Jessica Martinez, Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the statistics of workplace injuries and fatalities, the annual release of the 2025 Dirty Dozen report highlighting negligent employers and the greater challenges faced by immigrant workers in hazardous industries.

Jessica Martinez, executive director of National COSH, said, “This is a tragedy. The gutting of NIOSH is a direct assault on workers’ safety, health, and lives. Leading to more death, more injury and less accountability.”

Labor Organizer of the Year Katherine Passley [of COSH Affiliate Beyond the Bars] is bridging the gap between—and combining the strengths of—labor and criminal justice reform movements.
 

Katelyn Parady with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health said there’s no reason Arizona shouldn’t be leading the nation on heat protections.

Similarly, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) Executive Director Jessica Martinez added in another statement that “changes to its [NIOSH] structure must not compromise its mission or the well-being of workers.”
 

"People have a moral right to water, to shade to rest, to be able to go to work alive and be able to return home to their loved ones..." said Oscar Londoño, Director of COSH Affiliate WeCount

“Mar Jac continues to face significant health and safety and abuse issues, even as recent as 2024 and into 2025. The company has been cited multiple times by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for serious violations, including incidents involving underage workers and fatal workplace accidents,” said Jessica Martinez, Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.

“Working for The GEO Group while detained at the Golden State Annex was nothing short of forced labor,” one former detainee stated in the National COSH release. “We had no safety training, no protective gear—only punishment if we refused.” The anonymous former worker described being stripped of rights and said collective organizing became essential to defending basic dignity. “No one should be exploited for profit behind bars,” the individual added.
 

“We are holding these crosses with much sadness in our hearts because they have the names of human beings who could have been us,” said Alejandro, a member of the worker rights organization WeCount! who declined to provide his last name. “These were hard-working people who went to work one day, just to provide for their families, and never came back home.”

Marchers also singled out one local nursery included this week on a “Dirty Dozen” annual report produced by a worker advocacy group called the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.

So this year, Miracapo landed on the National Council of Occupational Safety and Health’s “Dirty Dozen”  list. Asked if there were any changes since Lopez Hernandez’s death, Ramirez replied, “No, nothing has changed. But I hope being on the Dirty Dozen list puts some pressure on.”

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) calls out some of these unsafe working conditions in their annual compliation of the most dangerous employers, the Dirty Dozen. 

The recent designation of LCMC Health as one of the 2025 Dirty Dozen employers by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) has not come as a surprise to nurses at University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO).

“No one should die for a paycheck,” said Jessica E. Martinez, MPH, Executive Director of National COSH. “The employers on our Dirty Dozen list are putting profit ahead of people — endangering workers with unsafe conditions, stolen wages, retaliation, and abuse.

National COSH, with a network of grassroots worker groups across the U.S., selects the 12 companies, dubbed the Dirty Dozen. Input for this annual list comes from a nationwide network of workers, safety activists, labor union members, health and safety professionals, and academic experts.

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) produces the annual Dirty Dozen list as part of Workers’ Memorial Week. The list spotlights employers who endanger workers and communities.

Jessica E. Martinez is the executive director of National COSH.  "Too many workers are dying," she said in a statement, "getting sick, or sustaining lifelong injuries—often in incidents that are entirely preventable.  The employers we’re highlighting in this year’s Dirty Dozen list have ignored known risks and failed to implement basic safety measures, putting profit over people. We must hold them accountable.

Nurses at University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO) are unsurprised to see that their employer, LCMC Health, has been named a 2025 Dirty Dozen employer by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), a national organization dedicated to strengthening workplace health and safety.

National COSH spotlights twelve employers in its 2025 “Dirty Dozen” list for exposing workers to preventable hazards and unsafe conditions.

Envy Nails was added to National COSH’s list of Dirty Dozen employers for denying over 100 immigrant workers their minimum wage.

The cuts to NIOSH pose a dire threat to immigrant workers, particularly those in high-heat, high-risk jobs like agriculture, warehousing and construction, said Jessica Martinez, executive director of the nonprofit National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. “We will see more injuries, more heatstroke and more deaths. The workers who feed us, build for us and care for our families deserve protection, not abandonment.”