How Reporting Accidents Bond Workforces

Workers Memorial Day is right around the corner. It is also the anniversary of the enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 which created the federal government agency known as OSHA - that pesky group of underappreciated, overworked and understaffed bureaucrats who do their best to ensure that workplaces are safe, the bosses properly train their employees and that the workers themselves work smarter, not harder. It's estimated that since its formation, OSHA has saved more than 70,000 lives, but still, every year, over 5,000 Americans go to work but never come home because of a tragic accident on the job. Most of these accidents could've been avoided, and as organized labor does its best to organize and influence the non-union, it is mostly the unorganized worker that dies at work. Simple things like Tailboards, Stand Downs, and Apprenticeship Training save lives - but not every worker is in a union, not every job is on OSHA's radar and not every municipality has Apprenticeship language. We are better off now as a workforce than we were in 1970, but there is still much work to be done.