The data includes the name of the employer, the location of incidents, injury or illness descriptions, workers’ activities before incidents occurred, events that caused the harm, types of injuries or illnesses, and the objects or substances involved.

There has never been a public data set on worker injuries of this size or detail. As former OSHA head David Michaels notes, “OSHA data sets are a rich resource for researchers eager to understand and prevent workplace injuries.” The data collection was the result of a regulation passed under the Obama administration, then halted under the Trump administration which was responding to enormous corporate hostility toward anything that might let workers, researchers or the public know what’s going on behind workplace walls.

If you’re interested in this data, download it soon. The Trump administration may decide that it would be best if the public is kept in the dark. Move along, nothing to see here….

Amazon: Last month, OSHA announced a settlement with Amazon that would protect employees from serious lower back and other musculoskeletal disorders at Amazon facilities. The settlement resolves numerous OSHA investigations against Amazon that were to go to trial soon. The agreement applies to all of Amazon’s fulfillment centers, sortation centers, and delivery stations, among other facilities.  The OSHA-Amazon settlement followed the release of a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee investigation found that Amazon warehouse workers are injured at high rates. Even worse, Amazon manipulated data on warehouse worker injuries and disregarded internal research on improving safety. The most alarming finding is that despite having the financial resources to prevent injuries, Amazon rejected safety improvements, accepting worker injuries.

This is all just a small taste of the good work OSHA has been doing. If you really want to be impressed, just browse through OSHA’s press releases (Now! While the agency still issues press releases.) You’ll find all kinds of interesting stuff there (like this million dollar penalty against a counter top maker for exposing workers to silica dust).

And a few months from now, contrast and compare with Trump OSHA press releases, assuming they decide to actually issue press releases. How many million dollar citations do you think the Trump administration will be issuing?

5. It’s Hot Out There

Heat has been the top health and safety topic of 2024 with the world’s temperature hitting a record high last summer and no prospect of that slowing down (or cooling off). To its credit, the Biden administration made protecting workers against heat a top administration priority. Unfortunately, the same old slow stodgy OSHA regulatory process remains.

OSHA has managed to speed things up with a proposal being issued in a (modern) record amount of time. Unfortunately, the potential heat standard has been high on the list of OSHA standards that industry doesn’t like.  Education and Workforce Committee chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) recently sent a letter to OSHA, demanding that they “abandon” the standard, using the old, tired, worn-out excuses that it’s a one-size-fits all rule and will harm small businesses. But never fear.   I am confident Donald Trump’s new OSHA head will soberly weigh the pros and cons, costs and benefits of protecting workers from heat — before tossing the entire thing in the trash, spraying it with gasoline and lighting it on fire.

The good news is that over the last year, Maryland, Washington and Oregon issued heat standards, and California issued an indoor heat standard to go along with the already-existing outdoor heat standard. (Nevada also issued a weak heat standard.)  Heading full speed ahead in the wrong direction was Florida — mimicking Texas in 2023 — whose legislature passed, and governor signed — legislation prohibiting jurisdictions in the state from issuing local ordinances to protect workers from heat.

But, of course, in Florida that really wasn’t a problem. Because as the state literally sinks into the sea when it isn’t being blown to smithereens by hurricanes, Governor DeSantis has cleverly eliminated climate change in the state.

How, you ask?

By signing legislation that removes any mention of climate change in its legislative language and findings, prohibits the construction, operation, or expansion of certain wind energy facilities and wind turbines, repeals state grant programs that encourage energy conservation and renewable energy and deletes requirements that state agencies use climate-friendly products and purchases,  such as fuel-efficient vehicles. See no evil….

Methinks the Sunshine State takes its nickname too seriously.

6. Workers Can Walk Around (For Now)

One of OSHA’s few major regulatory accomplishments was issuance of a regulation that allows workers to choose their own walkaround representatives during OSHA inspections, even when they are not represented by a union. The regulation replaces a similar walkaround policy issued by interpretation under the Obama administration, and then rescinded under Trump 1.0.

The ultimate fate of the regulation is unclear at this point, especially in this post-Chevron era.  A lawsuit has been filed against the regulation a very Trumpy court in Texas. Even if it survives that challenge, the walkaround reg is high on the corporate list of OSHA policies they hate, hate, hate, claiming it’s an undercover way of assisting union organizing.

That’s the excuse, but the real reason is that no control-freak employer wants workers to have any say over who can speak for them about their health or safety in the workplace. I mean, if workers want more say in the workplace,  they should just organize a union. Right? (In related news, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have filed lawsuits arguing that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional. )

7. Journalists Explain The World

As always, Trump’s “enemy of the people”(aka the press) continue to be some of the most staunch defenders of American workers’ safety and health on the job.  Especially now, with Democrats controlling neither House nor the Senate for at least two years, investigative journalist are about our only option for providing oversight over the agencies that are supposed to be protecting the American public. As we know, change in this country mostly comes after a disaster. But if a disaster happens and no one hears about it, did it happen?

2024 was a year where both the LA Times and Washington Post heard no evil and refused to endorse a candidate for President, preferring to let the truth die in darkness;  and where the owner of the LA Times has told his paper to stop criticizing Donald Trump so much because it might hurt his wittle feewings. And then he might have big emotions, and who knows where that might lead. It’s a year where the right-wing, MAGA press that infects every corner of this country somehow convinced a tiny plurality of Americans to elect am anti-democratic congenital liar, felon and rapist to be President of the United States.

In a year where the biggest occupational safety headline concerned the 24 incidents where the White House dog Commander attacked Secret Service agents, a few real journalists who actually understand workers and persist — despite retirement, lack of funding and corporate hostility — to document working conditions of those who build and service the United States.

Most recently, WALB (Georgia) Investigative Reporter Lenah Allen was one of the only reporters in the country to pick up on the fact that public employees aren’t covered by OSHA in Georgia and 22 other states. Allen was responding to 3 deaths of city employees in Georgia in just over a month, and two in the city of Albany, Georgia in the last year.

Cheryl W. Thompson, Robert Benincasa, Avery Jessa Chapnick and Josh Peck did an hard-hitting investigative story for NPR on workers needlessly dying in preventable trench collapses.

Hannah Critchfield and Juan Carlos Chaves at the Tampa Bay Times investigated the well known problem of under-reporting workplace heat deaths, finding  that Florida companies have failed to report the vast majority of heat fatalities as required. The vast majority were people of color. At least half were immigrants.  Allen Siegler of Mountain State News reports on horrible working conditions at Pilgrim’s Pride’s poultry processing plant in West Virginia

Steve Franklin wrote an excellent piece on the failure of South Carolina OSHA to adequately protect workers and Latino worker deaths. Ariel Wittenberg at POLITICO’s E&E News continues her superlative workplace safety coverage including heat and more heat, and most recently, some problems that Trump’s rumored next OSHA head may have.  Amy Maxman at KFF News continued her excellent reporting about heat and bird flu.  Emily Alpert Reyes at the Los Angeles Times continues her searing reporting of manufactured counter-top workers suffering and dying of silicosis from cutting engineered stone.

I  want to give a shout-out to some of my favorite labor/OSH/environment reporters:  Labor reporter Steve Greenhouse who continues to report extensively on the re-enlivened labor movement even after his retirement from the New York Times. Terri Gerstein continues her excellent writing about labor issues, and particularly how the states can help workers in the absence of federal support,  Noem Sheiber at the New York Times, Lauren Kaori Gurley at the Washington Post.

If you haven’t read Michael Lewis’s Washington Post article about Chris Mark, the “Principal Roof Control Specialist” at the Mine Safety and Health Administration, read it. Today. (It’s long. You can also listen to it while walking the dog.)

Across the water, but covering health and safety issues universal to all workers of the world, is Hazards Magazine run by unsung heroes Jawad Qaswari and Rory O’Neill.

Tim Noah at the New Republic, Dave Jamieson at Huffington Post, Kim Kelly  and the always informative and entertaining Rick Smith at the “Rick Smith Show.” And Mike Elk continues to labor away at Payday Report, supported only by your donation.

Honorable mention of those who labor for labor at various news bureaus: Bloomberg labor/OSHA team: Josh Eidelson,  Bruce Rolfson (who recently retired), Ian Kulgren ,and the folks at Labor Notes,  In These Times, Mother Jones and Portside Labor, Seth Harris’s Power at Work podcast and OnLabor.

And let’s not forget the investigative news organizations like ProPublica, Public Health Watch and Reveal (the Center for Investigative Reporting).  P.S. They could use your donation.

And finally, last year’s prestigious Confined Space Journalist of the Year award winner, Hannah Dreier of the New York Times, also won the lesser known Pulitzer Prize for her excellent reporting on child labor in 2023.  Hannah is currently on maternity doing a different type of child labor. We look forward to her return.

So journalists,  go out there and keep raising hell.  We need you. And here’s hoping Trump doesn’t put you all in jail.

(Am I missing some of you? Of course! Castigate me in the comments below…)

8. 2024: The Election of Donald Trump

The final words of last year’s Year in Review were: “P.S. When I write the “2024 Year in Review” a year from now, I’d rather not have to include a section titled “The Election Of Donald Trump.”  

Well, we all know how that turned out. The election of Donald Trump and Elon Musk J.D. Vance will have an impact on this country that we can’t even begin to conceive.

But conceive we must. And conceive I have. As has former OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels here.

Trump has nominated a relatively moderate ex-Republican Congresswoman, Lori Chávez-DeRemer, to head the Department of Labor — supposedly a bone thrown to the Teamsters who kindly refrained from endorsing either Presidential candidate.  She has generated a bit of resistance from some members of the business community and MAGA ideologues. But Trump has assured her detractors not to fear:  his yet-to-be named Deputy Secretary (who will presumably be the real person running the Department) will soothe their concerns.

And, of course, we also haven’t seen who Trump will nominate for Assistant Secretary for OSHA. To of the rumor list is former Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission chair (and Amazon OSH Director) Heather McDougall. McDougall ran into a short-lived House Education and Labor Committee investigation in 2019 when she voted to kill an OSHA heat citation just weeks before accepting the job as health and safety director for Amazon, which has had it own workplace heat problems.

So what can we expect?  As I mentioned above, even “normal” Republican administrations never issue OSHA standards, despite all of the obvious hazards out there that are needlessly injuring and killing workers.  Will the Trump administration withdraw the heat and emergency response standards?  Will they take other standards (e.g. workplace violence and infectious diseases) off the regulatory agenda? Or will they just let them all lie dormant for the next four years? Generally Republicans keep enforcing the law, citing employers when they identify violations, or workers are seriously injured or killed.  But fines are lower, there are fewer “egregious” citations or willful violations, and fewer General Duty Clause violations. We’ll see if they go beyond that.

One thing they like is compliance assistance and voluntary programs. So expect to see a renewed emphasis on promoting the dubious Voluntary Protection Programs.

The main thing workers may need to worry about is OSHA’s budget. There are vanishingly few, if any, Republicans in Congress who support OSHA these days — especially on the Appropriations Committees that determine OSHA funding.   Given the structure of the Senate and the close Republican majority in the House, balanced, bipartisan budget bills will be less likely, but whether that bipartisanship extends to OSHA’s already tiny budget is doubtful. Despite its small size, it remains the government agency Republicans most love to hate. We can expect cuts in OSHA’s enforcement budget, its already miniscule standards budget and yet another attempt to eliminate the Susan Harwood Worker Training Grant program which Republicans have been unsuccessfully trying to kill since 2001. Because the last thing any employer would ever want is an educated workforce that knows how to take action to protect their health and safety in the workplace. Nothing good can come of that.

9. Dodgers Win the World Series (And My Grandson Was Born)

Well, 2024 wasn’t all bad.