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On WMD, Remember The Dead, Protect The Injured & Defend Workers On The Job
2025-04-29 00:00 - 02:00 UTC | Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/.../register/eXTT9NVoR2a5K8dZCEBexw
On Workers Memorial Day April 28, 2025, Remember The Dead, Protect The Injured & Defend Workers Health & Safety
Workers in the US and around the world are being killed and injured on the job because of a profit system that drives bosses to put profits over lives.
In 2024 5,486 workers were killed on the job in the United States and an estimated 120,000 workers died from occupational diseases.
Today in the US, the national government is shutting down OSHA and many other agencies that are supposed to protect the health and safety of workers on the job.
President Trump has also nominated David Keeling who represented UPS and Amazon. The Federal government is closing down operations in states that they are
responsible for running the OSHA program and also are engaged in destroying documents. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has removed
and potentially destroyed several key documents related to worker-safety.
These documents may have been destroyed simply because of their use of words related to “diversity” and “gender,” regardless of the context in which those words
were used. By eliminating guidance to help employers comply with OSHA standards, including dealing with toxic chemical exposure, preventing workplace violence
in health care facilities, and preventing musculoskeletal disorders in nursing homes and grocery stores, the Trump Administration is workers’ lives at risk.
In California, the Democratic governor Gavin Newsom has helped destroy Cal-OSHA with a staff shortage of 30 to 40% of staff. This means that bosses can get away
with murder and Cal-OSHA is MIA.
At the same time, the corruption and capture of many OSHA programs and workers comp programs by the corporations and insurance companies that are supposed
to be regulated is resulting in workers being denied any protection and also timely medical care for their injuries that results in workers
being permanently disabled.

Join us On Workers Memorial Day April 28 join our panel to tell us your story.

Speakers:
Ashley M. Gjøvik, OSHA, NLRB Environmental Whistleblower at Apple For Cover-up of Super Fund Site Contamination

Stella Miranda, Wife Of UCSF AFSCME 3299 Member contaminated by radioactive contamination at Hunters Point Shipyard

Tramaine Palms, ILWU Local 19 Injured Worker

Adrienne Williams, Former Amazon Worker & Organizer and research fellow with Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR)

Becky McClain, OSHA Whistleblower At Pfizer

Daniel Berman, Health and Safety researcher, writer and author of Death On The Job

Branton Philipps, Tesla UAW Supporter At Fremont Who Spoke Up During Covid For Health & Safety

Vincent Ward, ILWU Local 10 Injured Member

Sponsored by California Workers Memorial Day & WorkWeek
www.workersmemorialday.org

For more info contact
labor media1@gmail.com
When: Apr 28, 2025 05:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/.../register/eXTT9NVoR2a5K8dZCEBexw
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

‘They’re killing you’: US poultry workers fear faster lines will lead to more injury
Workers say fast-paced conditions compound injury risks, while USDA will no longer require reports on safety data
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/08/us-poultry-workers-injury-safety
Melody Schreiber
Tue 8 Apr 2025 12.00 CEST

The Trump administration will speed up processing lines for poultry and pork meatpacking plants while halting reports on worker safety, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced recently, in a move that workers and advocates say will lead to more injuries.

Some poultry and pork plants already receive waivers to speed up production lines, and the USDA plans to update its rules to make the changes permanent and applicable to all poultry and pork plants, the department said in a press release.

At the same time, the USDA will no longer require reports on worker safety data, calling the information “redundant” and pointing to research that the agency says “confirmed no direct link between processing speeds and workplace injuries”.

Four people working at different poultry processing plants described to the Guardian fast-paced working conditions that compound the risks for injury. They asked that their names and locations be withheld for fear the Trump administration would revoke their visas.

One young man had only worked at the chicken processing plant for two weeks, and he was still scrambling to learn the job and keep up with his expected workload.

After sustaining one workplace injury, he said, he kept working – until he fell from a 13ft ladder and broke his back.

He hasn’t been able to return to work as the fracture slowly heals.

“I could’ve been paralyzed for the rest of my life,” the man said. Now, he’s “living with remorse and regret”, he said, unable to work or pay bills on his own.

A January study from the USDA found that faster line speeds were not the leading reason for injuries – but a higher “piece rate”, or a different way of measuring speed, did correlate with injuries.

The report cautioned that the injury rate among poultry workers was already high at speeds of both 140 and 175 birds per minute, with 81% of workers at high risk for musculoskeletal disorders – “indicating that current risk mitigation efforts are insufficient”.

The majority (70%) of workers first experienced “moderate to severe work-related pain” within their first three months on the job, the report said.

“There’s injuries occurring on a regular basis, and it’s most definitely associated with the speeds that people are moving,” said Michael Payan, director of operations at the Sussex Health and Environmental Network (Shen), an organization based in Delaware and Maryland.

Maria Payan, executive director of Shen, noted they were “putting more through input – that’s more injury”.

“Why, at the same time you’re increasing line speeds, would you eliminate collecting worker safety data?” she asked. “If they don’t think it’s going to affect the workers, then why would they stop collecting the data?”

One woman worked in poultry processing for 11 years before being fired after getting sick with Covid, she said. She would chop chicken carcasses hanging from a hook – the same motion, over and over again.

Her hands and shoulders still swell regularly, and her hands cramp every night, despite not working the line for five years.

“They’re killing you,” she said of the fast-paced work demands.

Under the new rules, workers may process up to 175 birds a minute, a rise from the maximum speed of 140 before 2020. But unlike in 2020, when meatpacking workers were devastated by high rates of illness and death from Covid, there are no shortages of meat.

The move will “reduce burdens on the US pork and poultry industries … ensuring they can meet demand without excessive government interference”, the USDA said in a statement.

There are about 250,000 poultry workers in the US, and in some states, agricultural workers are exempt from federal labor laws.

About 78% of poultry processors surveyed in Alabama said faster line speeds made their work more dangerous, according to a 2013 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Poultry workers suffer five times as many occupational illness cases compared with the average worker in the US. Their rates of carpal tunnel syndrome are seven times higher and repetitive strain injuries are 10 times higher than average workers.

Workers also experience allergic rhinitis, or chronic cold-like symptoms, from the cold temperatures and exposure to chemicals. Peracetic acid, a substance used to battle pathogens like salmonella and E coli, was found in the air at rates that exceeded regulatory limits at one in five jobs in all locations, according to the January USDA report.

A 2015 report from Oxfam pointed to increasing line speeds as one of the reasons for injuries.

Reported injuries are probably lower than the actual rate, because many poultry processors offer care through on-site medical clinics, which means they may not need to refer workers to outside medical practitioners, the Oxfam report noted: “If companies can avoid doing more than this, they don’t have to record the incident, or report to the US government’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (Osha).”

One man worked on the processing line for 15 years. He spent “15 years doing the same thing five days a week, eight to 10 hours a day”, he said. He developed pain after eight years, but he kept working.

In 2020, he had to undergo surgery for his repetitive stress injuries. He was fired while recovering, he said, with no benefits or severance. He still suffers from back pain, and his family now supports him financially.

Recent arrivals are frequently in the lowest of the “pecking order”, as Payan calls it, “which means, basically, they’re put in the lines where you would do the repeated cuts consistently”.

A lack of training and persistent language barriers also contribute to the high rate of injuries, as workers are pushed to move fast as soon as they begin work.

“We have a lot of workers who are not being trained properly in their language,” Maria Payan said. New workers are frequently instructed to imitate the person next to them. “If you understand this industry – these are very, very, very dangerous jobs,” Payan said.

A third man, on his first day working in the sanitation department of a processing plant, was dipping machine parts into caustic chemicals, and he started feeling an itch on his arms. Soon, the burning intensified. He pulled back his sleeves, and the skin of his forearms, from wrist to elbow, was blistered and peeling.

His co-worker said he must have raised his hands above his elbows – which he hadn’t realized was forbidden – and the chemicals dripped from his gloves down his sleeves.

“There was no proper training at all,” the man said.

The on-site nurse told him to wash the chemicals off with soap, and she later referred him to occupational therapy – not the emergency room, the man said. He wasn’t able to work for three months.

Back home in Haiti, the man was an accountant, but in the US, he will work any job he can. “It’s about survival,” he said.

Newsom follows Trump’s lead in cutting worker safety funding in California

Dear Colleagues:

California Governor Gavin Newsom is following Donald Trump’s lead in cutting funding for worker health and safety while the latest available staffing data for Cal/OSHA indicates field inspector vacancies remain above 40%. Ten enforcement offices have inspector vacancies above 50%, which means worker protections in the state are crippled.

President Trump has shut down the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a key research and safety certification agency, and has proposed closing at least eleven Federal OSHA enforcement offices, which would leave large swaths of the country with no local worker protection agency offices.

In January 2025, Governor Newsom proposed cutting Cal/OSHA’s enforcement budget by $21 million dollars ($21,028,000) for the fiscal year starting on July 1, 2025. Cal/OSHA is not funded by the state’s General Fund but rather from an annual grant from Fed OSHA, an assessment on employers’ workers compensation insurance premiums for the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Fund, and a fee-for-service for equipment inspections on elevators, amusement rides, etc. All these funds are independent of the state General Fund.

This proposed funding cut comes at a time when the OSH Fund – the main source of Cal/OSHA’s independent funding – has run a $200 million surplus in the last two fiscal years. Resources are immediately available to replace any cut in Federal OSHA funding to Cal/OSHA, as well as to maintain the agency’s state funding.

The Governor’s proposed $21 million cut to Cal/OSHA enforcement is not prompted by any concerns about the state budget, but is a deliberate decision to reduce worker protections in California that are fully funded by an independent sources of revenue.

Meanwhile, Cal/OSHA had 116 vacancies in positions for compliance safety and health officers (CSHO) in December 2024, for a vacancy rate of 43%. The data, released by the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) in March 2025, is from the November 30, 2024, “Organization Chart” for Cal/OSHA. DIR withholds release of Cal/OSHA staffing data for months after it has been generated.

Fifteen enforcement District Offices have CSHO vacancy rates at or above 40% -- with ten offices having vacancy rates of 50% or more. These offices are: PSM/Refinery Unit (70%); San Francisco (67%); Santa Barbara (67%); Fremont (60%); San Bernardino (57%); Riverside (57%); Bakersfield (57%); Fresno (55%); American Canyon (55%); Oakland (50%); PSM/Non-Refinery Unit (47%); Monrovia (47%); Van Nuys (45%); Santa Ana (45%); and Long Beach (40%).

An additional three offices have vacancy rates between 33% and 40% -- San Diego, Sacramento and Foster City.

The California Employment Development Department (EDD) reported the California civilian labor force in December 2024 as 19,399,400 workers. The 160.5 FTE CSHO positions represents an inspector to worker ratio of 1 inspector to 120,869 workers. Cal/OSHA’s inspector to worker ratio of 1 inspector to120,000 workers is much less health protective than Washington State’s ratio of 1 to 26,000, and Oregon’s ratio of 1 to 24,000. [These non-California ratios were cited in the April 2024 “Death on the Job” report.]

The DOSH Org Chart indicates that 10 field CSHOs are “bilingual.” Region II (Northern California and Central Valley) and Region VIII (Central Valley and Central Coast) – regions with numerous farmworkers – both have one bilingual CSHOs in the field. It is estimated that at least 5 million of the state’s 19 million worker labor force speak languages other than English, with many monolingual in their native tongue.

In addition, there are only three industrial hygiene inspectors among the 160 field compliance officers. Which means that industrial hygiene inspections for “health” issues such as exposures to heat, silica, lead, chemicals, and repetitive motions/ergonomics are severely limited.

Best, Garrett Brown

Field Enforcement Inspectors (CSHOs)
Division of Occupational Safety and Health – Cal/OSHA
December 1, 2024
[November 30, 2024, DOSH Org Chart, data released by DIR in April 2025]
Enforcement
Region
Filled CSHO
Positions
Vacant CSHO
Positions
CSHOs
certified as
bilingual
Industrial
Hygiene
CSHOs
Region I
SF Bay Area
16 CSHOs 18 positions 1 CSHO None
Region II
Northern California
and Central Valley
18 CSHOs 12 positions 1 CSHO 1 CSHO
Region III
San Diego, Santa
Ana, Riverside, San
Bernardino
23 CSHOs 22 positions 1 CSHO None
Region IV
Los Angeles
area
31 CSHOs 17 positions 4 CSHOs None
Region V
Mining &
Tunneling
6 CSHOs 8 positions None None
Region VI
High Hazard Unit
LETF Unit
17 CSHOs
10 CSHOs
5 positions
4 positions
2 CSHOs
1 CSHO
Region VII
PSM units –
Refinery:
Non-refinery:
3 CSHOs
8 CSHOs
7 positions
7 positions
None None
Region VIII
Central Valley and
Central Coast
19 CSHOs 16 positions 1 CSHO 1 CSHO
CSHO positions
[267 total]
151 filled 116 vacant 10 bilingual 3 IHs
1Minus 50% time of
4 Retired
Annuitants working
as CSHOs
- 2 FTEs
Plus 50% time of 23
District SSEs
+ 11.5 FTEs
Field-Available
inspector FTEs
160.5 CSHOs
Notes:
- Of the 151 filled CSHO positions, there are four “Retired Annuitant” (RA)
rehired staff working as CSHOs in District Offices. RA positions are temporary,
part-time positions and RAs are limited to 960 hours per fiscal year (half time).
At the same time, there are 19 Senior Safety Engineer (SSE) positions in District
Offices. These SSEs are to spend 50% of their time on District Office
administrative matters and 50% of their time conducting compliance inspections.
Therefore, the number of CSHO FTEs available for field inspections on
December 1, 2024, is 160.5 CSHOs.
- There are 116 vacant CSHO positions. DOSH has a vacancy rate for CSHO
positions of 43% (116 vacancies in 267 positions).
- The California Employment Development Department (EDD) reported the
California civilian labor force in December 2024 as 19,399,400 workers. The
160.5 FTE CSHO positions represents an inspector to worker ratio of 1 inspector
to 120,869 workers. Cal/OSHA’s inspector to worker ratio of 1 inspector to
120,000 workers is much less health protective than Washington State’s
ratio of 1 to 26,000, and Oregon’s ratio of 1 to 24,000. [These non-California
ratios were cited in the April 2024 “Death on the Job” report.]
- Fifteen enforcement District Offices have CSHO vacancy rates at or above
40% -- with ten offices having vacancy rates of 50% or more. These offices
are: PSM/Refinery Unit (70%); San Francisco (67%); Santa Barbara (67%);
Fremont (60%); San Bernardino (57%); Riverside (57%); Bakersfield (57%);
Fresno (55%); American Canyon (55%); Oakland (50%); PSM/Non-Refinery
Unit (47%); Monrovia (47%); Van Nuys (45%); Santa Ana (45%); and Long
Beach (40%).
- An additional three offices have vacancy rates between 33% and 40% -- San
Diego, Sacramento and Foster City.
- The new Agricultural Safety unit has two CSHOs for the four slated
enforcement offices in Bakersfield, El Centro, Lodi, and Salinas.
2- There are six District Offices without a District Manager in Los Angeles, Long
Beach, Modesto, Santa Barbara, Van Nuys, and the Fresno High Hazard Unit
offices. In these District Offices, a CSHO must serve as Acting District Manager,
so those offices effectively have one additional CSHO vacancy as the ADMs do
not conduct field inspections.
- Three District Offices have zero clerical staff –Fresno High Hazard Unit,
American Canyon, Santa Ana, and Santa Barbara – which means CSHOs must
spend time doing administrative work.
- The DOSH Org Chart indicates that 10 field CSHOs are “bilingual.” Region II
(Northern California and Central Valley) and Region VIII (Central Valley and
Central Coast) – regions with numerous farmworkers – both have one bilingual
CSHOs in the field. It is estimated that at least 5 million of the state’s 19 million
worker labor force speak languages other than English, with many monolingual in
their native tongue.
- In 1980, Federal OSHA had a ratio of 14.8 CSHOs per million workers.
Forty-five years later, Cal/OSHA has a ratio of 8.3 CSHOs per million
workers.
- The 160.5 field-available CSHO positions are also below the number of
California Fish & Game Wardens (approximately 250) currently working in the
field.
- The 160.5 field-available CSHO positions also include two CSHOs who are
classified as in training (SET, TAU, T&D, Junior SE) and who technically do not
conduct independent inspections alone.
Sources: DIR List of Authorized DOSH Positions, November 30, 2024
EDD: http://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov
Chart compiled by Garrett Brown, April 8, 2025
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2025/04/21/18875748.php
