NEW REPORT: LACK OF SAFETY PRECAUTIONS, OVERSIGHT COSTING WORKERS LIVES

CONTACT:

Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, MassCOSH (617) 825-7233 x15
Tim Sullivan, Massachusetts AFL-CIO (617) 680-2344

Labor Unions and Workplace Safety Advocates Call for More Stringent Worker Safety Protections

BOSTON, MA 4/27/11 – September 14, 2010 would be Gregory Vilidnitsky’s last day on the job. That evening, a red pickup truck struck the civil engineer as he inspected a roadway repaving project on Rt. 9 in Framingham, killing him almost instantly. The truck was traveling at such a high rate of speed that the impact knocked Vilidnitsky out of his work boots – a grisly discovery when he was found a short time later by his co-workers. He would have turned 58 the next day.

Dying for Work in Massachusetts: The Loss of Life and Limb in Massachusetts Workplaces, a new report released today by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupation Safety and Health (MassCOSH), documents the loss of Vilidnitsky and the forty-six other workers in the Commonwealth who where killed on the job in 2010. An average of one worker death occurred each week that year, including five firefighters who died from work-related cancer and heart disease. Additional report findings reveal that for every worker killed on the job, ten more died from occupational disease.

Dying for Work in Massachusetts coincides with Workers’ Memorial Day, an event observed around the world every year on April 28 to remember workers killed and injured on the job. In Massachusetts, Workers’ Memorial Day will be commemorated on the steps of the State House on April 28 at 12:15pm.

Sal Salvatti knows first hand the toll of a family member going to work and not returning home. “My dad died in a preventable, senseless workplace accident. He worked in a building that was dangerous but the owners didn’t care,” said Salvatti, whose father was killed in Boston last June while working as a building manager. “He took tremendous pride in waking up each and every day going to work, dreaming that someday he and my mom would enjoy some of the fruits of his labor in his retirement years. Unfortunately, that day never came.”

The report also highlights several issues of growing concern:
• Workplace violence continues to be a major work hazard, responsible for the deaths of three workers who were killed during the performance of their work in 2010. Examples of workplace homicide in Dying for Work in Massachusetts include that of Stephanie M. Moulton, 25, an assistant manager at a North Suffolk Mental Health residential home, who was abducted and killed by a client while at work on January 20, 2011.
• Hispanic workers, a growing population in Massachusetts and the nation, experience workplace deaths at a much higher rate then that of white, non-Hispanic workers. In 2010, 3.5 Hispanic workers died on the job per 100,000 versus 1.2 deaths per 100,000 for white, non-Hispanic workers.
• Massachusetts pubic workers remain outside the jurisdiction of OSHA protections. Massachusetts remains one of only five states whose public employees are not covered by OSHA or similar agency protections.

“Every working person should find the figures found in Dying for Work utterly unacceptable,” said the report’s co-author Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of MassCOSH. “So many of these individuals could have been with us today had their employer given workplace safety priority over profit and ensured that their employees were trained on how to do their jobs in the safest way possible – not in how to cut corners to get the job done. Sadly workplace health and safety is too often given little thought and too many workers are dying for a paycheck.”

Robert Haynes, President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO echoed Goldstein-Gelb’s concerns.
"Of the forty-seven families who suffered the pain of losing a loved one at work this year, many have to struggle with the fact that an existing safety regulation could have saved their loved ones' life. All an employer had to do was care enough to properly implement it.”

In 2010, fines assessed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to Massachusetts employers found to have health and safety violations that resulted in the death of a worker averaged a mere $5,854 – a $7,452 drop from the 2009 average of $13,306. Of the seven closed OSHA investigations that resulted in a citation for a workplace fatality in 2010, all were under $10,000. Unfortunately, too many employers determine it to be cheaper to violate OSHA regulations than to comply with them, ignoring the potential human costs. More disturbing still, the report found that OSHA lacks the funding, staff and tools to deter violations and that at the current rate of inspection it will take a staggering 115 years for the agency to complete inspections of all workplaces under its jurisdiction Massachusetts.

“If we are serious about minimizing -- and hopefully someday eliminating -- workplace fatalities, we need to strengthen these paltry penalties. Aside from being insulting to workers and our families, these fines are clearly ineffective," Haynes added.

Dying for Work in Massachusetts calls for regulations on both the state and federal level to be strengthened. Necessary improvements include protections for public employees, protection for immigrant workers, improvements in Massachusetts Workers' Compensation, and comprehensive workplace safety programs. The report also calls for the passage of critical state legislation including:
• ‘An Act Updating and Streamlining Employment Agency Law,’ (House Bill 1393) which will require temporary employment agencies to provide written notice of key details of job assignments including: the worksite employer, job wages, the right to workers’ compensation, as well as a receipt for any charges paid by the applicant
• ‘An Act to Promote the Public Health through Workplace Safety for Social Workers,’ (House Bill 592, Senate bill 1206) which would require employers of social workers and human service providers to create safety plans for their workplaces and perform annual risk assessments relative to factors which may put social workers at risk of workplace assault

“Our family tries to move on and deal with the daily reality that [my dad’s] not here,” added Sal Salvati. “It's difficult to sum up my dads life and what he meant to my family and I in a few short sentences. It's even more difficult to try and describe the grief and pain that doesn't diminish or ever go away.”

The complete report can be viewed at www.massaflcio.org or www.masscosh.org.

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About the Massachusetts AFL-CIO
The Massachusetts AFL-CIO is the largest umbrella labor organization in the Commonwealth, representing hundreds of thousands of working families from member unions and serves as the voice of working families in Massachusetts. Offices are located at 389 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148. For additional information, contact Legislative and Communications Director Tim Sullivan at 617-680-2344 or visit www.massaflcio.org.

About the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH)
MassCOSH is a nonprofit coalition, bringing together workers, unions, community groups, and health, safety and environmental activists to organize and advocate for safe, secure jobs and healthy communities throughout eastern and central Massachusetts. Through training, technical assistance and building community/labor alliances, MassCOSH mobilizes its members and develops leaders in the movement to end unsafe work conditions. For more information, contact Executive Director Marcy Goldstein-Gelb at 617-642-1878 or visit www.masscosh.org.