With OSHA AWOL During COVID, Workers Step Up
“The kitchen is crowded. We are definitely never six feet apart. It’s extremely hot because the air gives out every summer,” says Pat, a shift leader at McDonalds in Greenville, Mississippi. Overcrowded, poorly ventilated kitchens were unhealthy places to work before COVID-19. Now, they are life-threatening.
Pat is not alone. Along with millions of essential workers in food service, on farms, in slaughterhouses and other occupations, she and her co-workers have been forced for months to confront the terrible risk of exposure to COVID-19.
By applying sound science and input from workers, the risk of spreading infectious disease can be vastly reduced or eliminated in workplaces. But the federal agency responsible for enforcing workplace safety standards — the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) — has barely lifted a finger to put desperately needed protections in place.
Tens of thousands of workers have tested positive for COVID-19. Nearly 8,000 have filed pandemic-related complaints with OSHA. In response, the federal agency has issued, as of this writing, precisely four citations against employers. Four.
An August 14 report by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) finds that complaints of illegal retaliation against workers for raising safety issues on the job have skyrocketed during COVID, increasing by at least 30 percent. But OSHA has reduced the number of investigators assigned to the problem, and it now takes more than eight months to complete an investigation. And a survey conducted in June by the National Employment Law Project, meanwhile, showed that Black workers are more than twice as likely to report illegal retaliation than their white counterparts.
How many U.S. workers have died due to the abysmal negligence of employers and the federal agency that is supposed to regulate them? The sad truth is, we don’t even know. You can look up COVID deaths by state and county, track the number of infections, and even find out what percentage of people are testing positive. But no public agency — none — is tracking how many workers have died while providing food, shelter, sanitation, transport and other essential services to the rest of us.
Our organization, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), is attempting to fill the gap by tracking media reports of workers who have died after exposure to COVID-19. We’ve found more than 700 cases so far: Home health aides. Food processing workers. Bus Operators. Maintenance mechanics. Teachers. And that’s only a fraction of the real toll on workers.
Workers, meanwhile, are not waiting around to get sick and die. In recent months, there have been hundreds of strikes and walkouts over safety issues in grocery stores, warehouses, meat processing plants and other workplaces.
National COSH released a “A Safe and Just Return to Work” as a tool for workers and advocates to press for change at the local and state level. And with support from their unions, our local COSH affiliates, workers’ centers and other allies, workers are fighting for — and winning — important advances.
Philly fights retaliation: The Essential Worker Protection Act, amending the Philadelphia Code, was signed by the city’s mayor on June 26. It prohibits retaliation against workers who report an unsafe condition or refuse dangerous work, and gives workers the right to go to court to remedy employer violations. The ordinance also provides 14 days of paid sick time for workers who need to stay home, including gig, domestic and undocumented workers.
“Making sure workers can’t get fired for speaking up is huge,” says Nicole Fuller, executive director of the Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety and Health (PhilaPOSH), who joined with safety activists to push for the new ordinance. “Whistleblower protections under existing federal law aren’t strong enough. Workers know a lot about how to make their workplaces safer and stop the spread of COVID. Now that they can speak freely in Philadelphia, we’re all going to be a lot safer.”
Safety is no luxury: The California Domestic Worker Coalition is working to win safety protections for domestic workers, who provide care to seniors and others most vulnerable to COVID, often without adequate protective equipment or training.
“Occupational safety and health is not a luxury, it’s a necessity,” says Socorra Diaz, a day laborer and leader at the Graton Day Labor Center. “Imagine if we had made this change to the law 10 years ago. How many of us would not have been hurt or gotten sick at work?”
The proposed Health and Safety for All Workers Act, SB 1257, would extend protections to California domestic workers and day laborers, including right to health and safety training and protective equipment. Workers would also be protected against retaliation when they speak out against unsafe working conditions.
“Employers need to make the workplace as safe and as healthy as possible,” said Jora Trang, chief of staff and equity at Worksafe, an Oakland-based legal and advocacy center. “They need to involve workers and provide proper training. The most effective way to reduce risk is for workers to play a significant role in ensuring the health and safety of their own workplaces.”
Moving forward, not back in Mississippi: Worker leaders, with backing from the Mississippi Worker Center for Human Rights are advocating for the City of Greenville to require paid sick leave and freedom from retaliation for all essential workers. They are also pushing for an ordinance that will require businesses to attest, under oath, that they will provide “humane conditions that are free from all forms of discrimination and/or intolerance.”
“There is absolutely no attention paid to those who work in the fast food industry, hotels and restaurants,” said Jaribu Hill, executive director of the Center for Human Rights. “When they are out sick or have to care for a child, or someone who has contracted COVID or other illness, they are not paid when they are off work so they are thrust deeper into poverty.”
Safety standards with real teeth: COSH and labor partners in Oregon, California and other parts of the country are building on the momentum of the recent victory in Virginia, which became the first state to implement mandatory COVID workplace protections. There, worker advocates — including the Legal Aid Justice Center, Community Solidarity for Poultry Workers, Virginia Organizing, Virginia AFL-CIO and the VA Interfaith Worker Center — led a vigorous campaign, overcoming fierce opposition from the state’s powerful poultry industry.
The standard, adopted on July 15 by the state’s Safety and Health Codes Board, includes requirements such as physical distancing, protective gear for workers, workplace sanitization and a prohibition on retaliating against workers who raise safety concerns. It provides for penalties of up to $130,000 for employer violations.
Business advocates are sputtering at the prospect of safety rules with real teeth. “With this vote,” said Nicole Riley, Virginia director of the National Federation of Independent Business, “Virginia’s repeated ranking as a top state for business has evaporated, we won’t be able to compete with other states.”
Our current public health crisis has shed light on the unequal balance of power between workers and employers, which allows profit to take precedence over the well-being of workers. People of color, immigrants, and others in marginalized communities, suffer most from this inequity — including a disproportionate share of COVID-related fatalities,
These are the workers who are fighting to take control over their daily environment, refusing to passively accept life-threatening risks as a condition of earning a living.
“Workers are ready to raise their voices,” says Hill. “Black bodies are dying from COVID — and workers are not going to return to the same abusive, discriminatory normal that existed before and during the pandemic.”
Jessica Martinez and Marcy Goldstein-Gelb are co-directors of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a network of 23 local health and safety organizations in 18 states.
