NEW REPORT: WORKPLACE DEATHS INCREASE IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 2005
Labor Unions and Workplace Safety Advocates Call for More Stringent Worker Safety Protections and Enforcement to Reduce Workplace Injury, Illness and Death

Work-related deaths in Massachusetts increased from 72 in 2004 to 78 in 2005, according to a new report released this week that calls attention to worker death, injury and illness on Massachusetts job sites and the failure of Massachusetts employers to protect workers and follow federal safety laws.

“It is unconscionable that this tragic loss of life continues unabated in workplaces across the Commonwealth,” said Robert J. Haynes, President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. “We mourn the 78 workers who lost their lives last year, and we are deeply saddened by recent workplace tragedies including the April 3rd scaffolding collapse in Boston that took the lives of two workers and a passerby, the Easter morning electrocution of a telephone worker in Sharon and yet another scaffolding tragedy that took the life of a construction worker this past Saturday. Clearly more must be done to fulfill OSHA’s promise of safe and healthy workplaces.”

Massachusetts employers only paid an average of $14,065 for OSHA violations associated with the death of one or more workers in their workplaces in 2005, according to the new report “Dying for Work in Massachusetts” co-authored by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) and Western MassCOSH. “Some employers clearly think that it’s just cheaper to pay OSHA fines than to take the precautions that would protect their workers from harm, and too many employers in the Commonwealth continue to skimp on job protections and training in their rush to do more with less, to increase production and profits at the expense of workers’ health and lives,” said Nancy Lessin, a co-author of the report which is being released on Workers Memorial Day, almost one month after the fatal scaffolding collapse on Boylston Street in downtown Boston.

“Going to work shouldn’t mean risking life or limb,” stated Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, Executive Director of MassCOSH and a report co-author. “The scaffolding tragedy focused our state’s attention on the dangers workers face every day. But the cameras won’t be there to capture the dozens of workers who will die and the tens of thousands more who will be injured in our state unless workplace safety is taken seriously all year long.”

The report highlights several issues of growing concern:

• More than 350,000 public sector workers in Massachusetts are not protected by OSHA and federal safety regulations because the Legislature hasn’t adopted federal safety rules for the state and its cities and towns. For example, on January 27, 2005 Hillary Nna, a 46 year old electrical engineer working for the MBTA, was struck by an MBTA commuter rail. While it appears that the MBTA’s lack of a safety plan and training may have contributed to the accident, because public employees are not covered under OSHA, the case was never investigated.

• Of the 78 workers who died last year, 28 percent of them were immigrants, who often work in the most dangerous industries and jobs, exploited by employers and given little or no training or protections. For example, after just two weeks on the job, Valcedir Rodrigues was crushed to death on October 3, 2005 by a one ton slab of granite, as he and two co-workers tried to move it. Lack of training is just one of the failures seen as contributing to this workplace death.

The report calls for health and safety laws and regulations on the state and federal level to be strengthened, for job safety agencies to be given increased funding and enforcement powers, and criminal prosecution to be used in cases where employers recklessly endanger workers’ lives. The report also calls on the Massachusetts Legislature to pass a bill that would extend OSHA protections to public employees in Massachusetts, and a bill requiring temporary agencies to provide workers with safety equipment and information about the hazards they will encounter. At the worksite level, the report promotes comprehensive worksite safety programs that focus on identifying and eliminating hazards; and calls for safe staffing levels, work loads and working hours that protect against workplace injury, illness or death.

“Our fight for good jobs, safe jobs and worker protections will continue until all workers are able to leave for work and return home with their lives, their limbs and their health intact,” stated Haynes.

The complete report can be viewed here.

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