FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 28, 2011

Contact:

Jeff Welle, USW: (c) 208-305-4133  Email: thewelles@clearwire.net

John Dugger, USW: phone (208)746-6216  (c) 208-791-2768

Lynne Baker, USW, o) 615-831-6782, c) 615-828-6169 

Lewiston Workers Vow to Improve Workplace Safety at Memorial Service for Those Killed, Injured on the Job

            Lewiston—Workers gathered here at the Pioneer Park bandstand today to remember those killed and injured on Idaho worksites and to pledge their support for improving workplace safety and health. They joined labor unions and workers in nearly 100 countries in observing Workers Memorial Day April 28, the anniversary of the founding of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

            United Steelworkers (USW) Locals 608 and 712 and the Lewis Clark Central Labor Council sponsored the event.

            “This year is the 40^th anniversary of OSHA and while workers and their unions have made great strides in making our workplaces safer, we still have to fight to improve working conditions and ensure existing protections are not rolled back by business groups and the Republican majority in the House,” said United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard, speaking from USW headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa.

            There have been 36 deaths at USW-represented paper facilities since the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers Union merged with the Steelworkers in April 2005 to form the USW. In the paper industry 15,500 workers suffered recordable injuries in 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

            “These accidents didn’t have to happen,” said USW International Vice President Jon Geenen. “They could have been prevented had there been an analysis of hazards in the workplace and action taken by the companies involved to control the hazards.     

“Far too many safety and health programs in the paper industry focus on employee behavior and ignore workplace hazards. These programs are counterproductive because they discourage reporting of injuries and as a result there isn’t an investigation and the same accident or a similar one can happen again,” he added.

            The USW conducted a survey of its members who work in paper mills to find out the safety and health conditions in their workplaces. The survey focused on seven key areas: union involvement in safety and health, work design, process safety and emergency response, combustible and toxic dusts, machine guarding and lockout/tagout, counterproductive behavioral safety programs, and safety and health training. The findings and recommendations were published in a report entitled “Papered Over, Safety and Health in U.S. Paper Mills.” This report can be accessed at www.usw.org/paperworkers.

            Overall, the results showed that there are many areas in which the USW and management can work together to improve safety and health. For the next year the union’s paper sector will engage in a campaign entitled “Season of Safety” to inform workers about the survey’s results and recommendations and ways they can impact safety within the industry.

            Today’s Workers Memorial Day service kicks off the Season of Safety. USW paperworkers around the country are wearing “Fix the Hazards” stickers to send a united message that they are dedicated to injecting a hazards-based approach to safety in the paper industry to fix hazards before workers are killed and maimed.

            “Too often the paper industry fails to examine the underlying causes of accidents, such as poor work design, the failure to actively seek out and correct hazards, and the refusal to learn from prior accidents and near misses,” said USW Health, Safety and Environment Director Mike Wright. “These underlying causes are often papered over. Our goal is to get paper companies to change their approach to safety and health so we don’t continue to have these accidents.”

Millions Killed, Injured

            Each year dangerous conditions kill thousands of workers on the job. Those hazards create illness or injury for millions more. In 2009, according to preliminary data from the BLS, 4,340 workers were killed on the job—an average of 12 workers every day—and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases. In 2009 Idaho had 26 workplace fatalities, according to preliminary calculations by the AFL-CIO.

More than 4.1 million work-related injuries and illnesses were reported, but this number understates the problem. The true toll of job injuries is about 8 million to 12 million job injuries and illnesses each year, said the AFL-CIO.

The cost of job injuries and illnesses is great—estimated at $159 billion to $318 billion a year for direct and indirect costs of disabling injuries. (See the AFL-CIO’s report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/.

To put this in perspective, imagine 4,340 people dying a year in airplane accidents. People would take notice.

The AFL-CIO has observed April 28 as a day to “mourn for the dead, fight for the living” since 1989.

The USW represents 1.2 million active and retired workers in North America industries including metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service sector.

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