Posted on 05/09/2014 3:04:17 PM PDT by mdittmar
Despite significant advancements in workplace health and safety over the past four decades, 150 people will be killed on the job or die from job-related illnesses and diseases today, reports the 2014 edition of the AFL-CIO’s annual Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, released this morning.
And that daily death toll, which has remained steady for the past several years, plus the 11.4 million work-related injuries and illnesses a year show:
The nation must renew the commitment to protect workers from injury, disease and death and make this a high priority. We must demand that employers meet their responsibilities to protect workers and hold them accountable if they put workers in danger. Only then can the promise of safe jobs for all of America’s workers be fulfilled.
Overall in 2012 (the last figures available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) 4,628 workers were killed on the job in the United States, and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases, Nearly 3.8 million work-related injuries and illnesses were reported, but many injuries are not reported. The true toll is likely two to three times greater or 7.6 million to 11.4 million injuries a year.
“A hard day’s work should not be a death sentence,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “It is unconscionable that any worker has to choose between life and putting food on the table. When Congress votes to weaken worker protections or defund critical programs and when big corporations marginalize and de-emphasize worker safety, they insult the memory of all those workers who have died while fighting to attain the American Dream.”
(Excerpt) Read more at aflcio.org ...
I call on the President to enact a Work Control Proposal!
Maybe he could put a ban on jobs, or restrictions on job seekers and strengthen federal background checks of people attempting to get a job.;)
Don’t look now, but he already has.
:: 150 people will be killed on the job or die from job-related illnesses and diseases today ::
Maybe they should all be working South-side Chicago. Only 14 injured and 2 dead over the weekend.
Coming from the thug Trumka, I suspect this is pure horsesh*t.
The same idiot that did this count, counts homeless and uninsured the rest of the year.
As someone who has worked both sides of the workplace safety regulations and been trained and a trainer of Worker’s Compensation/OSHA safety training, it has been my experience that the majority of deadly injuries often comes from an employee failing to follow a safety requirement.
I would even push the AFL-CIO to reveal just how many of the 150 are actually UNION employees who the company was either unable to discipline or terminate for reckless behavior that eventually caused injury to themselves or others.
You can be saved from death,but only if you pay your union dues;)
Maybe the union thugs should stop protecting their members getting drunk on the job.
What a shocker! I had no idea that many people were still employed in this country.
“. . . or die from job-related illnesses and diseases today . . .”
This sort of politicized propaganda is usually supported by some statistical statement that more often than not is scientifically bogus, and in this bit of union bilge, that bit of sleight-of-hand is packed into the quote above.
I’d guess the majority of the deaths cited where associated with illness (rather than job-site accidents), and the attribution of a given illness to a specific work-place condition is usually dicey at best. If somebody dies of bladder cancer and they worked in the rubber industry 30 years ago, there’s a good chance there’s a causal relationship; if they died of lung cancer and they worked in a manufacturing plant, there’s no way of telling. And I don’t expect the AFL-CIO is going to be real careful in evaluating their epidemiology on this stuff.
My fear is that I will die of a heart attack on my forklift,and not on a Golf Cart;)
Outlaw jobs to stop these senseless deaths.
Exactly. All about the bucks.
“A hard day’s work should not be a death sentence,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “It is unconscionable that any worker has to choose between life and getting
his kneecaps busted crossing a picket line”.
40 years in mining and I’ll agree with you. There are equipment failure, unexpected rock fall, etc. where improvements can be made but saving time by cutting corners, carelessness, hangovers, bad lifting practices, dope, and laziness account for the bulk of industrial accidents.
". . . killed on the job or die from job-related illnesses and diseases today." 90 year old guy who passes away while arguably still affected by a work-related injury that occurred 40 years ago is included in this. So is everybody who managed to convince the workman's compensation board that their heart disease or high blood pressure was work-related (not a difficult exercise). I would like to see the proportion between actual death on the job attributable to working conditions . . . and everything else.
how many are union scum falling off their shovel??? 
Very good. I remember him when he ran and won the presidency of the UMW. He was a thug surrounded by thugs, stiff armed his way to that win.
‘Outlaw jobs to stop these senseless deaths.’
The answer we have all been waiting for. I give it 5 stars for liberal logic.:^)
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