On the picket line

BP rig workers honored

As part of the April 28 commemoration of Workers Memorial Day — the day chosen to honor workers killed on the job and to call for tougher job safety laws — labor unionists will salute the 11 workers who were killed in the BP Deepwater/Horizon drilling platform explosion a year ago on April 20, which triggered the worst environmental and economic disaster ever in the Gulf of Mexico.

According to the most recent data available, in 2009 some 4,340 workers were killed on the job and another 560,000 died of occupational diseases. In addition more than 4.1 million workplace injuries and illnesses were reported in both private and public workplaces. It’s estimated that since the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect 40 years ago, an estimated 430,000 lives have been saved. But much more needs to be done to address new hazards, set the highest standards for worker safety and establish tougher enforcement, so that the health of all workers is protected at work. (afl-cio blog, April 20)

Suits defend immigrant workers

Farms in Washington state and Hawaii as well as California-based labor contractor Global Horizons Inc. are being sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for discrimination against more than 200 Thai immigrant workers. (New York Times, April 21) Global Horizons confiscated the workers’ passports and threatened to deport them if they complained about conditions. Named in the suit were eight farms, including Del Monte Fresh Produce. The Times called this “the largest human trafficking case in the nation’s agriculture industry.” The EEOC also filed a lawsuit in Mississippi against marine services company Signal International, claiming that 500 immigrant Indian workers faced discrimination and substandard living conditions in Texas and Mississippi. These immigrant workers, lured to the New Orleans area to join the cleanup after the 2005 hurricanes, have been struggling for justice since 2006.