By Bob Hennelly

On the same day labor unions gathered in lower Manhattan to memorialize workers who died on the job the previous year, the AFL-CIO released an alarming new report finding workers of color are dying on the job at increasingly higher rates — and fatalities for Black workers hit the highest level in nearly 15 years.

In its 33rd annual report, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, the national union also documents how Latino workers continue to face “the greatest risk of dying on the job than all other workers.” According to the AFL-CIO, the cost of workplace injuries and illness ranged from $174 billion to $348 billion a year.

“Too many workers face retaliation for reporting unsafe working conditions or injuries, while low penalties fail to deter employers from following the law,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “The alarming disparities in workplace fatalities among workers of color are unacceptable, symptomatic of deeply ingrained racial inequity and the need to pay increased attention to the dangerous industries that treat workers as disposable.”

“A worker dies on the job in the United States, every 96 minutes — workers with families, with communities, with names we will read today. Some names we know but many we don’t,” Charlene Obernauer, executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, told the crowd at the April 25 commemoration. “As we read the names you will notice they were workers who were Latinx and many of them are new immigrant working to survive.” 

Specifically,  Obernauer recalled Endy Donaldo Gonzalez, 19, who was a deliverista who was killed on the job, and Bernardo Gonzalez Perez, a 63-year-old grocery store worker who was beaten to death with a wooden plank just two years before he was to set to retire.

Obernauer told the crowd of 100 that came to mark Worker Memorial Day that organizers of the annual event  were focusing on the impact of workplace violence that’s been observed in multiple sectors including transportation, health care and retail. She noted that education and training for workers as well as the development of workplace violence protection plans could help reduce risks to both workers and their customers.

Unions, led by the RWDSU, are lobbying Albany lawmakers to take up the Retail Worker Safety Act.

Charles Simmons works at a large pharmacy retail chain in Manhattan and is a member of the Executive Board of the NY & NJ Regional Joint Board of Workers United. He described how he and his union colleagues face dystopian post-pandemic street conditions that often result in violence.

“I have been assaulted,” Simmons said. “I have had it where I opened my store at 7 o’clock, and by 7:10 I have a criminal inside my store. The advice I am given is to go up to them and offer them some customer service. They spit at me — they spit at my employees. I had a gentleman come out of the store and come back in complaining. He came back in to fight me. I had to actually protect myself by picking up the newsstand that I had to fight him off of me.”

Simmons described in the face of these challenges; management actually zeroed out lost prevention at his location. When employees, left undefended and to their own devices, defend themselves, they run the risk of termination, he said.

“We don’t normally think of retail work as dangerous — it’s supposed to be fashion and fun, but the sad reality is that we have too many workers die at the hands of an active shooter, or one too many injured at the hands of a violent shooter,” said Eno Awotowe, an organizer with the RWDSU’s Retail Action Project. “I have worked in retail for decades. I recall that in those days, worker harassment — attacks — any such thing was very rare.”

Vincent Alvarez, president of the New York City Central Labor Council, said we have to do “everything possible to make sure that when we see corporations, and we see government, at times, putting profits over the safety of people — that we speak out against that. We need to pass smart policies that help protect New York City and New York State workers every day while they are out  there doing their job for our city.”  

New York City Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, chair of the Civil Service & Labor Committee [D-Manhattan], said, “We are here because we must mourn for the lives lost — we must mourn for the dead, but we must fight like hell  for the living – the men and women who leave their homes every morning to provide for their families without a guarantee they are going to make it back. Unfortunately, too many times so many of us have heard the  stories of workers who leave in the morning and don’t make it back, and their families are left to pick up the pieces.”

De La Rosa continued, “The collapse of the Baltimore bridge made news around the world. Today, we also remember those workers — six souls who also left their homes to serve their communities and to provide for their families — six immigrant workers. And we know that some of the most dangerous industries across the country are industries where workers are often times exploited. There’s been a history of exploitation, a history of ignoring all of the red flags that could have kept people safe.”

Council Member Julie Menin, chair of the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection, pointed out the grim reality behind the statistics.

“Last year, there were over 5,486 fatal work related injuries across the county according to OSHA. And here in New York City, we know that 83 people lost their lives because of these horrific workplace injuries — and we know that there are many grieving families. They are not just statistics. These are loved ones who didn’t return home from work and it’s completely unacceptable.”

Deb Hanna is with the Civil Service Employee Association, an affiliate of AFSCME, which represents public workers throughout New York State. She chairs the CSEA’s Metro and statewide Safety and Health Committee, which is tasked with reducing occupational risks faced by her members in myriad of workplaces.

“We did lose members in the last year,” she said. “There are workers that CSEA represented that went to work and did not make it home. Our work and our effort — our focus continues to be to ensure that every worker that goes to work, they do their job, and they go home safe. In recent times, we made some changes  that have ensured the safety of our workers at DMV sites, so that  they are protected when they have to notify folks in the public they did not do so well on that DMV driving test.”