Press Room

Point of View

  • 26 Apr 2023

    A FedEx Worker Was Killed on the Job. Her Case Wasn’t an Anomaly

    Jessica James didn’t have to die. 

    Last year, James was killed three months short of her thirty-third birthday at FedEx’s World Hub in Memphis, Tennessee. The forklift she was driving flipped over, crushing her underneath. 

    Her death was no unforeseeable freak accident. James was driving on a metal ramp to deliver a load of packages into a FedEx truck. Weeks earlier, an inspection found that the ramp was damaged, with a cracked surface and repairs needed on its tires and bolts. 

  • 21 Apr 2023

    Workers’ Memorial Week: Q&A with Jessica E. Martinez

    On April 28, 2023, communities across the U.S. will come together for Workers’ Memorial Day to mourn workers killed on the job and advocate for safer working conditions. 

    Workers’ Memorial Day commemorates the enactment of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), promising every worker the fundamental right to a safe job. The law’s passage in 1970 resulted from the tireless efforts of workers, unions and social justice activists who organized for safer working conditions and demanded action from the government to protect working people. 

    We sat down with National COSH’s Co-Executive Director Jessica E. Martinez to learn how they commemorate workers on April 28 and the week leading up to this day.

  • 10 Apr 2023

    We Have a Child Labor Crisis, Not a Worker Shortage

    Should a thirteen-year-old be working a hazardous job at night?

    Packers Sanitation Services Inc. apparently thinks so. In 2022, the company hired a thirteen-year-old child from Guatemala as a night shift cleaner at a Grand Island, Nebraska meatpacking plant. The facility is owned by JBS, one of the world’s largest food companies.

    The girl’s employment “came to an abrupt end after a nurse at Walnut Middle School found chemical burns, blisters and open wounds on her hands and one knee,” The Washington Post reported. The injuries arose from exposure to hazardous chemicals used to clean the blood, fat and animal parts that remain after a day on the killing floor. 

  • 9 Jan 2023

    COSHCON2022: “Let’s do a worker-led movement”

    “We had no money,” recalls Derrick Palmer. “We didn’t have advice. All we had was two tables and two tents. We said: ‘You know what, let’s do a worker-led movement. Let’s just shoot our shot.’”

    Palmer, who works at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island, is vice president for organizing for the independent Amazon Labor Union (ALU). He and his co-workers shocked the world in March of 2022, when a grassroots operation, funded and organized by workers themselves, beat back an aggressive anti-worker campaign from one of the world’s largest and wealthiest corporations to establish the first-ever labor union at one of Amazon’s U.S. facilities.

COSH Network in the News

  • The City

    Drenched in Fecal Matter’: Feds Probe Working Conditions at LaGuardia Cargo Company

    24 May 2023

    Swissport was cited nearly 20 times by OSHA investigations nationwide in the past decade for safety violations, from injuries to violations for the agency’s standards on heavy machinery and seatbelts. Last month, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health listed Swissport among the twelve most dangerous employers in the country, alongside Amazon, Norfolk Southern and Packer Sanitation Services, which was the subject of a national Department of Labor probe on migrant child labor.

  • Eagle Tribune

    Commentary: Better, safer workplaces are worth fighting for

    1 May 2023

    Another alarming trend: Black and brown workers die on the job at a higher rate than other workers, a consequence of past and current workplace discrimination. Some of the most egregious offenders, like FedEx, are highlighted in the 2023 Dirty Dozen report released this week by our organization, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.

  • Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen

    Class I railroads included on “Dirty Dozen” list of unsafe employers for 2023

    28 Apr 2023

    The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) announced today the “Dirty Dozen” list of employers who put workers and communities at risk due to unsafe practices. The Dirty Dozen report is released each year as part of the observance of Workers’ Memorial Week, which takes place this year from April 23 through April 30.

  • The Week

    Should child labor laws be loosened?

    8 Apr 2023

    It's easy to see why employers like young workers, Jessica Martinez and Marcy Goldstein-Gelb write at The Progressive. "With less information, less power, and fewer options, they are easier to exploit." There are good reasons to keep kids out of the workplace: They're more prone to injury, and they usually end up falling behind in their education as well. That means it is urgent "to enforce the child labor laws that already exist and push back forcefully against any attempts to weaken them."