16 Workers Die Per Day Because of Employer Negligence

http://16deathsperday.com/#petition --- It is time to change the feeble and antiquated rules that fail to protect workers on the job. We, the undersigned, demand that Congress pass the Protecting America's Workers Act now.

$39,000. Thats all it will cost you if you cause the drowning death of an employee. Thats all it costs because our worker safety rules are all bark, no bite.

In July 2009, a minimum-wage temp worker named Vincent Smith drowned in a vat of chocolate at a food processing plant. His employer had no license to produce chocolate, and they put him to work without training. When he fell into the vat and drowned, it only cost the company $39,000 in federal fines when inspectors discovered multiple safety violations at the plant.

Thats because our federal workplace safety laws are so weak that its often more profitable to ignore them and pay the fines than it is to act to protect hard-working people like Vincent. Thats why 16 people die every day in the U.S. because of reckless negligence on the part of their employers.

Were working to spread the word about the need to pass the Protect Americas Workers Act, which would strengthen workplace safety rules, increase fines for willful negligence that hurts workers and protect whistleblowers on the job.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• 16 Deaths per day
• workers safety
• brave new foundation
• workers rights
• robert greenwald
• OSHA
• deadly jobs
• death at work.

[bbbbmer]

Thank you for this very important presentation...

[TheDailyConversation]

Great video. Everyone always focuses on the third world, but the USA has a lot of improving to do too.

[DennyTattoos]

American workers believe that there are safeguards in place should they become injure or made ill on the job. It is unfortunate that you have to be seriously injured or disabled to find out how the safeguards are in place to protect the employer. Workers Compensation was originally designed to be a no fault insurance. It has developed into a scam to protect the rich.

[GHAZI096]

fuck usa

[Leonicdragon]

@Lindabellydance that is true, but meanwhile surplus in China skyrockets astronomically! You don't see fair-trade toys and fair-trade electronics. Walmart wich is number one on the fortune 500, has fair trade coffee, chocolate, or some kind of food and that is it. Do you think Wal-Mart cares about where their goods come from? All they care about is making their suppliers cut their costs so that they can make more money. Why is it wrong to assume that people should know how to do that themselves

[Lindabellydance]

@Leonicdragon And... Like I said before, I don't see how making our workplaces safer is in any way making it less safe for people in other countries. If anything we are encouraging other cultures to take a 2nd look at their own practices. And by the way there are many people that are perfectly conscious of the problems in other countries. Hence the movement for fair trade and boycotts of products made in sweat shops or countries with little regulation.

[Lindabellydance]

@Leonicdragon Ok: it was not common knowledge that asbestos is deadly. You see how that turned out. There are deadly hazards related to working in restaurant kitchens but I doubt many people would call that a "dangerous" job. Warning labels are different from regulations & firm consequences. If you are going to employ someone, it it your job to warn them about all of the possible hazards & do everything you can to mitigate them. It is wrong to assume that people know how to do that themselves.

[Leonicdragon]

@Lindabellydance What's an example? If you say the people that work with chemicals, there are warnings on the labels. If you are talking about the guy falling in grain or the people that fall in chippers and meat grinders, then that is obviously dangerous. There are jobs that are simply too dangerous to be done perfectly safely, and to say that an American's life is more important than another country's is wildly narcissistic.

[Lindabellydance]

@Leonicdragon One of the problems is that employers do not always let workers know that the jobs they are doing are dangerous, or at least as dangerous as they are. They are not all construction or obviously hazardous jobs that are killing people and disabling them. People made the same arguments you mention about stopping child labor and even slavery. It's really no excuse. And I don't think these people are saying other nationalities don't matter. If anything we are trying to set an example.

[Leonicdragon]

What they aren't telling you is that companies will either outsource or raise the prices of their goods and services in order to cover the cost of OSHA compliance. yes it is horrible that people are dying, but at the same time, they CHOSE that dangerous job and they should have known the dangers of it. The problem is that this is not news; people die every day in other countries like China but I guess we aren't supposed to care as long as it is not an American life. How narcissistic is that?

[Textynn]

And about the time OSHA and Black lung Legislation was created, heavy polluters went into the HMO and Health care business. Yes there is a tie. They are the same people. Kaiser Mining is credited for being the father of HCI as we know it. Also go to They Rule and see who are on the boards of the major medical insurance companies. Major Polluters. Also behind the Tea Party movement against health care. Oil companies and polluters.

[jay123jd]

@nicademus1974 You got everything figured out. The EPA was non-existent under Bush. The petro-chemical industry put peope out of work because Bush grandfathered polution & safety laws back to before Clinton went in office. But people like you do not know history only your slanted point of view. Bush with his unregulated oil industries lost families money in your grand scheme of things and these granfathered laws took lives at BP and other plants for legal non-compliance safety issues.