In Honor of Workers’ Memorial Week, each day this week Citizen Vox discussed the need for safe jobs and called attention to the ways the Trump administration is dismantling key worker health and safety protections.

Significant challenges are ahead in the fight for safer workplaces.

Today is the first Workers’ Memorial Day under the Trump administration. And, now, more than ever, our communities should come together to demand strong protections in the workplace. Not one more worker should have to die from a preventable incident at work.

This week, our blog series recapped the ways in which the Trump administration and the Republican Congress are rewarding corporations at the expense of the health and safety of working families. In the first 100 days of this administration, workers suffered devastating rollbacks of workplace safety regulations and were left to wonder whether their political leaders would defund the agencies keeping them safe on the job.

However, working people have the tools to fight back. All over the country today on Workers’ Memorial Day, workers and safety advocates are holding events to mourn, collaborate, and organize the next steps of the worker safety movement. If you can, please join in these celebrations of the contributions of workers that are taking place across the nation. You can also help spread the word on social media with the hash tag #IWMD17 or write a letter-to-the-editor to your local paper about the importance of safe workplaces. After Workers’ Memorial Day, continue to stay informed about the latest developments in workplace safety.

As we do our on-the-ground work to raise the public’s attention to issues affecting workers, our allies in Congress also continue to stand with us to demand safer workplaces. Earlier this year, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) introduced the Protecting America’s Workers Act to modernize the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This legislation is a step in the right direction. Among other reforms, the bill would expand occupational safety protection to millions of workers not yet under OSHA’s jurisdiction, enhance the rights of whistleblowers, and increase penalties for employers who willfully endanger workers by cutting corners on workplace safety. While this bill is unlikely to pass in the current anti-worker Congress, it serves as a rallying cry for worker safety advocates and the public alike.

The battle for safe jobs is far from over. Now is the time to raise our voices and demand that corporations and lawmakers put people before profits. This April 28, advocates should take to heart the words of Mother Jones: “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.”

Emily Gardner is the worker health and safety advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. 

Keep up with Public Citizen’s work on these issues by following @SafeWorkers on Twitter.

In Honor of Workers’ Memorial Week, each day this week Citizen Vox will discuss the need for safe jobs and call attention to the ways the Trump administration is dismantling key worker health and safety protections.

During the end of the Obama administration, worker safety advocates had a lot of reasons to celebrate. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) made several important strides in improving safety and prevent severe injuries on the job.

Unfortunately, times have changed. President Trump and his corporate cabinet have been working with an anti-worker Congress to use an obscure law – the Congressional Review Act – to apparently roll back as many public protections as possible. These safeguards protect Americans from dangers like pollution, corporate fraud, and deadly hazards at work. While Trump and his cronies claim that regulations harm working people and small businesses, the truth of the matter is that they provide a huge amount of benefits, including helping save lives.

So far among the regulations that have been overturned, Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have undone two rules which would have made jobs safer across the country. The first rule is the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule which required contractors bidding on federal projects to disclose all labor law violations – including workplace safety violations – for the past three years. In reviewing this information, government agencies could better determine whether or not the companies merited taxpayer dollars.

The second rule, known as OSHA’s “Volks” rule, simply clarified employers’ duties to maintain accurate records of employee injuries for five years. These records help OSHA target its enforcement efforts to focus on the most critical hazards affecting workers. Repealing these commonsense protections is an inexcusable attack on workers.

The Trump administration has also announced it will delay implementing rules protecting workers from exposure to silica and beryllium on the job. These two rules were designed to prevent working people from contracting and potentially dying from lung cancer and other deadly chronic illnesses.

Enough is enough. It’s time to make calls, write letters, and demand answers from the politicians supporting these attacks on our workplaces.

Emily Gardner is the worker health and safety advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. 

Keep up with Public Citizen’s work on these issues by following @SafeWorkers on Twitter.

In Honor of Workers’ Memorial Week, each day this week Citizen Vox will discuss the need for safe jobs and call attention to the ways the Trump administration is dismantling key worker health and safety protections.

Each year, our nation observes Workers’ Memorial Week to mourn those individuals who have lost their lives on the job. It also serves as an important time to amplify and expand the fight for safe jobs for all working people. Annually in the U.S., about 4,800 people die on the job from injuries, an estimated 50,000 additional people die from occupational diseases, and about 3 million people are injured at work.

A recent Public Citizen report illustrates the devastating consequences of unsafe worksites for employees and their families in one particular sector – the construction industry. In one story covered in the report, a Brayman Construction employee was crushed under a 22,084-pound panel on August 22, 2007, just one day before his birthday. According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection, after a very large metal panel was put into place by a crane, the employee “climbed the panel to release the crane from the load.” The metal panel should have been held up with rebar – allowing it to stay in place when it was released from the crane. Instead, the employee, and the metal form to which he was strapped, came crashing to the ground, killing him. The 47-year-old carpenter left behind a spouse and three children.

Preventable injuries at work also take their toll on workers. In the health care industry, nurses risk literally breaking their backs manually lifting and transferring patients in hospitals without proper safe patient handling equipment.  Lynn Kieler’s employer restricted her lifting permissions after she suffered an injury due to lifting a patient. Because of the restrictions, the hospital reduced her hours to less than half of a regular full-time schedule.  She later underwent surgery after an MRI revealed a tear in her rotator cuff. “The day of the surgery, I received a letter saying that I was fired for attendance problems,” Kieler told Public Citizen.

Despite these harrowing statistics and tragic stories, Trump’s first 100 days have been filled with broken promises to working families. Although he promised to “protect American workers,” Trump began his presidency by teaming up with Republicans in Congress to repeal commonsense worker safety protections. He is even threatening to cut funding for government programs that are critical for saving lives.

Working people deserve better. Now is the time for workplace safety advocates to hold the government accountable to the people. Keep up with events going on around the world to commemorate International Workers’ Memorial Day on April 28 by following the hashtag #IWMD17 on Twitter. Also, stay tuned to Citizen Vox this week for coverage on Republican attacks on workplace safety and ways to fight back.

Emily Gardner is the worker health and safety advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. 

Keep up with Public Citizen’s work on these issues by following @SafeWorkers on Twitter.