What’s going on in the world of workplace safety and health? Read on. It’s not all bad news.
Maryland Public Employees Gain Protections
After the recent deaths of several Maryland public employees, the Maryland Senate and House passed the Davis Martinez Public Employee Safety and Health Act. Maryland is an OSHA state plan state, so public employees were already covered by OSHA (unlike public employees in 22 other states.) But Maryland does not issue financial penalties when public employers are cited. So even though Maryland OSHA cited the city of Baltimore after the heat-related death of Ronald Silver II, no penalty was issued. The Davis Martinez act provides for penalties against public employers, creates a Public Employee division in Maryland OSHA, and requires the state to issue a standard to protect public employees from workplace violence. Davis Martinez, after whom the bill is named, was a Maryland parole officer who was killed last year by a registered sex offender he was monitoring.
Friends of Workers, Friends of NIOSH
“What if I told you that for just $2.20 per worker annually, we could prevent workplace injuries and illnesses that cost our economy $250 billion each year?”
If you want an easy way to educate your friends, co-workers, families and Representatives about what the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is (was), check out (and re-post) this short video by Rick Neitzel (above), professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and director of the Center for Occupational Health and Safety Engineering.
And if you’re a friend of workplace safety, you’re a friend of NIOSH. And if you do Facebook, then you should join the newly created “Friends of NIOSH” Facebook page. The page was created after Trump’s devastating cuts were announced to “share a positive message of how NIOSH has helped you, your company, or your industry be safer in there, therefore, more productive.”
NOSHA Act Has No Support
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s rampage through federal government agencies raised concern about the fate of OSHA when Arizona Republican Andy Biggs, on the first day of the new Congress — introduced the “Nullify Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act” or NOSHA Act that would eliminate the workplace safety agency. Well those of us concerned about the lives and limbs of American workers will be pleased to know that Biggs’ bill has collected exactly zero co-sponsors.
Now this is not to say that workers and health & safety advocates should breathe easy. Far from it. It’s hard eliminating agencies through legislation. Those damn Senate Democrats get in the way all the time. But that doesn’t stop Trump. There are easier — if less legal — ways to weaken government agencies. DOGE is planning crippling OSHA office shutdowns, RIFs may be just around the corner and who knows what the FY 2026 budget will hold?
Tennessee Employer Found Not Liable for Worker Deaths During Hurricane Helene
Six Impact Plastics workers were killed in Erwin, Tennessee last September after managers allegedly told them not to evacuate despite urgent warnings of severe flash flooding. The company denied that they had refused to let workers leave and last week, the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) found that Impact Plastics was not responsible. TOSHA decided that the incident was “not work-related” because the workers had time to evacuate by “makeshift routes” after the only road washed out. The workers were Monica Hernandez-Corona, 44; Bertha Mendoza, 56; Johnny Peterson, 55; Lidia Verdugo Gastelum, 63; Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso, 29; and Sibrina Barnett, 53.
According to TOSHA, “It was found that Impact Plastics, Inc. exercised reasonable diligence to dismiss employees and direct them to leave the site in this emergency situation,” TOSHA’s report reads. “As the deaths of Impact Plastics, Inc. employees are not work related, no citations are recommended.” An investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is still ongoing.
The workers’ families disagree with the ruling and have sued the company.
Greg Coleman, an attorney for the Mendoza and Barnett families, told PEOPLE that they “vehemently disagree with any characterization that Impact Plastics exercised reasonable diligence in dismissing employees,” claiming that “the facts simply do not support.” Coleman told PEOPLE that a court and a jury will determine who is liable for the deaths and injuries. He confirmed that a court date has not been set.
“TOSHA’s report ignores the testimony of multiple witnesses, critical text messages, emergency alert logs, and photographic evidence that tell the real story about Impact Plastics’ fatal failures,” attorney Alex Little, who represents the family of Johnny Peterson, told PEOPLE.
Pennsylvania House Passes Public Employee OSHA Bill
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has passed a bill that would provide OSHA coverage to Keystone State public employees. Pennsylvania is one of 27 states where public employees have no OSHA coverage, nor right to a safe workplace, nor the right to come home alive and healthy at the end of the day. H.B. 308, also known as the Jake Schwab Worker Safety Bill, would change that. Jake Schwab was an Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority mechanic who was killed in the workplace in 2014.
This is the second time the bill has passed the House and sent to the Republican-controlled Senate where it previously died. The bill passed the House by a vote of 111-92 with several Republicans voting in favor. Republicans outnumber Democrats in the Senate 27-23. The bill has been opposed by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. Testifying against a similar 2023 bill, the Association stated that “We extend our appreciation to the sponsors for their concerns about worker safety. However, while we agree that worker safety is an important issue, we do not believe that stringent regulatory requirements, new administrative overhead, and substantial fines will truly promote or improve worker safety at the local government level.” Yeah, well saying something is an important issue and actually doing something about it are different things.
Construction Company Owner and Employee Face Prison over Trench Death
Both Botticello and Locke face a sentence of 10 years in prison, with five years to be served and the remainder suspended, followed by three years of probation.
Hopefully, this will strike fear in the hearts of employers nation-wide. As I always say, nothing sharpens employers’ minds like the prospect of prison time.
They’re Called “Killer” Whales for a Reason
In February 2010, Sea World trainer Dawn Brancheau was brutally killed by a killer whale at the company’s park in Orlando, Florida. OSHA issued a willful violation against Sea World when it was found that the whale had a history of attacking and killing trainers. But Sea World apparently didn’t learn its lesson. OSHA recently issued a serious $16,550 violation against the company after a trainer was injured during a training exercise with a killer whale. OSHA determined that the company allowed “employees to work in close contact with the whale, exposing them to the potential for bites, struck-by, and drowning hazards.”
Unions and Climate Change
We have written a lot about the impact of climate change on workers — workers killed in floods and doing recovery work, chemical plants leaks during climate event, workers dying of heat illness, tornadoes and on and on. My first real job was with an organization called Environmentalists for Full Employment, a small non-profit that sought to build coalitions between labor and environmentalists. We had some modest successes, but the struggle to join the two movements continues. Where are labor unions on fighting the impact of climate change?
Anjali Katta, a student at Harvard Law School has written a piece for OnLabor exploring how unions are addressing the climate crisis and the obstacles they face, and what unions are currently doing to address climate change. It is the first of a series of articles.
Journalism
Lots of good journalism reporting on Trump’s attacks on workers and workplace safety:
Trump Guts Agency Critical to Worker Safety as Temperatures Rise, by Liza Gross. Inside Climate news
Inside Trump’s Plan to Halt Hundreds of Regulations, Coral Davenport, New York Times
Trump administration pauses new miner safety measures amid pledge to reinvigorate coal, by By Dr. Mark Abdelmalek and Lucien Bruggeman, ABC News
‘They’re killing you’: US poultry workers fear faster lines will lead to more injury, Melody Schreiber, The Guardian
Trump’s USDA Moves to Make Meatpacking Work More Dangerous, Whitney Curry Wimbish, Sentient Policy.
How Trump wants to make one of the most dangerous jobs in America even worse, Kenny Torrella, Vox
Labor Leaders Fear Elon Musk and DOGE Could Gain Access to Whistleblower Files,