High Holy Days for Workers
- OPINION – KURT STAUDTER
Each year, at the end of April and the beginning of May there are two holidays celebrated by workers all around the world. Even though both of these days commemorate events that happened here in the United States; one holiday is never recognized by the powers that be, or worse demonized, and the other only gets lip service from those CEOs that haven’t figured out how to get rid of their American workforce yet. Throughout our history U.S. workers have always had a complicated relationship with the owners of capital. In exchange for the best years of our lives they profit, and when they find greater profits elsewhere we are replaced, discarded, and told to fend for ourselves like our contribution never really mattered at all. Meanwhile our elected officials just stand aside watching like guilty coconspirators.
April 28 is the Workers’ Memorial Day and commemorates those that are killed or injured on the job including exposed family members. The date was chosen because it’s the anniversary of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Created and signed into law in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, the Occupational Safety and Health Act has saved 647,000 lives according to the AFL-CIO. On OHSA’s website they boast “In more than four decades, OSHA and our state partners, coupled with the efforts of employers, safety and health professionals, unions and advocates, have had a dramatic effect on workplace safety. Worker deaths in America are down-on average, from about 38 worker deaths a day in 1970 to 14 a day in 2017. Worker injuries and illnesses are down-from 10.9 incidents per 100K workers in 1972 to 2.8 per 100K in 2017.” Since OSHA was the new sheriff in town, just 115 workplace deaths have been criminally prosecuted. Also, 392 of the deaths were homicides in 2022.
Under the Trump administration there were fewer inspectors making a lot less inspections, and when they did catch some unscrupulous employer, OSHA no longer sent out the damning press release of shame. According to an article in The Nation, “Enforcement has also slackened amid diminishing capacity. OSHA’s staff has shrunk since the Reagan administration, from more than 1,000 in 1982, to 952 in 2016, and as of 2018, down to a 48-year low of 875 personnel.” Under the Biden administration numbers have rebounded a bit; they’re now up to 2,150.
Everyday we seem to hear fresh stories in the news about this or that corporation responsible for workplace illnesses and deaths. With the pro-corporate media, unless it is something particularly appalling or if there’s a huge settlement we never hear about it. The Nation goes on to say “The reduction probably isn’t a function of violations growing less serious—it’s more likely that the agency is just treating them less seriously.” The median penalty issued for a major violation in fiscal year 2022 was $4,460; if a worker was killed on the job, the typical penalty was only $9,753. So there’s a dollar amount for what the life of a worker is worth? That’s a shamefully low number.
If you’re a child of the Cold War the images that May Day might conjure are the displays of military might thundering through Red Square in the USSR. Before you get your anti-communist dander all in a twist, nothing could be more American than May Day. The internationally recognized Labor Day arose from an incident in Chicago called the Haymarket Tragedy. A labor rally in May 1886 calling for the unimaginable and unreasonable demand of an 8-hour workday ended in violence that left both labor activists and police officers dead. Eventually, organizers of the rally were brought to trial, convicted with some of them being executed, although there was never any proof that they were guilty. These men were known as the Martyrs of Haymarket, and it is in honor of their sacrifice that an international labor body in Paris, France declared May 1 a day to remember the contributions of working people. For a wonderful book on the subject I direct your attention to the late UMass labor historian James Green’s “Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, The First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America.” This reads like any best selling thriller.
So another Workers’ Memorial Day and May Day will have come and gone with no real progress in workplace justice. We still get the table scraps and our lives on the job are still at risk. In 2019 in Business Insider a report on Bridgewater Associates, one of the largest hedge funds, pointed out that it’s “The most pro-corporate environment in history,” but we knew that didn’t we. Maybe the tide is finally turning. More people now than ever are starting to demand their fair share. Despite the fear around people-centered politics, it appears that some aspects of Socialism might just be what are needed in an age of unbridled capitalism.
