Ana Mejia, a farm worker, worked for 11 years at Costa Farms in south Florida where she said she experienced two serious heat stress incidents on the job. Costa Farms was included on the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s Dirty Dozen report of unsafe employers in 2024. Costa Farms declined to comment.

Walmart made the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH)’s “Dirty Dozen” list this year. It highlights 12 employers that National COSH believes to be endangering employees; Walmart is the only retailer on the list.

The National Council of Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) doesn’t dig the Boring Company. It’s named Elon Musk’s tunneling business to its annual list of “Dirty Dozen” workplace safety offenders.

“The latest data show an increase in workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses,” said Jessica E. Martinez, MPH, co-executive director of National COSH. “An increasing number of children are being assigned to dangerous jobs, and the reality of climate change is bringing the risk of extreme heat to both indoor and outdoor workplaces.”

National COSH selected SpaceX and The Boring Co., both owned by Musk, for one slot, citing workers who suffered crushed limbs, amputations, chemical burns and a preventable death. In addition, Black Iron Reinforcing, owned by XL Concrete, earned a spot for a worker death from electrocution, a partial finger amputation, 29 OSHA violations in a decade and allegedly denying election results after workers voted to join a union.

Language barriers and employee intimidation during inspections are two factors that will be affected by the change, said Jessica Martinez, Los Angeles-based co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, which supports the change.

National COSH announced its annual Dirty Dozen report during Workers' Memorial Week, which ended Saturday. A Zoom presentation Thursday featured workplace safety experts and Dirty Dozen employees who were harmed at their workplaces.

The Co-Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, appeared on the America’s Work Force Union podcast and spoke about the annual release of the “Dirty Dozen” list of companies and the power of unions to make employees and workplaces safer.

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) announced the "Dirty Dozen" employers of 2024 during a briefing on Thursday, April 25, 2024.

This list includes employers cited for risking the safety of workers and communities through practices resulting in preventable illnesses, injuries and fatalities.

Ana Maria of Costa Farms knows all about that. “Costa, with their lawyers, led the campaign” for that ban.

“I have suffered from extreme heat at work,” in rural areas of Miami-Dade County. “Once they took me to a nurse at work but the nurse wasn’t there,” she said in Spanish through an interpreter at NACOSH’s Zoom press conference. “In South Florida” over the last several years “34 workers have died and there were 11,700 visits to the emergency room.” More than half were in Miami-Dade,

When asked about what it takes to get companies with a poor history of worker safety to protect employees, Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of COSH, said change is needed from all fronts, including having government agencies like Occupational Health and Safety Administration conduct routine inspections.

“The latest data show an increase in workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses,” said Jessica E. Martinez of National COSH.

COSH added Florence Hardwoods to this year’s list of companies because of the death of 16-year-old Michael Schuls. Schuls was asphyxiated when he was pinned in a wood-stacking machine while trying to unstack it in the lumber processing company’s planing building on June 29, 2023, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Jessica E. Martinez, co-executive director of National COSH, says that Valor earned its place in this year’s “Dirty Dozen” report for its egregious harm to workers. 

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) released its annual “Dirty Dozen” report Thursday, highlighting a group of 12 “unsafe and reckless employers, risking the lives of workers and communities by failing to eliminate known, preventable hazards.”

According to the National COSH, several of the entities on the list also engaged in harassment and retaliation against workers who spoke out about their safety concerns.

“This is an exciting and challenging time for U.S. workers,” said Jessica E. Martinez, MPH, co-executive director of National COSH. “It’s exciting to see a renewed interest in joining unions, participating in workers’ centers and connecting with advocacy campaigns. The challenge facing workers who are fighting for something better is that conditions in U.S. workplaces are getting worse.”

“Workers die and get injured when management basically fails to provide a safe workplace,” said Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. “Doing a job safely in construction and other industries requires time, money, management, attention and other resources. So when management decides not to spend that time, money and attention, then workers end up paying the price.”
 

Katelyn Parady, a Phoenix-based Staffer for the National Council for Occupational Safety & Health (National COSH), joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to talk about the recent city ordinance in Phoenix that will provide protection from extreme heat in the workplace.

Don’t see an event in your area? The National Council for Occupational Health and Safety offers suggestions on how to organize one of your own.