Workplace Safety in the South

According to an extensive AFL-CIO report on workplace safety, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded 5,734 workplace fatalities in 2005.

Mississippi is one of the most dangerous places to work, with the third highest rate of workplace fatalities after Wyoming and Montana. Overall, every Southern state except North Carolina exceeded the national average:

2005 Workplace fatalities per 100,000 workers:

Mississippi: 8.9
South Carolina: 6.7
Kentucky: 6.3
Alabama: 6.1
Arkansas: 6.1
West Virginia: 6.1
Louisiana: 5.6
Tennessee: 5.0
Virginia: 4.9
Florida: 4.8
Georgia: 4.5
North Carolina: 3.8

National Average: 4.0

The AFL-CIO report says "The construction sector had the largest number of fatal work injuries (1,192) in 2005, followed by transportation and warehousing (885) and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (715). Industry sectors with the highest fatality rates were agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (32.5 per 100,000), mining (25.6 per 100,000) and transportation and warehousing (17.7 per 100,000)."

They credit OSHA with saving more than 349,000 workers' lives since its passage in 1970, but that "too many workers remain at risk. On average, 16 workers were fatally injured and more than 12,000 workers were injured or made ill each day of 2005. These statistics do not include deaths from occupational diseases, which claim the lives of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 workers each year."

The report also says that workplace injuries and illnesses may be worse than these statistics suggest because of underreporting by the BLS. According to the report, only 4.2 million out of an estimated 12.6 million illnesses and injuries were reported in 2005 -- about one in three.

This map shows how many years it would take existing OSHA personnel to inspect every job site in each state. Florida tops the list at 247 years, Mississippi is third at 196 years, Louisiana is fourth at 184 years, and Georgia is fifth at 174 years.

The report concludes:

Very simply, workers need more job safety and health protection. The Bush Administration's lack of regulation and increased attention to employer assistance and voluntary compliance comes at the expense of worker safety and health. The OSHAct needs to be strengthened to make it easier to issue safety and health standards and to make the penalties for violating the law tougher. Workers need to be given a real voice in the workplace and real rights to participate in safety and health as part of a comprehensive safety program to identify and correct hazards.Coverage should be extended to the millions of workers who fall outside the Act's protection.

Immediate action is needed to implement the provisions of new mine safety legislation to protect miners in the event of an emergency and to increase penalties for serious and repeated violations. Dangerous practices like the use of belt air for coal mine ventilation and the use of alternative mine seals must be prohibited.

The full report can be found here. (By way of Left in Alabama.)