ou_7072003

Workplace Deaths Dipped in 2007

Workplace deaths fell last year to the lowest level since record keeping started in 1992, the government said, but there were big jumps in the number of fatal falls, workplace homicides and deaths among police officers.

The preliminary report said there were 5,488 fatal work injuries in 2007, down from 5,840 in 2006 and 6,217 in 1992. Fatalities involving transportation, which typically account for nearly half of all work-related fatalities, fell to 2,234. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao said the numbers show that Bush administration programs designed to protect worker's safety were working, but labor health and safety expert Eric Frumin said the report was misleading. Frumin, health and safety coordinator for the Change to Win labor federation, told the New York Times that Chao's analysis was off the mark. He said a big drop in transportation-related deaths shouldn't be credited to OSHA activity but rather to state and federal transportation agencies, which have jurisdiction over transportation. In fact, Frumin told the newspaper, a series of fatal construction accidents in Las Vegas and other incidents last year are evidence that OSHA was still not doing its job. Ninety percent of the fatal work injuries involved workers in private industry. The numbers do not include workers who die because they have been made ill on the job because of exposure to lethal substances, only those who have suffered fatal injuries.

Boomer's Work Many Jobs

Americans born between 1957 and 1964 have held an average of 10.8 jobs from ages 18 to 42, according to a Labor Department report. Most of the jobs, and larger wage increases, occurred in their early adult years, the report said. According to the report, from the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers between the ages of 18 and 22 held an average of 4.4 jobs during the period. Between the ages 38 and 42, it was an average of 1.9 jobs.

Steelworkers, British Union Merge to Confront Global Exploitation

The Steelworkers (USW) in July signed a merger agreement with the largest union in Britain and Ireland, creating what its leaders said would be the world's first global union. The goal of the merged union would be to take on the increasing power of global capital, "to advance the interest of millions of workers throughout the world who are being shamefully exploited," in the words of one of the union's leaders. Under the merger agreement, signed at the USW Convention in Las Vegas July 2, the USW and its new overseas partner, Unite the Union, will maintain their individual identities but will work to blend their activities and structures. The new union, named Workers Uniting, will have a joint steering committee and an executive director to coordinate trans-Atlantic activities. USW President Leo Gerard and Unite the Union General Secretary Derek Simpson are expected to serve as co-chairs of the new entity. The merging unions would retain their names and each union will continue to have its own president for at least a few years. But they would work as one in negotiations with multinational employers such as the oil conglomerate BP and giant steel maker ArcelorMittal. The two have large memberships in paper, aluminum, oil and refining, health care and transportation: about 46 percent in manufacturing and mining, and 44 percent in transportation and services. The new union will represent about three million workers. Leaders made it clear they hoped that other unions would join with them to form a larger, more powerful organization. The merger has been in the works since April 2007. The two unions have been discussing strategies for saving manufacturing jobs in the U.S., Canada, Britain and Ireland, and have already participated in joint bargaining with employers in the chemical, paper and titanium industries. They also have participated in each other's education, rapid response, health and safety, civil rights, and women's conferences. The union's founding constitution calls on its members to "build global union activism, recognizing that uniting as workers across international boundaries is the only way to challenge the injustices of globalization" Time magazine's report on the merger quoted Gerard as noting that the new coordination it will bring means workers will be better able to ensure that a company can't reject defined benefits in one country that it's already agreed to in another. He said the merger "also gives labor more muscle for dealing with bodies like the World Trade Organization, the European Commission and the increasing number of global forums on issues like climate change."