Letter to the editor: All workers deserve a safe job and safe workplace

Talk about it

Workers Memorial Day is held each year on April 28 to mourn workers killed and injured on the job. It is also the day that we rededicate ourselves to the fight to make our workplaces safer. We still have a long way to go.

Every year, nearly 6,000 people are killed at work. Fifty thousand workers die annually from occupational diseases and millions more are injured. The push for increased production, an influx of new workers as older, more experienced workers retire, reduced staffing levels, growing use of subcontracting and outsourcing, mandatory overtime and changes in technology and work processes all pose a threat to workers’ safety and health.

Too often, work culture and the pressure to produce trump written safety and health policies — the work culture wins and workers lose, being injured or killed. Ask the families, friends and loved ones of the 29 coal miners killed in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia on April 5 if employers’ drives to reduce costs and produce more are worth the price those miners paid.

The overall decline in the quality of jobs is unlike many we’ve seen in decades. The labor movement is fighting against this trend to ensure that all Americans have a safe job that allows them to support themselves and their families with health care coverage and secure retirement benefits. On April 28, let’s remember that millions of American workers struggle to support their families, too often being injured or killed in the process. It’s time to stand up and fight to make the promise of good, safe jobs a reality for all workers.

Scott Nelson

Grand Forks

(Nelson is a member of Teamsters Local 120)

Tags: opinion, letters, job, workplace, work