In 2008, 5,071 people in the U.S. died from injuries sustained in the workplace, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another 3.7 million cases of non-fatal, workplace-related injuries and illnesses among private-industry workers, and 940,000 cases among state and local government workers, were reported that same year.
In general, the statistics represented declines from the previous year (although not in all categories; workplace suicides jumped by 20 percent from 2007 to 2008, and the number of 16- and 17-year-old workers killed on the job also rose during that time period). Whether those lower overall figures indicate improved safety in the workplace, however, is another matter.
“Economic factors likely played a role in the fatality decrease,” the BLS noted when it released the figures, the most current available. “Average hours worked at the national level fell by one percent in 2008, and some industries that have historically accounted for a significant share of worker fatalities, such as construction, experienced larger declines in employment or hours worked.”
That, is American workers might not be safer on the job—it just might be that there are fewer of them to get hurt.
Worker safety has long been a priority for the organized labor movement. Ninety-nine years ago, the infamous fire at New York City’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, which killed 146 sweatshop workers whose bosses had locked the factory doors to keep them from taking breaks, inspired the formation of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, as well as the creation of workplace safety regulations.
This month, the Agawam Library hosts an exhibit of labor posters from around the world on the theme of workplace safety. The exhibit, titled “Don’t Let Your Job Kill You,” was put together by Stephen Lewis, treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, Local 509, with funding from a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant. The posters on display come from Lewis’ private collection of about 3,300 labor-related posters.
In literature accompanying the exhibit, Lewis writes, “People around the world, who are fortunate enough to have a job, go to work out of the need for economic survival. Some work in industry, some in agriculture, some in skilled trades and some in the service sector. Some people love their work, others hate it, and there is a wide range of attitudes between these two ends of the spectrum. But one thing that all people share is the hope that they are able to leave their work at the end of the day, alive and uninjured.
“All jobs present different kinds and different levels of risk. No one is immune from injury or death. What we want from society and from an employer is that every effort will be made to reduce the dangers from the job. These dangers include stress, unsafe equipment, work overload, repetitive motion, unsafe mines, dangerous chemicals, external threats, long hours, needle sticks, pollution, noise and other threats.”
The posters on exhibit range from straightforward safety reminders to more politically tinged messages that address the kinds of tensions that led to the death of those 146 garment workers almost a century ago.
“The right to safe jobs is one more thing that working people have to struggle for,” Lewis writes. “Left to their own, many corporations try to cut costs by taking shortcuts on safety, and governments with inadequate funding do the same.”
“Don’t Let Your Job Kill You” will be on display at the Agawam Public Library, at 750 Cooper St., through July 30. The library is open Mondays through Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call 413-789-1550.
