A Workers Memorial Day Letter to President Trump

Dear Mr. President,

Mondays are probably pretty busy for you, as you likely have a lot to catch up on after a weekend of golf.  Domestic and international issues, worrisome or unflattering news, decisions about further cuts to the federal workforce, phone calls and meetings with your congressional allies and corporate backers, tamping down squabbles among your appointees, tracking the stock market and other economic indicators, and then maybe dinner with a foreign dignitary.

But there’s another important issue that deserves your attention today– specifically worker health and safety.  Because today, April 28, is Workers Memorial Day.

Never heard of it, Mr. President?   Well, here’s my small contribution to your ongoing education about what matters to a lot of the little people you presumably represent:  The lives and health, and safety of their loved ones, many of whom are the mainstay and the lifeblood of our families, communities, business enterprises, and non-profit organizations, along with a goodly portion of our national economy.

What is Worker Memorial Day?

Today, April 28, 2025 is the 54^th anniversary of date that the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect, a piece of legislation that created legal protections “ to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women.”

Worker Memorial Day, observed annually on April 28, honors workers who have been killed, injured, or made ill on the job. It is a day of remembrance. But it is also a call to action.  It is meant to:

• Honor the memory of workers who died or suffered illness or injury due to hazardous workplace conditions.
• Raise awareness about the ongoing risks workers face.
• Advocate for stronger workplace safety protections, enforcement, and policies.
• Mobilize communities and unions to push for better labor standards and justice.

The Data Says It All

You may not be aware, Mr. Trump, but 5,283 workers were killed on the job in 2023, many of whom were probably your supporters.  That’s one  worker dying every 99 minutes from a work-related injury in 2023; about 15 lives lost each day. Honestly, you can’t afford to lose them.  Private industry employers reported 2.6 million workplace injuries and illnesses that same year, 62 percent of which  involved days away from work, job restriction, or transfer.

RED FLAG:  These data only tell part of the story, as occupational injuries and illnesses are both  under-recognized and under-reported (see here, here).

And that’s not the worst statistic:  It is estimated that another 135,300 died from occupational diseases, caused by chemicals, infectious disease, respirable dusts, and other toxic substances in the workplace.

As alarming as these numbers are, they don’t begin to capture the terror of last moments and the horror that workers’ families and friends must endure when learning the details of their loved one’s death — perhaps buried alive in a trench collapse; mangled by a machine; crushed by a falling object; asphyxiated by a deadly  gas; run over by a vehicle; murdered by a depressed or angry client, customer, patient, or co-worker; or killed in the line of duty as a police officer, firefighter, or emergency responder.

Confined Space — a newsletter singularly focused on worker health, safety, and labor issues – provides a Weekly Toll that recounts these tragedies.  I suggest you add it to your weekly reading list.

These are not just numbers, Mr. Trump. Behind every one is a person, with a name and a story.  Like Cesar Panimboza-Quilligana (44) who died in fall from ladder on new year eve last year and T. J. Hardin (38) who died in rail tank car implosion just last week and Mitchell McDaniel, a 19-year old killed on a small farm in 2019. (OSHA couldn’t even investigate McDaniel’s death because of  50 year old Congressional that prohibits OSHA from investigating conditions on small farms.)

And guess what?  These tragedies don’t have to happen. Most workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths are totally preventable. Resources abound. Government standards and guidance, employer best practices, unions and worker health and safety committees are all part of the prevention toolbox, not to mention just plain common sense. And the law requires that employers furnish workplaces free from recognized hazards (OSH Act, General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1).

Mr. Trump – YOU ARE NOT HELPING US

In fact, you are a big part of the problem. As President, you have:

• Suspended the enforcement of a rule to protect mineworkers from black lung disease
• Decimated the nation’s only occupational safety and health research agency (NIOSH).
• Destroyed NIOSH’s capacity to identify and care for miners with deadly black lung disease.
• Proposed to slash budgets, close offices and reduced staffing in our worker health and safety agencies, which are already understaffed and underfunded. [OSHA has 1,802 inspectors to cover 11.8 million workplaces under their jurisdiction. That’s only enough to inspect workplaces once every 185 years!]
• Stalled or abandoned standard setting processes
• Frozen or limited public access to information
• Limited public and expert participation in policy making
• Halted federal advisory committee meetings that provide expert guidance to OSHA and NIOSH

Honestly, Mr. President, your record is abysmal.  And workers will get hurt and killed as a result. You should be ashamed.

Sincerely,

Kathleen

Call to Action – and Fight for the Living

I honestly don’t hold out much hope that the Trump Administration and his toadies in Congress will provide the necessary resources for our worker health and safety agencies.

Nor will the Republican-controlled Congress pass legislation, like the Protecting America’s Workers Act (PAWA), that would modernize OSHA and make it more effective. I doubt we’ll see long-awaited standards coming out of OSHA (e.g., heat, infectious diseases, workplace violence) – at least not standards that have teeth. Nor will we see increased penalties for fatalities and serious violations or criminal prosecutions.

But all is not lost…. Because we the people are still here.

I know it feels daunting and sometimes even hopeless given the Trump juggernaut and his feckless congressional allies, but we still have a voice.

Workers, unions and public health advocates are fighting back. Even some Republicans – for example in coal states – are fighting the decimation of NIOSH which protected and treated black lung victims. And although it seems like a long we off, we will have an opportunity to vote for worker supporters in the 2026 mid-term elections.

So, while we mourn and honor those who have lost their lives or become sick or disabled because of their work, let’s renew our motivation to fight for the living – our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors, and colleagues whose work provides us with the goods and services that help maintain our lives.

And let’s take care of ourselves and each other– and then let’s keep at it.