CATEGORY / Article

17Jun

2022

MCOSH / Article / 0 comment

The death of Steven Dierkes: A victim of America’s industrial slaughterhouse

Source: World Socialist Website; By Jerry White

A funeral service is being held today in Bloomington, Illinois. Steven Dierkes, a 39-year-old worker who was killed in a horrific industrial accident at Caterpillar’s Mapleton foundry on June 2, will be laid to rest.

Dierkes was working in the main melting area when he either fell through flooring or tripped into a crucible holding molten metals at temperatures of more than 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. The young worker died instantly from “thermal annihilation,” Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood reported. He added that it took his team several hours to “sort through the metal fragments and find his remains” after the red-hot metals were cooled off.

Dierkes had just begun working at Caterpillar days earlier. He was described in an obituary as a “hard-working teddy bear of a man with calloused hands and a tender heart,” who is “survived by his best friend and life partner Jessica Sutter and daughters Rilie Myrl (12), Remie Jo (5) and Tamzlinn Jean (TJ) (4).”

This tragedy will leave a life-long scar on his family and co-workers. As for Caterpillar, management issued a perfunctory statement saying it was “deeply saddened by the death of an employee” before resuming production of engine blocks at the foundry.

Dierkes’ death recalls the conditions that workers confronted a century-and-a-half ago in Carnegie’s steel mills in Pittsburgh. In the 1880s, the incineration of steelworkers was so routine that the companies would pour a “death ingot” from the vats they fell into. It was equivalent to the man’s weight so that their widows had something to bury.

Though more information must come to light, one thing is certain: the “accident” was entirely preventable, and Steven Dierkes did not have to die. He is another worker sacrificed on the altar of profit.

This was the second fatality at the Mapleton foundry in six months. In December 2021, 50-year-old Scott Adams, an electrical contractor, fell to his death through a hole in the floor that reportedly was not properly covered.

Caterpillar has been repeatedly cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for serious safety violations at the Mapleton foundry. Though these violations led to finger amputations, broken bones and other serious injuries, OSHA only issued a few wrist-slap fines that totaled less than $70,000 over the last five years. This is less than the daily compensation of CEO James Umpleby III, who was paid $24.3 million in 2021. Caterpillar spent $1.4 billion on share repurchases and dividends in the first quarter of 2022 alone.

In posts on social media and messages sent to the World Socialist Web Site, Caterpillar workers described the conditions that led up to Dierkes’ death. “Safety is not a priority, just profit,” one CAT worker wrote. Another said, “I did that job for four or five years running, the melter he fell into. I cannot tell you the times I have thought how horrific it would be to trip and fall in. Those melters hold 110 thousand pounds of iron. What a terrible way to go.” Dierkes had “only been there for 5 days,” another worker wrote, adding that he should never have been on the iron floor without sufficient training.

Scoffing at the company’s mantra that “nobody dies on Caterpillar property,” a former security guard at its East Peoria plant said he witnessed company firefighters perform CPR on the lifeless body of a worker killed by a hydraulic press until he was moved off the property. “This is a regular practice for the company in an attempt to lessen liability and claim the death didn’t occur on property.”

Dierkes was only one of thousands of workers who are killed and maimed every year in America’s industrial slaughterhouses. Most of these deaths go unreported in local news outlets, let alone the national media.

In the last few days alone, the United Support and Memorial Workplace Fatalities Facebook page listed the following victims:

Thirty-six-year-old construction worker Ronald L. Bryant Jr. was struck and killed Wednesday by a construction truck in Hamilton, Ohio near Cincinnati;
Two unidentified workers at the Big Rivers Electric Corporation power plant in Henderson County, Kentucky died Tuesday after falling into a confined drainage system;
Reaver Boone Vaughn, 61, died at the Granges America aluminum engineering and manufacturing facility in Salisbury, North Carolina on June 8 in an accident involving a forklift;

And on and on…

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 4,764 fatal work injuries in 2020, the latest figures available. Another 50,000 deaths and 119,000 illnesses occur every year from cancers and other fatal diseases linked to chemical exposures on the job, according to OSHA.

The US government boasts that the 2020 fatal workplace injuries were down 10.7 percent from 5,333 in 2019. But this statistical change is solely attributable to the sharp slowdown in the first year of the pandemic, when millions of workers stayed at home.

The 2020 and 2021 figures do not include the hundreds of thousands of workers who needlessly died from COVID because they were deemed “essential” or after temporary lockdowns were ended. After bailing out the banks, the ruling class rushed to reopen the auto factories, meatpacking plants, oil refineries, public transit systems, schools and other workplaces. These became central vectors for the spread of the deadly disease, which has killed more than 1 million people in the United States.

This is capitalism. The death of Dierkes and so many others is a terrible loss for loved ones, family, children, co-workers and friends. For the profit system, the worker is a commodity that can be replaced by another to perform the same task. And the capitalist production system grinds on…

While it takes a particularly brutal form in America, capitalism is a worldwide system of exploitation. Some 2.3 million women and men around the world are killed by work-related accidents or diseases every year—or more that 6,000 deaths every day—according to the International Labour Organization.

Last week, more than 50 workers were killed in an explosion at a port container depot in Bangladesh. The country was also the site of a 2013 disaster that saw 1,200 workers killed when a garment factory complex collapsed outside of Dhaka.

Workers are given no protection by government agencies or the unions. The class character of the state reveals itself clearly in its attitude to workplace conditions. Minor fines that corporations consider a “cost of doing business” are the norm, under Democrats and Republicans alike. The life of a worker is measured in dollars and cents, and never enough to affect the bottom line.

As for the unions, they are the last place that workers would now look to address their grievances, including over safety violations. The upper-middle class executives are engaged in a continuous conspiracy with management to increase exploitation.

The corrupt bureaucrats in the United Auto Workers (UAW) sold out a series of bitter strikes against Caterpillar in the 1980s and 1990s. With their blessing and complicity, the company ripped up gains won through generations of struggle.

Workers are not, however, simply an exploited mass. The ruling class is sowing the wind, and it will reap the whirlwind. A powerful counter-offensive is emerging in the United States and throughout the world—in health care, education, manufacturing, logistics and other industries—against the subordination of life to profit.

The industrial carnage can and will be stopped through the independent action of workers themselves. This means building rank-and-file safety committees in every workplace to fight cost-cutting, exhausting hours and workloads, and layoffs, which endanger workers’ lives. These committees must fight for workers’ control of production speed and control over all aspects of health and safety, including protection against COVID-19.

To fight multinational giants like Caterpillar, these committees must coordinate their struggles across national boundaries by building the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC).

In opposition to a system that subordinates human life to private profit, the working class must, and will, respond through the development of a political movement for socialism, that is, the reorganization of society on the basis of human need. It is through the fight for socialism that it is possible to put an end to the conditions of exploitation that led to the death of Steven Dierkes and so many other workers.

22Apr

2022

MCOSH / Article / 0 comment

Proposed Rule Would Increase Employer Accountability for Workplace Injury and Death

20Apr

2022

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OSHA Publishes Proposed Rule that would Reinstate and Expand Reporting Requirements Rolledback Under the Trump Administration

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A recently proposed rule published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would re-instate and strengthen the 2016 injury and death posting requirements for employers with at least 100 employees in hazardous industries.

The move comes after the agency rolled back the requirement for employers with at least 250 employees to electronically submit their OSHA From 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) and OSHA Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report) to OSHA under the Trump administration.

The rule was rolled back in 2018 after employers claimed that the agency would use the records to publically shame employers with high rates of workplace injury and death. OSHA responded to these by modifying the rule to only require employers to submit summary data on OSHA Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses).

The recent proposal seeks to reinstate the original 2016 rule and expand it’s coverage from employers with 250 employees to those with 100 or more employees. If approved, the rule would also include an expanded list of employers designated in high-hazard industries based on their industry code categorized by the North American Industry Classification System (NACIS).

The new rule would include two lists of employers with different compliance standards. It would update Appendix A to identify high-risk industries using the 2017 NACIS. Employers with more than twenty employees that are on the list would be required to submit Form 300A. A new Appendix B would be established to identify employers with 100 or more employees that have had an incident rate of 3.5% or more over a three-year period. Employers listed in Appendix B would be required to submit on Forms 300, 301, and 300A annually.

In a statement addressing the privacy concerns raised by employers which prompted the 2018 rollback of the original standard, the agency said that “[R]ecent advancements in technology [that] have reduced the risk that information that reasonably identifies individuals directly, such as name and contact information, will be disclosed to the public.” OSHA has confirmed its intent to make parts of the workplace injury and death data publically available if the rule is finalized.

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19Apr

2022

MCOSH / Article / 0 comment

Ithaca First to Unionize All Starbucks, Negotiations to Follow

Source: Cornell Daily Sun

Following efforts extending back to October, all three Ithaca Starbucks locations voted to unionize this past Friday, April 8. The outcomes of the votes for the College Avenue location, the Ithaca Commons location and the Meadow Street location were 19-1, 15-1 and 13-1, respectively.

“A lot of my coworkers are very happy, but we know this is only the first step in the next chapter of our journey,” said Evan Sunshine ’24, a barista and member of the union campaign’s organizing committee. “We’ll have to do bargaining with Starbucks for our first contract and only then we’ll be able to reap the benefits of the union.”

For Nadia Vitek ’22, another organizing committee member, the relief of the vote was accompanied by frustration at the months-long, arduous process that Starbucks employees underwent to be permitted to vote for the formation of a union, which they consider a basic right.

“We feel such a huge sense of relief also coupled with sadness that something so simple and basic shouldn’t have to take this much work. [We faced] so much resistance for exercising our human rights,” Vitek said.

This resistance, according to the Starbucks workers, came through union-busting methods used by corporate leaders at Starbucks, including intimidation tactics, the denial of breaks and overhiring to limit hours.

In a conversation between Vitek and their manager, intended to serve as a discussion of potential promotions and other opportunities, Vitek was misgendered by their manager. Their manager proceeded to imply that a union would risk the benefits that employees receive, according to Vitek.

Leaderboard 2

“[My manager] went on to brag about how many trans partners work at her store back home, and then after I asked her about trans healthcare benefits at Starbucks, she finished explaining those benefits by saying ‘I would hate for you to have to lose this with the union,’ basically dangling the benefits in front of me. Threatening my benefits,” Vitek said.

Student workers also faced difficulties taking time off to visit family and friends for this past Spring Break and were often presented with the choice between time off or risking their jobs.

According to Vitek, 6 out of 7 requests for time off were denied at the Starbucks on College Avenue by one manager.

Alayna Earl ’23 requested time off in advance for Spring Break but was denied it on the grounds that too many people requested it off before them.

“[The manager] pretty much called back and said, ‘I’m going to assume you’re voluntarily resigning if you don’t show up to your shift’,” Earl said.

Conor Mervyn ’24, who did not go home for Spring Break after being denied time off, shared his ongoing anxieties regarding requesting time off for summer break.

“I shouldn’t lose my job for having to leave for the summer,” Mervyn said, who is currently in the process of emailing professors looking for jobs as his fallback options.

“I saw one of my coworkers leave a conversation with the manager in tears knowing she’d have to pick between the job and family for Spring Break. A job shouldn’t be a prison, you should have time off if you want. All these people gave a reasonable amount of notice. It’s infuriating,” Vitek said.

Leading up to the vote, many note that the work environment had also been made noticeably less hospitable, with restrictions on water and the use of fans.

“A lot of the retaliation that my store has been experiencing has just been being treated like animals, it almost seems like they’re trying to make us quit,” said Rebekkah Maclean ’24. “They know who supports the union; they are treating them all like shit. The way we’re getting talked to is degrading.”

According to Maclean, recently workers were prohibited from keeping beverages like water in non-personal cups, as well as from having a fan on the floor.

“It gets hot. My sister and I have problems with being woozy and passing out; if there’s no water or no fan, how are we supposed to work? It’s hell.” Maclean said.

According to Sunshine, the corporation is attempting to hire an unnecessarily large cohort of new employees in order to cut hours across the board and ask pro-union workers to quit.

“Packing in stores is illegal and is a form of retaliation; it is a form of punishment for unionizing,” Sunshine said.

Sunshine mentioned that GenZ for Change created an algorithm to flood the application portal with fake applications in an effort to resist this anti-union attempt.

Starbucks executive sentiment has recently been made public as well, with Interim CEO Howard Schultz reportedly lashing out at a barista at a California location.

“If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t you go somewhere else?” said Schultz, according to The New York Post.

According to the campaign organizers, the next step for the union is negotiating contracts for each store. According to Vitek, the unionized Elmwood store in Buffalo welcomes partners from other unionized stores to take part in their negotiations and will possibly provide a template for the contracts of Ithaca’s stores.

According to Sunshine, a survey has been sent out to gauge the workers’ needs and demands which will frame the union proposals. The workers’ eminent demands include wage raises and increased hours for those who require them, as well as free healthcare coverage and increased safety measures. Vitek also mentioned their excitement at the proposal of a tip minimum.

“It would be great to be able to depend on making a certain amount of money and not just hope we get lucky,” Vitek said.

Earl would advocate for the provision of universal time off to partners when requested. “It’s not fair to prioritize one partners’ request over others’, you don’t know why someone is taking time off … I think it [should be] the manager’s job to find scheduling and coverage,” they said.

“I want to be as zero waste as possible as a corporation, I want to reduce Starbucks’ carbon footprint,” Maclean said. She also stated the need for easier access to mental health care beyond the 20 sessions per year offered by Starbucks’ current program, Lyra.

“At our store, we’d like to get a manager that’s not here to union bust, a manager who cares about us, and if they see that we’re struggling they’ll put on the apron and get on the floor,” Sunshine said. “What I wanna see is a manager that’s a source of support rather than a source of harm.”

Mervyn reminisced about a time when the divide between corporate and workers was not so prominent. He recounted experiences where Starbucks served as a source of support during an expressly challenging time in his life.

“There’s a lot of ‘we’re a family’ [at Starbucks]. Back in my home last summer, I’d spent a month sleeping in a truck because of some extraneous circumstances, and so basically I lived off of essentially camping out at Starbucks, using the WiFi to do some classes, and it’s essentially all I had,” Mervyn stated.

Observing the recent changes in worker treatment at his Starbucks location, Mervyn is worried that Starbucks, as a whole, is changing for the worse.

“I can’t speak for everyone, I like my job, I wanna keep it. A lot of people I know like their jobs and want to keep them,” Mervyn said. “It’s sad to see the disconnect grow larger and larger.”

04Apr

2022

MCOSH / Article / 0 comment

Essential workers, labor unions respond to rollback of NY Hero Worker Protection

Source: FingerLakes1 | Image Source: NY Daily News

Today, Governor Hochul’s Department of Health failed to designate COVID-19 as a continued risk to public health, which rolled back worker protections required of the NY HERO Act across the state. Unions responded to rollback of NY HERO in force. Members of the New York Essential Workers Coalition, a statewide group of over 75 labor unions, worker centers, advocacy groups, and community organizations that won the fight to pass NY HERO last year, have called for an investment of $50 million in the Department of Labor to fund enforcement of employers’ COVID safety plans, training for worker committees, and ventilation upgrades for small businesses.

On Wednesday, the coalition held a State of the Worker town hall, reflecting on the toll that COVID has taken on workers and the need for full funding and enforcement of workplace protections. Essential workers including food app “deliveristas”, laundry workers, Starbucks workers, farm workers, and journalists shared their stories of being forced to work without pandemic protections and employer violations of the NY HERO Act, and looked ahead to NY HERO worker committees as a long-term solution for workplace health and safety. A Starbucks worker from the first Long Island store that filed to unionize with Workers United, shared that worker committees would give workers a voice, a happier and safer environment, and most importantly, accountability from their employers. And a delivery worker expressed dismay that he had not learned of his rights under the NY HERO Act sooner, due to lack of state outreach.

The New York Department of Labor has received more than 53,000 complaints of unsafe working conditions during the pandemic, but many have gone uninvestigated, due to underfunded enforcement.

“With mandates lifted and NY HERO’s designation repealed, we are entering a new phase of the pandemic, but we’re not out of the woods yet. Workers are still exposed, particularly in communities of color, and they need protections whether cases are rising or falling. We must use this moment of recovery to invest in our long-term health. By fully funding the DOL, Governor Hochul can ensure that employers’ health and safety plans are sustainable and put workers first,” said Maritza Silva-Farrell, Executive Director of ALIGN NY, which leads the NY Essential Workers coalition.

“This pandemic has shown us the importance of preparedness and the need for strong worker protections. That’s why the state must meaningfully increase DOL funding for enforcement and health and safety efforts — this funding is critical if we are to ensure the agency can meet the challenges ahead. That is also why the members of our union remain committed to working together with employers to continue to create safe workplaces,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

“WJCNY is deeply concerned about the decision to not extend the COVID designation. Today’s decision effectively ends the last line of protections low wage frontline workers have against COVID-19. The workplace protections provided under NY HERO are critical, long-term preventative solutions that will protect workers on the job and empower them to advocate for a safer workplace. Without this designation and enforceable standards in place, we are unnecessarily exposing workers to a preventable and dangerous illness,” said Emma Kreyche, Director of Advocacy, Outreach & Education, Worker Justice Center of New York.

“COVID-19 has demonstrated just how easily a new variant—enabled by inadequate safety measures and irresponsible decisions around public health and safety—can rip through communities, overwhelming schools and hospitals, putting countless lives at risk. The evidence is clear: even with vaccination requirements in place, countless people continue to suffer through the long-term debilitating effects of the virus, with countless more at risk. We must continue to do everything we can to mitigate the spread. Withdrawing HERO Act protections when so many are still so vulnerable is reckless. As unionists, we recognize that workers are most often in the best position to determine what is best for them and their coworkers, especially in situations that concern their own health and safety. The HERO Act pushes exactly that, empowering workers to assess and implement standards that create the safest environment for them to work in. Workers everywhere are ready to do their part. Being proactive in enforcing worker committees ensures decisions aren’t made without the voice of those most affected,” said Susan DeCarava, President of NewsGuild of New York.

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02Apr

2022

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Amazon Workers Finally Win

Source: BBC

A team of Amazon workers in New York finally win an organizing campaign against the tech giant. Workers at a New York warehouse voted 55% in favor of joining the Amazon Labor Union.

The group is led by former employee Chris Smalls who made his name protesting against safety conditions at the retail giant during the pandemic.

Mr Smalls’ victory marks a major defeat for Amazon, which had fiercely fought against unionisation.

However, in Alabama, where Amazon was facing a separate union drive, the company appeared to have fended off activists in a tight contest in which challenged ballots could yet overturn that result.

Together, the two elections mark a milestone for activists, who have long decried labour practices at Amazon, the country’s second largest employer.

Mr Smalls emerged from the vote count looking tired but jubilant, and popped open a bottle of champagne he was handed by supporters.

“We did whatever it took to connect with these workers,” he told the crowd, recounting an against-the-odds campaign that started with “two tables, two chairs and a tent” and relied on an online fundraiser for money.

“

I hope that everybody’s paying attention now because a lot of people doubted us.”

In a statement, Amazon said it was disappointed by the loss in New York and that it was evaluating how to proceed. It also accused regulators of improperly influencing the vote.

“We believe having a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees,” the company said. “We’re evaluating our options, including filing objections based on the inappropriate and undue influence by the [National Labor Relations Board]”.

Rebecca Givan, professor of labour studies at Rutgers University, said Amazon’s defeat by Mr Smalls and his team of worker-organisers was a “really big deal”, calling it a “David and Goliath story” that upset the odds.

But she warned he will be facing another tough fight when it comes to contract negotiations.

“Amazon will do everything it can do undo this success, to break up these workers and to try to stop the momentum that will inevitably come from this victory,” she said.

After the vote, Chris Smalls was instantly surrounded by supporters and assembled camera crews.

He and his team of worker organisers had struck out on their own, creating a brand new, independent labour union to launch their fight against Amazon.

Their victory was a moment of vindication for the former Amazon worker, whom the company once called “not smart, or articulate” in a leaked strategy memo.

But, as he told the crowd, it is far bigger than that.

Amazon employs more than one million people in the US and it has extraordinary influence on work practices – even outside its doors.

The company has put up a wall of resistance to unions since its inception.

With this win, activists are hoping that wall is about to crumble.

Amazon has already poured resources into fighting the unionising efforts, which it sees as an obstacle to business flexibility and warehouse efficiency.

Officials have said the company offers competitive pay and benefits and believes it is better to work directly with workers. In meetings about the vote, representatives questioned union leaders’ ability to win more in contract negotiations.

Amazon said it may challenge the results, citing the timing of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board to sue the company last month alleging unfair labour practices in New York.

As part of its statement, it shared comments by two of the country’s most powerful business lobbies also raising objections, including a letter from the National Retail Federation to congressional leaders that called for an investigation of the matter.

Mr Smalls said he was undaunted by the challenges ahead.

The 33-year-old had worked for Amazon for more than four years before the company fired him in 2020, after his coronavirus protest, citing quarantine violations.

He established the Amazon Labor Union last year, calling for higher pay, stronger medical benefits, anti-discrimination policies and better leave among other changes.

The 2,654 to 2,131 victory gives his group the right to negotiate a contract with Amazon for the roughly 8,000 workers at the Staten Island warehouse.

His team is also behind a second union campaign at a smaller warehouse in the same industrial park, which is scheduled for a vote later this month.

“There’s no doubt in my mind we’re going to be successful in that one as well,” he said.

Organisers said Amazon made critical mistakes ahead of the vote, such as pushing to reverse policies relaxed under Covid, including allowing workers to keep their mobiles with them while working.

Still they said their win in some ways surprised even them, despite the intense efforts they had made to reach out to workers and make their case ahead of the vote.

“Watching all of this come true is pretty crazy,” said Karen Ponce, Amazon worker and secretary of the Amazon Labor Union.

Wider movement

The union drives at Amazon come amid an upswell of labour activism in the US.

In recent months, organisers have led successful campaigns at coffee chain Starbucks, media outlets, smaller retailers and others.

Analysts say the pandemic galvanised workers worried about their safety. The rapid rebound of the economy since the coronavirus shock has also produced an unusually tight labour market, giving workers more leverage.

But across the US, just 6.1% of private sector workers belong to unions.

“It continues to be very difficult for workers to organize collectively,” Prof Givan said.

What was the outcome of the Amazon union election in Alabama?

In Alabama, workers at the Bessemer warehouse voted 993 to 875 against joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, regulators said on Thursday.

More than 400 challenged ballots have yet to be counted and could change that result.

The unofficial tally showed a much closer election than the lopsided victory that Amazon claimed after last year’s election, which regulators later declared invalid, ordering a do-over citing labor rule violations by Amazon.

Turnout was also lower, with less than 40% of the more than 6,000 people working at the Bessemer warehouse casting votes in the election.

Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, which led the unionising drive in Alabama, said he was excited by the possibility of a union victory in New York.

Crediting Mr Smalls and his team, he also said their win in part reflected differences between New York – where one in five workers is unionised – and Alabama, which is a notoriously anti-labour state.

He said his union’s initial union effort at the Amazon warehouse in Alabama last year had “ignited a movement”.

“Regardless of the final outcome, workers here have shown what is possible,” he said at a press conference on Thursday following the Alabama count. “This is a sign of more to come.”

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