On This Workers Memorial Day - Recognizing the Value of Safety
By Sean McGarvey
If you ask “what’s the value of safety,” you may as well be asking “what’s the value of a life.”
The construction industry makes up only 7% of our nation’s workforce. But when we compare our
industry to other industries like agriculture, manufacturing, and mining, we consistently have the
most number of workers killed on the job. Even when the numbers of construction-related fatalities
dropped, as they did during our current economic downturn, we are still at the top of the list in
workplace fatalities.
Even worse, we know what constitutes the top killer of construction workers. And it remains
consistent, year after year. One-third of all construction fatalities are from falls. Falls from rooftops;
falls from ladders; falls from scaffoldings; and falls from staging.
That’s why it’s important that we all pay particular attention to the famous words spoke by that
fearless fighter for worker justice, Mother Jones, who said, “Pray for the dead. Fight like hell for the
living.”
Among many reasons, our unions are here to protect the living. And that includes the annual $1
billion invested in workforce development and training, which includes the most stringent safety
training found anywhere on the planet.
And there are other ways we can act to protect the living.
The organization guiding research in construction safety and health is CPWR – The Center for
Construction Research and Training. Under the direction of its Executive Director, Pete Stafford,
CPWR is a leader in a national campaign to reduce the number of fatal falls among construction
workers. The “Campaign to Prevent Falls in Construction” was developed and is managed by CPWR,
OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The campaign, which
began last year on Workers Memorial Day, is supported by a website that provides information for
workers, trainers, contractors and others interested in saving the lives of our workforce. The site,
www.StopConstructionFalls.com offers handouts, toolbox talks, training materials, and more to
prevent falls from rooftops, ladders and scaffolds. There are also links to safety equipment that can
prevent a devastating injury – or death.
The campaign’s goal is to prevent fatal falls from roofs, ladders, and scaffolds by encouraging
construction contractors and foremen to:
• PLAN ahead to get the job done safely.
• PROVIDE the right equipment.
• TRAIN everyone to use the equipment safely.
Unions have a distinct role to play in this effort. Join the campaign today as a partner and promote
the Fall Prevention Campaign among your membership.
It is vital that lessons are learned from every single unnecessary and avoidable work-related death,
in order to ensure not only that future generations of skilled craft professionals are protected from
those same fates; but to demonstrate an added value to our owner and end-user partners by
supplying a safe workforce which translates into a bottom line benefit for their companies and
organizations.
By supporting Workers' Memorial Day, we hope to highlight the need for continued improvements
to workplace safety, and for ensuring justice for those who have already lost their lives or their loved
ones through no fault of their own.