{"id":9162,"date":"2024-04-23T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=9162"},"modified":"2024-04-21T16:15:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T20:15:12","slug":"mourning-and-fighting-workers-memorial-day-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2024\/04\/23\/mourning-and-fighting-workers-memorial-day-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourning and Fighting: Workers Memorial Day 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/span>n March 26, 2024 we woke to some grim news.\u00a0 A cargo ship had hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing the gigantic bridge to collapse in seconds.<\/p>\n

We watched video footage of the collapse with shock, awe, and horror.\u00a0 And then we learned<\/a> that eight construction workers were on that bridge, filling potholes in the middle of the night. Backbreaking work at any hour. \u00a0Upon the collision, they plummeted into the Petapsco River below. Two were rescued; six died.\u00a0 To date<\/a>, 4 bodies have been recovered.<\/p>\n

This tragic event galvanized national attention on worker safety and health. Funds and initiatives were quickly established to help the victims\u2019 families (here<\/a>, here<\/a>).\u00a0 President Biden launched a whole-of-government effort<\/a> to provide immediate response, reopen the port, rebuild the bridge, and support the people of Baltimore. The bridge collapse focused attention on the dangerous working conditions of immigrant workers (here<\/a>, here, here<\/u>, here<\/u>)<\/a>, and there are calls for immigrant worker protections (here<\/a>, here<\/a>).\u00a0The federal government has just launched a criminal investigation into the bridge collapse (here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

But although the bridge workers galvanized the country\u2019s attention, their deaths were nothing new or rare. Let\u2019s not forget the 6 highway workers people killed on the Baltimore Beltway<\/a> in March of 2023. \u00a0Three more highway construction workers were killed on a Pennsylvania highway<\/a> last week and almost every week a highway construction worker is killed on the job.<\/p>\n

As heart-wrenching as these tragedies are, it is important to remember that thousands of other workers lost their lives this past year – around 100 every week. Most you never hear about. They generally die one at a time from work-related injuries and illnesses — sometimes noted in the local newspaper, but usually only remembered by their family, friends and co-workers.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what Worker Memorial Day is all about. On April 28 each year, people in the U.S. and around the world pause to recognize, remember, and honor those workers who lost their lives and to renew their commitment to fight for the living.<\/p>\n

The Toll on Working People and Their Families<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s what the latest data tell us.\u00a0 According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries<\/a>, a worker died every 96 minutes from a work-related injury in 2022. For a total of 5,486 fatalities in 2022 \u2013 up 5.7 percent from 2021.\u00a0 That\u2019s about 15 workers every day.\u00a0 In the United States!\"\"<\/p>\n

The numbers are appalling enough. Add to that horror the workers\u2019 families and friends must experience when learning of their loved one\u2019s last moments \u2013 buried alive in a trench, falling from a roof, scaffold, or down an elevator shaft, run over by a vehicle, mangled in a machine, hit with a falling object, murdered by a depressed or angry patient, customer, client, co-worker, or in the line of duty. Or dying due to exposure to temperature extremes, like 51 workers did 2022. Workers in transportation and material moving and in construction and extraction occupations experienced the highest number of fatalities, with 1,620 and 1,056 respectively in 2022.<\/p>\n

You can read the Weekly Toll<\/a> in Confined Space to get the gruesome details of how workers die on the job every week.<\/p>\n

And those figures don\u2019t include the almost 100,000 workers who die every year from work-related disease, often from exposures to infectious diseases or toxic materials like asbestos or silica many years or decades before. Most of these deaths go unreported.\u00a0 (here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The data on non-fatal injuries and illnesses should also blow our collective minds.\u00a0 Private industry employers reported<\/a> 2.8 million injury and illness cases in 2022, up 7.5% from 2021.\u00a0 Injuries increased 4.5 percent and illnesses were up 26.1% — the latter driven by a 35.4% increase in respiratory illnesses.<\/p>\n

Over the 2-year 2021-2022 period, 2.2 million cases involved days away from work, with a median of 10 days. \u00a0For health care practitioners and technical occupations, most cases involving days away from work were the result of exposure to harmful substances or environments \u2013 a category that includes cases of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s start with the best news:\u00a0 Occupational injuries, illnesses and deaths are preventable; they don\u2019t need to happen. And the good news?\u00a0 Resources abound.<\/p>\n

We have laws, standards, regulations, guidelines, and best practices to foster prevention, not to mention just plain caring and common sense.\u00a0 We have unions and workers who organize and fight for safe working conditions, better wages, and benefits.\u00a0 We have advocacy groups, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, labor-friendly reporters, and academic centers that watchdog, testify, speak out, study, write, and engage in the public policy process. We have government agencies with workplace safety and health mandates.<\/p>\n

We have some new worker safety initiatives and rules on the books that address workers\u2019 rights as well as worker safety and health.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n