TCWC Cofounder, Carl Feuer, Chimes in on Workplace Safety

From Wednesday, July 13th Edition of the Ithaca Journal:
Since last year, we have been riveted by a number of national workplace safety tragedies. Six construction workers died while building a power plant in Connecticut; 29 miners were killed at Upper Big Branch and 11 oil rig workers lost their lives in the Gulf. The 100th anniversary of the Triangle Fire in March also drew our attention to the issues of workplace safety and government regulation of business.

Sadly, though with less public exposure, central New York has not been spared. In the last nine months, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports that nine workers have died here in workplace incidents.

Beyond this, how many additional workers died from occupational cancer and occupational heart disease? Nationally, for every worker killed in a workplace incident each year, five to 10 times that number die from an occupationally related disease.

Meanwhile, far from the hazards on our farms, lumber yards, construction sites and factories, single-minded Beltway ideologues push an agenda focused on austerity and deregulation. OSHA is definitely in their sights.

If they are successful, the result will be more death and disease in our workplaces.

Carl Feuer

Ithaca