Across the country, people are skipping meals and falling behind on housing payments while layoffs, automation, and diminishing labor protections deepen insecurity. The message many workers hear is simple: You are replaceable.
Before joining National COSH earlier this year, COSHCON was something I had only heard about from afar. Working as a consultant in the NYC labor movement, I knew it was a respected, bilingual gathering that brought together workers, organizers, and health and safety leaders, but it was still just a concept to me, something other people experienced.
The lethal workplace illness silicosis killed thousands each year up through the 1960s but became much rarer in recent decades thanks to union workplace safety fights. The disease is now making a comeback among stonecutters working with manufactured stone. Silicosis is a lethal workplace illness that killed thousands each year up through the 1960s. In recent decades, thanks to union workplace safety fights, it became much rarer. Annual deaths dropped to the hundreds. The disease affected mostly older workers with longer exposures.
So it was hard for stonecutter Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez, thirty-five, to get a clear diagnosis in 2019 when he first developed a cough and shortness of breath. It wasn’t until two years later that he was told he had silicosis — and only had a year to live.
“WBAI Labor reporter Bob Henley was also at the Workers Memorial Day event in Midtown yesterday. Here is an interview he did with Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, alongside his fellow labor reporter, Tochtli Garcia of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. We go now to that interview.”
Employees producing an economic surplus for employers to sell in the marketplace risk their life and limbs due to the bosses’ disregard of workplace safety standards. A new report from the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) delivers the disturbing details.
We turn to the just released Dirty Dozen 2026, highlighting unsafe workplaces, comprised of Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations, and nominations from National COSH’s state affiliates, labor unions and workers centers.
US farmed catfish processor and marketer Consolidated Catfish Producers has been named to the 2026 "Dirty Dozen" list compiled by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), a non-profit group that advocates for safe, healthy working conditions [..]
