Across the country, people are skipping meals and falling behind on housing payments while layoffs, automation, and diminishing labor protections deepen insecurity. The message many workers hear is simple: You are replaceable.
Before joining National COSH earlier this year, COSHCON was something I had only heard about from afar. Working as a consultant in the NYC labor movement, I knew it was a respected, bilingual gathering that brought together workers, organizers, and health and safety leaders, but it was still just a concept to me, something other people experienced.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) started developing a heat standard in 2021 and proposed a draft in 2024, but now Republicans want to pass a law—with the Orwellian name “Heat Workforce Standards Act”—that will stop OSHA from creating or enforcing a national heat safety standard.
“Workers know what keeps people safe,” said Jessica Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH): “access to water, rest, and shade; effective training and emergency plans; protection from retaliation; and strong standards that employers are required to follow.”
The annual injury logs are “an essential tool” for regulators and the public to identify and prevent hazards, said Jessica Martinez, executive director of the nonprofit National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. “These records are not just paperwork.” OSHA can penalize companies up to $16,550 per reporting violation. It did not respond to a request for comment about whether Taylor Farms’ reporting lapses also reflect insufficient enforcement by the agency following the company’s repeated failures to file injury logs. A worker at a Taylor Farms vegetable processing plant in Swedesboro, New Jersey, died last year from injuries suffered while cleaning equipment that scalds produce in hot water, according to OSHA records.”
Lavar sábanas y toallas sucias puede no parecer un trabajo peligroso. Sin embargo, una investigación de un año de duración realizada por NJ.com reveló que, durante la última década, los trabajadores de lavanderías industriales de todo Nueva Jersey han sufrido quemaduras graves, exposición a sustancias químicas corrosivas, descargas eléctricas peligrosas, erupciones cutáneas dolorosas, caídas peligrosas y amputaciones espantosas.
Trabajadores y defensores de los derechos de los trabajadores se reunieron la tarde del miercoles frente al Capitolio para exigir protecciones en el estado para cumplir de manera obligatoria contra el calor... “Camina una Hora en los Zapatos de un Trabajador”, cerca de cincuenta participantes realizaron simulaciones de trabajos al aire libre, tales como la instalación de techos, jardinería, cosechas de frutas o legumbres y carga de compartimientos de aviones.
