Fatalities increased in the agriculture, construction, manufacturing and mining industries.

Frame scaffolding “I want to underscore what a huge victory that was for working people,” said Seminario, who applauded President Barack Obama, Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez and OSHA administrator David Michaels for their commitment to the silica rule. “This is going to make a huge difference for working people in the construction industry in particular, but in other industries as well.”

Another annual report on occupational fatalities, this one from the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, was released on April 27. Highlights from the report, titled Preventable Deaths, include:

Fatalities increased in the agriculture, construction, manufacturing and mining industries.

Temporary and contract workers made up 16.7 percent of deaths, up seven percent from 2013.

“There is an increase in temp worker fatalities due to the reality of our economy that there are more temp jobs now,” Martinez said. “We need more regional focus, more local focus, more State Plans to help enforce and protect temp workers and really track down temp agencies and allow for dual employer accountability [with the host employer and temp agency] when protecting temp workers.”

The National Safety Council marked Workers' Memorial Day by releasing an infographic that calls attention to workplace injuries. The infographic notes that a worker is injured on the job every seven seconds.

“Every single worker should make it home, safe and sound, to their family every night,” John Dony, director of the Campbell Institute at the National Safety Council, said in a press release. “Clearly we are not doing enough to ensure that happens. On Workers’ Memorial Day we need to remember those we have lost and renew our commitment to safety so we can save lives and reverse this trend.”

818 deaths occurred from slips, trips and falls, a rise from 724 in 2013.

“In too many cases, employers are not meeting their legal obligation to provide safe working conditions,” National COSH Acting Executive Director Jessica Martinez said during a press conference. “We also know there are not enough OSHA inspectors. … We also know there is not proper training always available. We also know many times employers push productivity over safety.”

Martinez called for more research to better understand why older workers are at risk for occupational fatalities. In addition, she said, National COSH has collaborated with the National Staffing Workers Alliance and the American Public Health Association on recommendations for OSHA to improve protections for temporary workers.