It is with heavy hearts that we acknowledge the stark reality that Latino men, like those who were part of the construction crew, face the highest rate of workplace fatalities in the United States. This sobering statistic underscores the urgent need for greater protections and safety measures for immigrant workers, who often take on dangerous jobs in construction and other industries to support their families.
Labor journalist Kim Kelly, author of “Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor,” was a participant and panelist at the National Conference for Worker Safety and Health (COSHCON2023). Below, she shares her reflections and experience of the event.
Ana Maria of Costa Farms knows all about that. “Costa, with their lawyers, led the campaign” for that ban.
“I have suffered from extreme heat at work,” in rural areas of Miami-Dade County. “Once they took me to a nurse at work but the nurse wasn’t there,” she said in Spanish through an interpreter at NACOSH’s Zoom press conference. “In South Florida” over the last several years “34 workers have died and there were 11,700 visits to the emergency room.” More than half were in Miami-Dade,
When asked about what it takes to get companies with a poor history of worker safety to protect employees, Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of COSH, said change is needed from all fronts, including having government agencies like Occupational Health and Safety Administration conduct routine inspections.
COSH added Florence Hardwoods to this year’s list of companies because of the death of 16-year-old Michael Schuls. Schuls was asphyxiated when he was pinned in a wood-stacking machine while trying to unstack it in the lumber processing company’s planing building on June 29, 2023, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
