by James Parks, Apr 28, 2007

Around the world today, working men and women will remember the thousands killed and millions more injured or diseased because of their jobs. Today is Workers Memorial Day, a time to honor those who died at work and to act to make our workplaces safer.

Workers, elected officials, and religious and community leaders will participate in 12,000 activities in 118 countries to bring attention to the unfulfilled promise of safe and healthy workplaces. They also will stress the importance of strengthening workers’ rights to overcome barriers to health and safety across the world.

“If trade union rights are respected everywhere, the number of deaths and injuries related to work will certainly fall significantly,” says Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, which represents 168 million workers in 153 countries and territories.

In the United States, health and safety advocates will focus on the Bush administration’s troubling workplace safety record, including cutting funds for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration  (OSHA) and reducing its enforcement of safety rules. (Check out Bush’s record at our BushWatch website.)

The administration’s proposed fiscal year 2008 budget for worker safety and health programs provides $490 million for OSHA, which, adjusting for inflation, represents a $25 million cut since Bush took office. OSHA enforcement staffing levels have been cut from 1,683 positions to 1,543, and staffing for development of safety and health standards has decreased from 100 positions to 83.  To inspect each U.S. workplace, it would take OSHA 133 years with its current number of inspectors.

Workers also will be telling their senators and representatives to support legislation to make our workplaces safer. The Protecting America’s Workers Act (S. 1244 and H.R. 2049) would expand OSHA protections to millions of uncovered workers, enhance whistleblower protections and substantially increase penalties for serious, willful and criminal safety violations. Click here to tell your senators and representative to co-sponsor the legislation.

The United Nations’ International Labor Organization reports that worldwide almost 2.2 million people die in accidents or due to work-related illnesses each year. More than 270 million workers are injured at work, and almost 160 million suffer from illness caused by their jobs, the ILO says.

According to the AFL-CIO’s latest report on worker safety and health, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, on average, 16 workers were fatally injured and more than 12,000 were injured or made ill each day in 2005 in the United States. These statistics do not include deaths from occupational diseases, which claim the lives of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 U.S. workers each year.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says, “The number of workers killed, injured and diseased on the job each year is a national tragedy and disgrace.”