An unpublicized epidemic has taken hold in the United States. Each year, according to the Labor Department, approximately 10,000 workers are killed in industrial accidents and 70,000 suffer permanent injuries. What is perhaps most horrifying about this carnage is that much of it is avoidable. But corporate indifference and weak government enforcement of workplace safety laws allow thousands of workers to die needlessly each year. Yet these corporations are subject to insignificant penalties for their criminal acts, and have been fined for only approximately one-third of their violations.
Corporations are almost always able to avoid serious penalties for the worst workplace disasters.
Though approximately 200,000 workers have died on the job during OSHA's 20-year existence, it has referred only 74 cases to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Of these referrals, the Justice Department won only 15 convictions. Addressing the scandalous national rate of workplace-related death, disease and injury will require fundamental changes in workplace regulation and the balance of power on the shop floor. But harsh penalties along with a revamped OSHA will not be sufficient to eliminate preventable accidents and toxic exposures, especially with a presidential administration that displays so little concern for worker health and safety. Workers must also have some role in creating a safer workplace.