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     Current Issue Highlights Highlights Archive             Get to know your Business Agent today!  Find out how the union makes a difference on the job. |
Newsline: May 2000 Unionists Gathering Marks Workers' Memorial Day Members of Local 237 joined hundreds of other labor representatives at a noon rally April 28 to memorialize workers who died last year while on the job. The rally, appropriately held at Manhattan's Union Square, was co-sponsored by the New York Central Labor Council and NYCOSH, the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. Ironically, the rally was held on the same day the ninth livery car driver was found shot to death. The sponsors pointed out that more than 200 workers in the metropolitan area were killed last year while working, including more than 60 construction workers, more than 50 truck and taxi drivers, and more than 30 persons involved in the service sector. Dennis Hughes, head of the state AFL-CIO, calling on employers to do more to protect their workers, said: "We should be able to operate in the confidence that our workplace is safe, is free from unnecessary danger, and that we have a reasonable chance of doing our work without unnecessary injury or, in some unfortunate situations, death." He insisted that, "Working men and women in this country have yet to get to that point where we are sure that all precautions are taken to safeguard our lives." Union members also passed out leaflets calling for a letter writing campaign to Congress and the Department of Labor to urge that new ergonomic standards being sought by OSHA, (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) be passed without delay. Ergonomic hazards, back injuries and carpal tunnel syndrome are among the greatest dangers to workers, crippling and injuring more than 600,000 workers each year. Public hearings on the new standards are expected to end this month, but the bills won't become law unless workers demand that their Congressional representatives support and force their passage. The business community and their Republican friends have been stalling passage of the vital new ergonomic standards for years and won't stop until Labor forces their passage. |
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