A new report on unsafe working conditions in Massachusetts includes the heartbreaking story of a 17-year-old man who fell to his death during a roofing job last August.The report, entitled Dying for Work in Massachusetts, was compiled to highlight workplace safety issues in the state. The report's authors found that immigrants accounted for 20 percent of workplace fatalities (16 of 80 workplace deaths) in 2007. The total number of deaths was the highest since 2003.
Immigrants account for just under 17 percent of the state's total workforce. The report's authors say immigrants often work in poor, unsafe conditions, plus they may not receive proper safety information because they do not speak English.
Commercial fishing, traditionally the most dangerous occupation in the country, claimed the most lives, according to the report.
"It is an absolute outrage that in this day and age, we have such a high number of lives lost on the job," said Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert J. Haynes.
The report highlighted the death of Benedelson Ovalle Chavez, a 17-year-old immigrant from Guatemala who was working as a roofer despite having no training for the job and despite receiving no safety training. Chavez fell 20 feet to his death while working on the roof of a Salem, Mass., church.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined Chavez's employer, B.C. Construction, $22,400 for, among other violations, a repeat violation of fall protection requirements. The general contractor, Olympic Painting and Roofing Co. a firm with a long history of labor and safety violations, remains free of any charges, according to Tim Sullivan of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH), which released the report along with the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.
Union organizer Rosa Blumenfeld said that many employers consider OSHA fines to be a routine part of doing business. Of all workplace deaths in Massachusetts last year, 12 cases were settled. Together, the cases had an average final penalty assessed at $5,383 per death," she said. Jeffrey Crosby, president of the Lynn-based North Shore Labor Council, said federal funding has been cut and "de-fanged OSHA" so that the agency has less ability to inspect potentially dangerous worksites and enforce its mandates.
"We may never get to zero deaths, but we have to reverse this trend. If you're good enough to work for somebody, you're good enough to work safely. Chavez shouldn't have been doing that job," Crosby said. "Some of the protections we took for granted go back to the New Deal and they are disappearing."
Blumenfeld said it would take OSHA 121 years to inspect every jobsite in Massachusetts.
