Illustration via Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis on Facebook
Workers around the world take April 28th as a day of remembrance honoring those who've died or been seriously injured on the job. SEIU, and other unions around the world, acknowledge our thousands of sisters and brothers who prematurely died or became fatally ill because of unsafe working conditions.
Canada was the first country to adopt "the Day of Mourning," in 1989 (Bill c-223). Following the country's movement, unions throughout the United States took April 28th as our day of mourning to coincide with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's anniversary.
While the official statistic on workplace safety shows some improvement, one unjust death of just one worker in any trade or sector is simply too much. According to the recently published 2011 edition of the AFL-CIO report "Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect," in 2009, 4,340 workers were killed on the job--an average of 12 workers every day--and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases. More than 4.1 million work-related injuries and illnesses were reported. These numbers are according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which is widely known to understates the problem. The true toll of job injuries is two to three times greater--about 8 million to12 million job injuries and illnesses each year.
Research has documented that the BLS fails to to capture a massive proportion of work-related injuries and illnesses. Why is that? The BLS arrives at the specifics around workers' injury and deaths by way of logs OSHA receives from EMPLOYERS.
The reporting process is never accurate because so many workers, especially nurses, fail to file reports with their facilities. Many healthcare workers accept that injury and untimely death at the job comes with the territory -- but that cannot be farther from the truth. On the flip side, because our employers persuade us to think that our injuries are either not as bad as we think, or, in many cases, just not worth reporting -- there is no way the logs employers forward over to the BLS are accurate. In addition, some employers discourage reporting through the use of incentive programs, like Safety Bingo, that reward workers for not reporting injuries or threaten to fire workers reporting injuries or illnesses. To that end, researchers have indicated that the true toll of job injuries is at least three times greater than the numbers and rates the BLS reports. What do we do about that?
We must first acknowledge that many workplace injuries or deaths are simply hidden away and or taken for granted as 'part of the job.' And though we fight for change every single day, Workers' Memorial Day is an opportunity to highlight the preventable nature of most workplace accidents and ill health with unions and pro-labor organizations around the world.
Bringing it home
In October 2010, there were two tragic news items originating in the San Francisco Bay area.
- A psychiatric technician, Donna Gross, was killed on the job at Napa State Hospital. A mentally ill patient at the facility allegedly strangled her to death.
- Two days after Ms. Gross was killed, Cynthia Palomata, a nurse at the Contra Costa County jail, was killed by a violent inmate who lost control and beat her with a lamp.
SEIU continues to fight for Palomata and Gross to prevent workplace violence. The union leads the pack on safe patient handling and pushes employers to execute sensible nurse-to-patient ratios.
Last week a union sister reported to the union that she and her coworkers are frequently spit on, slapped around, or worse. "We fear for our lives," the nurse said. Does the BLS know this is happening at our workplace on a daily basis? Unfortunately...Probably not.
Our fight for safer workplaces includes a few simple first steps. The critical (and easier said than done) step is to tell our stories -- not only on April 28th, but everyday. Shortly after Donna and Cynthia were killed, Deb Bonn, the President of the Pennsylvania Nurse Alliance shared her story.
"During my in-hospital nursing career, I was stabbed in the back with a fork by a patient, suffering from DT hallucination, who was hiding behind a door while doing hourly rounds on the night shift.
"I've also been kneed in the chest by a belligerent patient - an incident which left me in severe pain. After a chest X-ray that was ordered by my private physician because the hospital doctor did not feel one was warranted, I learned my ribs were just bruised from the patient's attack.
"If this is not enough to convince you we need change, I can tell you about the time I was stabbed in the arm with a needle by an elderly demented patient, who grabbed the needle from me after I had given her insulin.
"There was also the time I got kicked so hard by a patient that I was thrown against the wall and knocked unconscious to the floor - that was more than just a bad day on the job!
"Is this what nursing has become? Was I supposed to just accept these acts of workplace violence as a 'hazard of the job' and expect nothing would change?
"Believe me, I've endured many other attacks in my career besides the ones I describe here. In each case, the facility gave me the impression that this was just part of the job. The facility, in not so many words, told me that we are responsible for the patients and therefore, I was responsible for all these events!"
Politics vs. People Power
OSHA proposed changes in the injury record keeping rule to reinstate a requirement, repealed by the Bush Administration, for employers to justify which injuries are musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) on the workplace injury log. But in January, in response to business opposition, OSHA delayed this rule to seek more input from small businesses, even though most small businesses are exempt from OSHA injury record keeping.
The Washington, DC bubble of politicians on either side of the aisle fight out what workers need in order to save our lives and prevent life-threatening injuries. Ironically, many of the politicians fighting this fight never worked a day in our shoes. They aren't faced with safe patient handling and likely have a great strong back, they likely never had to handle 12 beds on a floor, by themselves, because the facility refuses to hire right. The guess is that they wouldn't know what it is like to be scared to get up and go to a job.
"Pray for the Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living" -Mary Harris "Mother" Jones. Photo: Workers Memorial Day 2010 poster
In order for the fight in DC to sway toward what we really need - yesterday - we need to pipe up, come together and share our war stories. As we tell our stories, we should also consider providing sensible remedies: Safe patient handling equipment, safe staffing practices, workplace violence teams -- and the list goes on.
This year, Workers' Memorial Day is also the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the OSHA. With the current heated political attacks against OSHA by Republicans and others, it's remarkable to note that in 1970, the House of Representatives voted 308--60 for the OSHAct, and the Senate adopted it on a voice vote without debate. President Nixon signed the OSHAct and made a strong statement in support of improving worker health and safety which you can watch on YouTube here.
Then DOL Secretary James Hodgson at the signing ceremony described two fundamental reasons for the passage of OSHA in 1970. "... first because the US was a progress-minded nation and second because it was part of the new environmental concern in the US - and what environment is of more concern to workers than that of their workplace?" His remarks can be heard and watched here.
Years later, Secretary Hodgson, a life-long Republican, wrote "Although OSHA has been roundly condemned in many quarters, I regard its passage as the most satisfying step forward -- both for American industry and its more than 100 million workers -- that occurred during my tenure at the U.S Department of Labor"
OK, now what?
As we remember our fallen sisters and brothers -- we carry on with the slogan and theme of Workers' Memorial Day, "Remember the dead, fight like hell for the living."
