At the OPCMIA International Training Fund, we believe that every worker has the fundamental right to return home from the jobsite safely and in good health each and every day.
That’s why health and safety is at the core of our mission. Why health and safety are embedded in our pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs. Why we conduct research and hold special training programs exclusively devoted to health and safety.
The jobs of plasterers, cement masons and shop hands are fraught with risk. From exposure to silica dust to the risks of falls and work zone traffic, from having to work in extreme heat and cold to issues of mental health and substance abuse, health and safety are constant challenges and imperatives.
So on this Workers Memorial Day — April 28, 2024 — we honor the dead and fight for the living. And rededicate ourselves to safety and health in our crafts. Everywhere. And every day.
But here’s the reality we face: As AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler noted, our workplace safety and health rights are not freely given. Anti-regulatory attacks have put our working conditions in danger—threats that would remove protections we take for granted. Congressional Republicans are attempting to defund the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and prevent future worker safety and health regulations from being developed.
It is simply unacceptable that each day, 340 workers die and more than 6,000 are injured or made ill because of their job. Our nation’s job safety laws are too weak already, leaving many employers who violate the law unaccountable. OSHA penalties are still too low to be a deterrent. Employers retaliate against workers who speak out against unsafe working conditions. Black, Latino and immigrant workers are disproportionately killed on the job. Heat, workplace violence, infectious disease and chemical exposures are dangerous, uncontrolled hazards that need to be addressed. Workers still cannot freely join a union without retaliation from their employers.
We must protect the rights we have won and keep fighting for safer working conditions. That is exactly what we are doing. And what we will continue to do in the weeks, months and years to come.
