Increased Worker Safety Demanded At Town Hall

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

“My son fell to his death at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas,” testified Mary (right), of United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities (USMWF). “I will live forever with a dagger in my heart because there is no deeper pain, no deeper despair. All of us are here because we’ve suffered a loss that could have been prevented and the pain is that all of these deaths were senseless.“ The angry mother joined workers who spoke at Tuesday’s town hall meeting on the need for stronger worker safety legislation. The Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010 (H.R. 5663) would strengthen OSHA’s and MSHA’s oversight and enforcement in mines as well as other dangerous workplaces, provide tougher penalties for negligent employers and increase whistleblower protections. “The best protection is prevention,” said Bricklayer Local 1’s Eric Parks. “This new law will give workers a chance to avoid being a statistic like my brother, like myself and so many others.” Tom O’Connor, Executive Director of National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, urged those concerned to call Democratic House members at 202-225-3121 to demand support for immediate passage of H.R. 5663 and oppose any efforts to strip Title 7 (the OSHA language) from the bill when it gets to the floor. Other speakers included Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, OSHA , Dr. Darius Sivin of the United Auto Workers, Dr. Celeste Monforton, George Washington University, Dept. of Environmental and Occupational Health, as well as area workers with UNITE HERE Local 25, SEIU 32BJ, BAC Local 1 and CWA Local 2222 who have been injured on the job. Click here for hearing photos.
- report/photo by Julie Hunter