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Interchange – There Are No Accidents: The Business of Blaming the Worker

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In the U.S., death and injury on the job are considered to be a condition of doing business, a necessary evil that is often said to come about because of “operator error” — everyone makes mistakes after all, why should an employer or corporation bear the burden of what is surely just a fact of human nature? To make this assumption is to assert that the worker has been properly trained for the specific job being done; that the worker has been given the proper clothing and protective gear; that the workplace itself has been made as safe as possible and all machinery is in safe working order. It’s to assume “the best” of the employer and at the same time “the worst” of the employee and to accept that to work at a place like Tyson Foods is to know and expect you might be the one employee a month to lose a body part. Hey, you chose to work there, that’s on you.

But that reality is status quo on the job in an America where 13 of us die on the job every day…and that’s a number based on on employer data, which is less than complete or reliable.

That narrative needs to be challenged and changed.

Workers have a right to a safe workplace. The law requires employers to provide their employees with safe and healthful workplaces.

Today we explore the antagonism of business organizations against The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, the agency established under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which President Richard Nixon signed into law on December 29, 1970. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the “regulated community” has constantly been working to undermine and underfund the work that OSHA does. It seems businesses prefer the days of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 where 146 workers died, mostly women and girls, because the factory owners locked exit doors during work hours to restrict employee breaks. If you’re on a break, or using the bathroom, you’re taking money out the master’s, er, the employer’s pocket.

It seems, just as in 1911, we should all be asking still, is going to work a grave mistake?

We begin with guest Jon Karmel’s assertion that “accident” is the wrong word to use for workplace injury and death as it shifts responsibility onto the worker’s back.

GUEST
Jonathan Karmel has practiced labor and employment law in Chicago for 35 years representing unions and their employee benefit funds. A Fellow with The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, he’s recently become the co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Occupational Safety and Health Committee. He is the author of Dying to Work: Death and Injury in the American Workplace, published by Cornell University Press.

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The Demolition of Workers’ Comp by Michael Grabell and Howard Berkes
Occupational Safety and Health Administration

MUSIC
“Factory Girl” Rhiannon Giddens
“Triangle Factory Fire” Misner & Smith
“Holding Your Own” Son Volt
“Industrial Disease” Dire Straits
“Frankly, Mr. Shankly” The Smiths

CREDTS
Producer & Host: Doug Storm
Editing: Jim Thrasher
Executive Producer: Wes Martin
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