·  by The Leslie Marshall Show

Fighting for Every Life

USW Health, Safety and Environment Director Mike Wright and progressive talk show host Leslie Marshall this week marked Workers Memorial Day by discussing recent victories and continuing challenges in protecting workers’ health.

Nearly 4,800 workers were killed in 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—or more than 13 workers every day who died on the job. Millions more sustained workplace injuries or suffer the long-term effects of exposure to workplace hazards.

Workers Memorial Day gives us the chance to “rededicate ourselves to fighting for the kind of society where that doesn’t happen,” said Wright.

It also offers the opportunity to celebrate successful campaigns to protect workers, including a new standard on exposure to silica that OSHA recently finalized. The standard, which will help reduce cases of the fatal lung disease silicosis, was decades in the making, Wright said, but it’s a still an important step forward.

“The standard setting process in this country is very long and very complicated and very stacked towards employers,” said Wright, “but we finally achieved that [silica] standard. And that will save numerous lives and a lot of disability, and it will prevent a lot of human misery.”

Yet employers that prioritize profits still leave too many workers in jeopardy, said Wright, exploiting loopholes and skirting regulations. Unconscionably weak penalties also enable unscrupulous employers.

Civil penalties for a serious OSHA violation are capped at $7,000. Willful violation of a standard that causes in a workplace death results in no more than a six month jail sentence. “By contrast the penalty for harassing a wild burro on federal land, which is an environmental crime, is five years,” said Wright. “The message that sends is that the serenity of a burro is worth ten times the life of a worker. That’s a pretty curious set of priorities.”

Tightening these rules requires serious work in Washington, Wright said. The Protecting America’s Workers Act, which would close some of the loopholes and help OSHA function more effectively, has little chance of passing in the Republican-controlled Congress.

But it is nevertheless important for everyone to call their representatives and demand action, holding those who refuse to help workers accountable in November. “What we do politically matters,” said Wright.

To hear the complete audio click below.

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