More than 532,000 workers’ lives have been saved

Ringlock scaffolding The AFL-CIO says more than 532,000 workers’ lives have been saved since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, yet work-related fatalities and injuries remain “unacceptably high.” Twenty-five states recorded an increase in worker fatality rates from 2013 to 2014, and the national injury and illness rate in 2014 was 3.4 per 100 workers – up from 3.3 in 2013.

“The bottom line in all of this: some good, some bad,” The AFL-CIO Director of Safety and Health Peg Seminario said during a press conference following the release of the report. “But there are still too many workers being killed and injured on the job. We have a lot of work to do.”

Key findings in The AFL-CIO’s report include:

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

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.

Wyoming replaced North Dakota as the state with the highest worker fatality rate. North Dakota dropped to No. 2, followed by Alaska, South Dakota and Mississippi.

804 Latino workers were killed on the job in 2014.

Workers 55 and older now represent 35 percent of all work fatalities.

Workplace violence-related deaths increased – 765 deaths were recorded in 2014.

The oil and gas industry experienced 144 deaths – the highest number of fatalities ever recorded among this worker group.

The government’s capacity to oversee and enforce safety and health measures has worsened since The AFL-CIO’s initial report 25 years ago, Seminario said. However, she praised OSHA for its recent publication of a final rule intended to protect workers from exposure to respirable crystalline silica. OSHA estimates the rule will save about 600 lives and prevent almost 1,000 cases of silicosis per year.

“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.”