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Subscribe to RSSOn Sept. 3, 2009, contract laborer Nick Revetta was killed in an explosion at U.S. Steel's Clairton Plant near Pittsburgh. Revetta's death and the events that followed reveal the limitations of a federal law meant to protect American workers.
When Nicholas Adrian Revetta of suburban Pittsburgh died in an explosion at a U.S. Steel plant on Sept. 3, 2009, his death did not make national headlines. No hearings were held into the accident that killed him. No one was fired or sent to jail.
The 32-year-old contract laborer, who left behind a wife and two young children, was one of the 4,551 people killed on the job in America in 2009 -- a number that eclipsed the total number of U.S. fatalities in the nine-year Iraq war. Combined with the estimated 50,000 people who die annually of work-related diseases, it's as if a fully loaded Boeing 737-700 crashed every day.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 entitles American workers to "safe and healthful" conditions in their workplaces. But an examination of Revetta's death by the Center for Public Integrity illustrates how safety can yield to speed, how even fatal accidents can have few consequences for employers -- who are typically fined just $7,900 per fatality -- and how federal investigations can be cut short by what some call a de facto quota system.
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This article seems to suggest that OSHA should oversee U.S. military action during times of war.
I'm not quite sure that was the point, but it would not surprize me to find out that there is a New Department of Defense Defense in the works as we type...
I know that flag draped soldiers coffins sells more ad space, but self inflicted injuries kill more Americans every year than all of America's wars/conflicts/police actions combined...(Smoking, Drinking, Obesity, Stupid @!$%# for kicks)
I suspect the number of deaths due to actual combat in the george war in Iraq is many many times the number given in the article. Acting President george the lesser is reported to had told the military not to count as combat deaths those who died of their combat wounds months and even years later and to re-classify many other deaths as accidents (for whatever reason) instead of combat.
I think there are presently many law suits by families of those who died in combat but were not counted as combat (Reclassified as Accidents), to make the government and the DOD re-classify their family members deaths as actual combat related deaths.
And thats my opinion.
Corporate Legal douches have paid off more Politicians and fashioned the law in favor of their client. In the early 1990's most Oil Producers laid off (fired) their drilling superintendents and rehired them as "Contract Consultants". This accomplished several things. The first and most important is that in their contract all liability for drilling operations now went to that Contractor. Now initially no one in the Insurance Industry thought differently about this. The Consultant category originally had very low rates, that was because we thought he was just their giving advice. But noooooooooooooo, the inevitable blowout occurred. The BIG OIL producer just held up their contract and said, not our problem, the dead people, the property damage - all responsibility for this tragic loss is on who? Come on children, you know the answer.................. THE CONTRACT CONSULTANT! That's right, the same guy who used to be employed by the Producer, but was now an Independent Contractor with a Contract fashioned against him and in favor of the BIG OIL PRODUCER.
I was an Energy Underwriter at that time and we would have reduced that Producers insurance premiums by huge dollars because they were no longer responsible, but by the same token we were asleep and thought that "Consultant" was just there to "consult" when in fact he was a defacto Drilling Superintendent calling all the shots at the site. So of course we were on the hook for everything that went wrong at the site. After paying a few million in claims, we woke up and started investigating closer to each persons real activity at a drilling site.
Moral of the story, beware the Douche Lawyer with a new Contract in his hand...
There were no less than 3 ways that I could have died today doing my job (falling from high place, electrocution, caught in moving parts) and another 3 ways that weren't part of my workday today...and I can not imagine a profession where there is a 0% chance that a workplace accident could lead to death (maybe rubber-room tester)
Mr. Phea,
Exactly. Deaths at the workplace are generally due to worker stupidity. Not wearing a hard hat when it is required. Walking beyond a barricaded area. Climbing without a harness. Electricians not locking out a line before work. Standing on top of a ladder to change a light bulb. Shaking a vending machine that took his money. Not every job is sitting in front of a computer or behind a counter. You have roofers, tree cutters, construction workers, taxie drivers, bus drivers, truck drivers, firefighters, police, etc. Of course, there will be more deaths at the workplace than wars.
There isn't any Dept. of Defense, it's the Dept. of Offense.
The maggots and their scumbag proxies want to KILL OSHA -
If these lunatics get the power to rule you as a subject and a third world worker there will be no OSHA, abolish The Department of Education, the National Health Center, The Center for Public Health, The Consumer Protection Agency, The Clean Water Act, Cut corporate taxes during record earnings as reported, National Vaginal Probes Mandated, out law all condoms, Creationism no Evolution taught in American schools period, increase interest on student loans to almost 7% for now, this is only a partial and very small list of the changes coming to you soon: we won't mention the increase in Social Security payments and cut back in benefits...worker safety and protection bah humbug let them take their chances.
Now all of these "changes" would not be acceptable so we will privatize to private corporations because we all know now after having in mantra drummed into our minds 24 hours a day 8 days a week as in "Big Brother" is watching out for you so they say "no government (the grafters do) we (they) can do the job and we want the jobs less government state awarded contracts now the state is better for you and all of us" - (I thought we tried that?)
Gee I wonder who will get these services? I wonder just who will get those government awarded contracts because government is bad the national but state government we know is always good...to privatize: you know like our national highways, Hoover Dam and the TVA bring electricity to thousands upon thousands of ungrateful slugs that hate government while they flick the switch for light...the irony.
Lets see 16,000,000 - 16 million American children go to bed hungry at night double that near or soon to be near living in mortal fear ah they are only children I guess they left out young adults I guess they don't need to eat and the adults? Who cares I am eating just fine thank you. Let's do some math:
If we add the 50,000 that die each year from work related injuries, what is the number for the severely injured and those made disabled did the employer have health insurance? To help this worker through the rest of their lives? It is called Workers Compensation Insurance mandated in that backwards leaning state of California? We have in place to protect the worker and their families, help provide the bare necessities, why that would (dog whistle now) be communism and ruin America our whole way of life...did you know Russia has a national health plan? Russia is an emerging market predicted years of high growth now and into a steady state of economic growth in the 2020's. Back to the American deaths -
Okay the 50,000 (fifty thousand that are dead each year for sure we know of, forget the injuried) now add the 50,000 plus that we know die from lack of access to health care and we come up with a nice round number of 100,000 that is one hundred thousand dead not injured. Uncontested research numbers only debated by hired doctor lap dogs with no shame or respect for science but will not debate on live TV why? The naysayers with all that health money to finance them do not even do information warfare in national TV adds to debunk the combined research numbers nor send out teams of researchers to debunk the findings and discredit the methodology used...a tried and true method the same accepted method used for years.
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND AMERICANS DIE EACH AND EVERY YEAR, AT LEAST ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND - WHAT DO WE CARE WITH COVERAGE YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN BUDDY - VETERAN OR NOT AND THAT SUICIDE RATE IF NEARLY 20 SOLDIERS A MONTH - YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN THIS AMERICA THOSE PRE-DETERMINED TO SUCCEDD BY THE ALL MIGHTY WILL BE REWARDED WITH RICHES...YES THE LAW OF THE FITTEST FOR EXAMPLE BUSH JR. AND OH SO RICH, HE WAS PICKED BY GOD - ROMNEY.
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-to-lack-of-health-coverage/
What is one hundred thousand death, did these providers even have a family as in a wife and children? Not my fault less government they are on their own free markets - You Are On Your Own Make Do!!
Magnum Serpentine
LOVE your comment. Amazing how this article ignores the thousands of deaths that were caused by "Former President Bushs" war.
As for OSHA, I think this is a pure example of bad management and poor decisions. In theory, OSHA is supposed to provide for the health and safety of the American Worker. However, that seems to be 'blurred' by how much money a corporation has and can "BUY" their way to healthy and safety environment.
http://www.apatheticvoter.com/RegulationDeregulation.htm
This organization, like so many others.. needs a HUGE overall and be IMMUNE To lobbyist and pac money from the "We the Corporation"...
Death may not be the only problem - how about some idiots in your workplace have made it a hostile workplace of harassment to force you to suffer regular 'ritual' humilitation - or 'high-tech' lynching.
I think the US should worry about its own pervasive human right violations instead of using human rights as a tool in foreign policy - because the US doesn't have the privileges of using human right as a tool - human rights violations are so pervasive in the work place - thus making US the double-sandard hypocrite.
And even more deaths since President obama took ownership so it could be labeled Obama's War.
Figures don't lie - but liars figure. This does not show us the percentage of deaths. There are millions on people in the USA but only a few thousand soldiers/sailors/marines in the Middle East.
Thank you but I will still take my chances here
- Remember this when the Presidential debates start. They can make any number prove anything they want. Use your head!!
While the statistics may be true - that doesn't justify sending people to wars based on false WMD claims. Those deaths - both American and Iraqi's were completely unnecessary.
I'm not entirely certain what the point of the article's initial comparison is...
A war zone is generally accepted to be an inherently dangerous environment, however the total number of American military personnel stationed in Iraq (The Sequel), at its peak, only reached 165,000 - which is about one half of one half of one percent of the total US population (assuming 300m), or equal to a little less than 10% of the US civilian labor force of ~150m. Let's just assume that US workers and US military personnel, on the average, are trained to the same job competence for their respective roles, so we'll call that a push. We'll also ignore employed vs non-employed status figures out of that 150m, and call that fungible with combat vs non-combat roles, which I think is pretty fair.
So if 4,551 people die in work related accidents out of a total civilian labor force of 150 million, you're looking at a 0.00303% annual death rate. If 4,484 US service members were killed out of a total population of 165,000, the death rate, when adjusted annually, is 0.302%. Based on these figures, you were ten times more likely to be killed while serving in Iraq than at work stateside, which is pretty consistent with the accepted notion that war is hazardous to your health. Despite this, it seems that war has never been safer for American service members.
Industrial jobs are known to be more physically dangerous than, say, office jobs, which among other reasons precludes the need for OSHA as an organization providing oversight for job safety. The article posits that US Steel should have paid a fine for the death of this worker, however OSHA's investigation into US Steel's alleged negligence was inconclusive and the company was not required to pay an additional penalty for his death. As far as I am concerned, this is consistent with the rule of law. This, as well as the other examples cited in the full article, is not a clear case for stronger unionization, but more a case for strengthening the scope and reach of safety inspectors, and for assessing larger penalties and fines for workplace violations as deterrents.
While industrial jobs are dangerous, and workplace accidents do happen, regardless of where the accountability falls, drawing a comparison between workplace and war zone fatalities based on a headline figure is a pretty serious reach.
Maybe obama will decide to purge the country of the few remaining jobs we have left so that no one will lose their life performing said jobs.
Honestly, I realize that 24/7 news is the way it is in today's world, but what is the point of articles like this? People die. They die in accidents, they die in murders and suicides, they die from disease, they die from old age. When your time is up, there is nothing you can do about it.
The world would be in dire straits if we didn't.
I think the point of the story is that death is a fact of life. It's a fact of life in the workplace, it's a fact of life in war. It's a fact of life on the road, at home and everyplace else. So, when you consider the fact that war, in particular, is an environment where death is a major purpose, then the amount of deaths in Iraq is actually quite small when put into perspective.
Good point. Also compare against prior wars involving US service members. For example, the invasion of Normandy saw 6,600 US deaths in one day. In simple numbers, about 50% more US troops died that day than in the nine years we were involved in Iraq. Also, the total US invasion force at Normandy was only one-third that of the occupation force in Iraq. So 11.5% of US service members involved in the Normandy invasion died (6600/57500), while 2.7% of US service members in Iraq have been killed (4484/165000). As far as wars go, relatively speaking, the death rate in Gulf War 2 was very low.
Apples and oranges. If we were not over there fighting, then no American soliders would be dying in combat. Is MSNBC using their dartboard again for stories?
Ed
And the death rate was even lower for those directed by Georgie Porgie to go shopping when he and Congress blythely and capriciously began that phoney war.
D-Day i.e. WWII was at least a declared war with a national draft and a shared national sense of duty, obligation and sacrifice.
How about somebody crunching the numbers for deaths by Servicemembers vs. deaths by those who merely tuned in while at the electronics store at the mall or whose sole contribution was "liking" something war-related on Facebook.
K Man,
It stands to reason that the military industrial complex spending spree is actually a direct contributor to the relatively low death rate among US service members in Iraq and Afghanistan, regardless of your personal political beliefs or your views of the justification of the war. In that sense alone, it's a good thing. However I do recognize that this factor does not exist in a vacuum and that war itself is inherently a bad thing, even when necessary.
With regards to the necessity of the war, deployable WMD's were not found in Iraq, however large volumes of the base components were. Relatively few service members were lost in the process of removing a tyrannical dictator from power, extinguishing a threat to US international interests. I think history will view this as a just action, domestic issues aside. So take this how you will, but I'll chalk this one up as a 'W' regardless of whether bureaucratic Government agencies have the administrative competency to properly vet and manage vendor contracts. They're fundamentally separate issues.
I'm not quite certain what you're referencing in your last paragraph.
the thinker-318752
Amazing how now the illegal war with Iraq is now President Obama's fault and his war. Since you seem to be so smart.. why don't you show us factual information that proves your point.. If you can. :-).
I can't think of a worse way to die than dying at work. Well, except for dying at work on a Monday. I don't believe God put us on this earth to punch a clock at work 50+ years only to die sometime very soon after that. There is more to life than that, right?
There's more American workers than there are troops in Iraq! But what are the percentages of each? I'll bet the odds of getting killed in Iraq are lot more than getting killed on the job at home! How about comparing drug related homicides (murders, drive by shootings, etc.) in this country to loses in Iraq, or all of the places our troops are in harms way? Funny how politicians can justify billions for the Department of Defense to protect our "way of life" halfway around the world. But can't find the tax dollars to protect citizens lives on our own streets!
Ah yes! the phoney war! I wonder how much those Iraqis were paid to show their stained purple fingers to the American cameras. You know, all the anti Americans that are out there love to berate us and call us warmongers, or whatever. But, I am struck by one commentator's support of the US when he pointed out that "yes, we have fought wars all around the world in support of freedom for people seeking freedom. In return, all we've asked for is a place to bury our dead." Remember that "war for oil" that Bush fought? Does anyone remember our demand for the oil or the oil at a discounted price? Personally, yes, I thought we should have received oil at a discounted price as a minimal payment for our costs of freeing the Iraqis from the jaws of tyranny. But, we didn't do that. And, for some reason that didn't stop the libs from screaming that all this was about was a "war for oil." Sorry if the libs don't want to face the facts, but the fact is that the Iraq War was nothing more that what Bush said it was. He had the support of the ultra socialist libs, Reid, Pelosi, Gore, etc. and we never once sought any special preferences for oil. Yet, they, being the libs, will continue to lie to appease the ignorant and gullible followers of the party of socialist who admit that they are too stupid to make decisions for themselves and, thus assume that everyone else is just as dumb.
Should be named OSHlT,not OSHA!
Well at least big business has given up the practice of killing........I mean work related accidents of eight year old children for the sake of profits! It was strictly a voluntary effort that was embraced by all those involved and needed no governmental regulation.........
Uh 75 years ago.. great example Mr knowitall or should I say Cliff Clavin the happy drunken mailman on the bar stool in the corner...what an idiot!
That's because men make up 90% of all work related fatalities and we know government and society is never in a rush to protect men. If it were women, it would already be addressed.
Yeah, especially if they're white, right?
Well they should be worried about us white guys. WE f*cking pay for everyone else s free welfare rides. All while getting no protection from any one. Did you ever notice we are the only non "protected group" in the work place?
News flash, brain trust:
White men are still in charge. You want to b**ch take it to your compatriots. The problem is you don't look beyond the nose on your face. You don't get you're being preyed upon by your own kind.
It's not white or black, men or women. It's rich and everybody else.
Wake up.
Oh boo hoo Chuck. What a sweeping generalization. I know white men who are on the dole and I know lots and lots and lots of non-men &/or non-whites, including myself, who are hard working individuals.
If you're a white male over 50 it's even worse.That's the most discriminated against group in the US today.
Where is mama Martin when you need her to draw attention a cause?
not radical,
And all this time I thought it was christians! /s
We all gotta go sometime! And the simple fact is that an average of 3 million Americans will die each year. Yep! 8,000+ per day. I doubt if many Americans alive today (even those that will be born today) will still be here in 100 years. There are 320,000,000 of us right now. Rounding off to 300 Mil and dividing by 100 gives us 3 Mil a year or 8,200 per day. And that's just Americans! For the world it would be ~200+ Thousand per day that pass on. Unfortunately, unlike a lot of our other natural resources, we can be replaced in just 9 months. Some of the resources we are rapidly using up can't be replaced.
A whole new perspective on "going green" - a renewable labour force.
Vote Mitt...then he & John Boehner, Paul Ryan & Mitch McConnell can remove all safety regs on what remaining jobs they can't get shipped overseas while simultaneously killing SSI / Medicaid / Medicare.
That way the 99% will eventually be GOP death paneled down enough to a population count equal to the number of groundskeeping, pool cleaning and megamansion car elevator operator jobs that will be the only jobs left here in the USA.
@ Bart
You're trivializing. The fact that these deaths occurred at a person place of work as a result of an event that occurred at the work place is the point of the article. We all know that we expire.
Wow. I don't know if it is just me, but this fact that so many American workers died on the job in 2009 due to work related injuries/problems is just troubling in many ways.
It worked. The media has been able to present data so skewed that people think there is a problem. The things people should be questioning are: what is the trend ( is this more or less deaths than previous years), why compare only American workforce deaths to American war deaths, why not factor in deaths due to Afghan war, war on drugs, Vietnam war, etc., how many were health-related deaths as opposed to injury/accident deaths, what is the percentage of deaths to employees in the total workforce versus the percentage of deaths in the total war-force
Regardless, it is still disturbing that number of people have woken up and headed off to work to not come back, media skew or not.
@ADS That's life. We die, get use to it. How many people died on their way to or from work due to traffic accidents?
number one, we don't need to be in Iraq, it shouldn't matter, i got caught in a conveyor belt on a crushing plant, no osha, no letting mining personnel, took them 6 years to find out i had a broken neck, and now i have to fight to get money. fun is.
MSHAW regulates the minning industry in the USA, and compared to OSHA they are strict.
I've worked in more than one business that had advanced notice that OSHA was coming for an inspection. In all cases the plant managers had everyone clean up and hide any incriminating evidence of unsafe equipment and practices. The whole process was a joke. Within a day after the inspection all was back to normal.
OSHA hasn't always been this way. I can recall my father preparing for weeks to make sure his warehouse could pass the OSHA inspections. Something as relatively minor as mouse feces could cause harsh penalties.
This is a result of cut funding, abolished over site and big business' purchase of the political process.
I read all of these articles and can't help but think to myself that the start of the 21st century will be marked as the return to the "head-in-the-sand for profit" mentality of the late 19th century.
First, regardless of your political stance on the issue, we've effectively left Iraq some time ago now.
Second, not to be insensitive to your situation, but it matters greatly whether your accident in the workplace was caused by an error in judgment by yourself, or some other form of negligence by your employer. I'm also a little confused as to why "they" (unsure who you are referring to) took six years to discover you had broken your neck on the job, or whether you engaged the proper representation in order to facilitate the process of collecting compensation due to disability. Does your former employer have any actual liability in your injury and are you currently unable to work? These are the initial questions that come to mind, though I'm not familiar with your state's processes or your employer's policies. Either way, best of luck to you in your recovery.
most deaths occur in the construction industry.with the economy tight,contractors are pushing workers harder and faster to still make a profit.maybe contrctors shouldnt bid the jobs with so little profit magine...
Fatal work injuries in
the U.S. in 2010 was 4,547, about the same as the final total of 4,551 in 2009.
Overall, fatal work injuries are down 22 percent since 2006 Uhh no duh slow
economy... So then OSHA is saying just a $7,900.00 fine for the Corp/Company but
they don’t mention how much the Attorneys go after in wrongful death suits do
they? Or workman comp hikes it’s in the Billions, Company have every incentive
to keep the sites safe, along with the insurers of these company’s and they do!
I think when you look at how many people walk out the door in the morning those
number of around 4500 in the larger scheme of things is pretty freaken low, and
also how many of those deaths out of those 4500 should get the Darwin Awards? Once
again say: no to more to Big Government let privet industry do their Job!
Sorry, do you mean to say that someone dying on the job due to negligence is something that their loved ones should not be able to pursue in court?
Surely you don't mean that.
And hey, guess what, this IS private industry in control.
Clearly you are a shill for the Koch brothers.
MJ exactly! You can not sue your employer, unless you have a suit to a third party on the job you basically get nothing. There is a case right now going on in Niagara Falls. OSHA cited Norpac for violations at least 3 times, b/c they are fined so low they do not care. A young Man with a wife and 2 young children was crushed, one of the things they were cited on. They were fined apprt 7,000 and can not be sued by the family. The women was left with nothing. she is now trying to change that with heftier fines and penalties by OSHA. I am a work injured nurse and i take offence of Road Warriors comment that it is always the stupidity of the employee that is far from the truth, until it happens to you you do not realize it, and there is real no were to turn. If you can get compensation it is 1/3 of what you were making with no raises and if you are totally disabled and are able to get SS , you SS is offset by the Comp so you end up with little. I was injured do to short staffing and the hospital takes no responsibility for that. My career was cut short and so was my pension and there is no were to turn. The only recourse was to sue the patient, which was elderly confused and had cancer, which i would not do.
Nothing like confessing before the international community that you messed up, NBC. Are you not the press? Did you not write this story?
Like so many that the press have ignored favoring only presidents? Only minorities? Only yourselves with your fine sounding arguments as if you all know better about this life than anyone else? Favoring the resort industry as if we are all tourists in the Unites States and no other goals in this life?
It is YOUR fault.
You are not acting the role that you are compelled by law to do - report to the people of the legal matters of the day - you have turned into a celebrity rag sheet - every single one of the major networks - ABC especially is the worst culprit.
YOU all lost touch with US!
You do not report news but what Kim Kardashian is wearing today.
No one knows her and no one cares about her life.
NBC is disgusting as all the rest are.
You did not report a genocide that took place in New Hampshire, either that you stalked the one harmed for a decade - and not one news report.
So - tell it to the international judge like Rupert Murdoch.
I'm sure they will love to hear your excuses.
obama's unemployment numbers have to come down somehow being no new jobs are being created.
When they fall off the unemployment roster after 2 years they are no longer considered unemployed - they are no longer in the job market - they are no longer "seeking employment".
Isn't it great how data can make things look different than reality?
Figures don't lie but liars do figure.
Guys you are missing the point............Obama is protecting Americans by not helping in the creation of jobs as it is life threating to work. We are safer setting at home unemployed.................he is crafty.
So, it is safer to be in the military and at war in Afghanistan or Iraq that to be a worker in the USA.........
And it is so unfair when you consider that our service personnel will be taken from their safe war zone and made to compete for jobs and wages in the United States again. What a reward for serving your country.
Of course they are reporting only straight numbers. They don't mention that there were only a couple of hundred thousand troops in Iraq/Afghanistan but there are more than a hundred million workers in the domestic economy. If workers were killed in the workplace at the same rate as soldiers, there would be fewer than ten(10) in any year.
Okie-
That was my first thought. They are comparing apples in oranges. Whoever wrote this article needs his or her head examined.
You fell into the trap, just as the author intended. Those military deaths occurred over a period of nine years, while the figure cited for workplace accidents was 2009 alone. Also note that there are one thousand times more US workers than military service members in Iraq at the peak of US occupation. The comparison is bogus.
Why is this a surprise? This is the Corporate States of America. It is the duty of a serf to die so profit can be maximized.
OK.... do you really think that when a worker dies on the job that profits are maximized??? wake up.. it cost the company far more than hiring an additional 100 people.... the last thing any company wants is a worker to die... and in more instances than not it is the employee's lack of following safety protocols that cause the death and injury....
You really shouln't comment if you don't have a clue about what you are saying.. but then again, I guess you must be a - all business is bad person...
oooo! ooo! Over here!
I am!
Business is here to serve the people, NOT itself. It DOES NOT exist to fulfill itself.
Big Business should be on the ground with a boot at its throat gasping for air and pleading to be allowed to function.
You have no idea what you are discoursing about unless perhaps you are a shill for Big Business.
Go away and talk to Rush Limbaugh.
Name one business that exists to serve the people over itself.
I don't believe your statements are entirely true. You posit that it is more likely for a workplace death to occur due to worker error, rather than the negligence of the employer. I'd like to see statisical data based on OSHA investigations to back that up.
Secondly, employers make practical, risk based decisions when it comes to operating expenses. The penalty due to the death of a worker found to be at their negligence is relatively low, and I would imagine that when compared against the assumed costs of following all safety protocols to the letter, the employer, while morally against the death of any employee, effectively makes the decision to allow this to happen by cutting corners based on a statistically low risk of a worker dying. Ironically, these actions increase the risk exposure of both parties. Increasing the penalties to employers for deaths and injuries due to negligence will increase worker safety overall.
Another story from the incompetent voo-doo math anal-ysis.
Considering that the work place contains a mixture of hazardous elements down to low risk, at the same proportion as combat soldiers, then that the number of combat soldiers and multiple by the factor that brings their total number up to that of the working population.
Bet ya there will not be that big of a difference and war is probably more deadly.
Also consider that workers are a asset while combat soldiers are a liability to the bottom right corner of the P&L sheet.
Interesting approach, see my post at #1.14 for numbers. Statistically, US service members in Iraq stand a chance of dying that is ten times greater than for stateside workers, and for every service member, there are one thousand members of the US civilian workforce.
Just what we need. Another IDIOT cause for the liberals to embrace. Now they will be saying No One should work, because it's "dangerous." But, they already know that, by personal experience or NOT.
And in as much as conserv's giggle when gas prices go up...or when they applaud when Ricky Perry mentions the death penalty....I guess this is yet another one of those articles that makes conserv's yell for less regulation. And to let companies and industries choose which rules/regulations they want to use.
so, let me guess, you don't agree with the death penalty?? Do you like to house and pay for murders?? It is ok that they killed someone to get there?? So now I have to pay for their stupid decision??
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/21/11756575-researchers-more-than-2000-false-convictions-in-past-23-years?lite
just sayin...
As long as the corporate/government syndicate is running the show, we're all just cogs in the machine. Cogs get worn down and damaged, and are readily replaced.
Here's where some bozo goes off on a rant about why I should leave the country of my birth if I don't like it, greatest country in the world, etc., etc. Not interested.
Is this supposed to make us feel better about the military's sacrifices of their lives?!? (I am personally NOT comforted!)
I think it just points out that while work of our military is constantly lionized, the work of those of us that pay for it and everything else, often goes overlooked. Turns out fishermen have some of the most dangerous work around. And if they don't catch, they simply don't get paid. If a military person has an unproductive day, they will still have a long list of governmental benefits to look forward to.
Lets see, according to most of the folks here, the military is not necessary, a wasteful use of tax dollars....but we are going to equate them with fisherman???? First of all, "Deadliest Catch" deals with trying to harvest crab and lobster (which is hardly staple, daily fare on anyone's table that I know of) Lets see, guys taking the risk to bring home a luxury item at a significant profit (should they be successful) or people volunteering to be potentially shot or blown up to protect our country's ideals....Somehow, I am not seeing an apples to apples argument. Not even sure we are in the same orchard.
You are making leaps here. No one said the military wasn't necessary. The point is just that there are lots of plain old jobs that are more dangerous. Granted, during a full blown war, being in certain military occupations is probably the most dangerous. Point is, they are constantly given attention and perks for their contributions. Meanwhile, the people creating the wealth that they are protecting go largely unnoticed.
Secondarily, the military was not protecting our "ideals" in Iraq. They were there because neo-cons had a vendetta to attend to.
With all due respect to military personnel, I agree with mbell.
Once again this is not surprising tearing down the American worker has been the objective ever since people like the Koch Brothers decided they want to eliminate unions and workers rights to collective bargaining, this all works together with sending workers jobs overseas to the lowest bidder. These Corporate American overlords want and need cheap labor,non regulations of safety in the workplace, and no regulations on pollution all for that almighty dollar the holy grail of greed. With the increase of returning jobs from China comes the same requirements that follow cheap labor, like they say if you can't beat them join them, at one time companies and their labor used to work together for the good of the company. Now a days it's more like you think it's unsafe to work there find another job we'll replace you!
Most large corps. have insurance policies on it's workers,,,,,,why would they want to make working conditions less hazardous when they profit form these deaths! As far as the stats,,,how many people are in the work force as opposed to how many people are in the military,,,of course there are more fatalities in the work force!!!!!!
Cheaper, faster with fewer = more profit $$$.
Most safest occupation in the U.S., being a politician heh heh. They sit behind desk all do and do nothing LOL Not only that, but the American people provide them with protection day in and day out (think SS) heh heh.
Except the most hazardous job in the country is the Presidency! Ten per cent. of all Presidents have been murdered in office and as many more have been victims of attempted murder, some more than once.
Very nice job by the lame stream media 6 months before the presidential election. I don't recall ever seeing a headline like this when the messiah was not the POTUS. Were there two, separate Iraq wars the past 10 years? During the "first"one the main stream media and every liberal, progressive, Democrat in the country reported and lamented a daily body count. During the "second" war this same group of people was virtually silent when it came to the death of soldiers in Iraq. The state controlled media and all of its supporters are giant hypocrites.
Yes, Michael, there actually were two Iraq wars, the first lasted a few weeks and ended with a big "Mission Accomplished" sign, the second war, which Georgie, Karl and the rest blundered us into, was a guerrilla war that lasted eight years and accounted for most of the casualties we suffered.
The reason you don't hear about the deaths is money. The families of the victims are generally well compensatedto stave off litigation. Also, it's not that the media is ignoring these accidents. They report one time in the evening news and you never hear about it again because it's not interesting news. It's like an automobile accident.
"More Americans died in workplace in '09 than during entire Iraq war" and that is supposed to make us feel better about the wars?????
more propoganda to increase the size of government.. You, know old age is the leading cause of death or is it when your heart stops beating. Maybe, we should get the FDA gestapo a few hundred more billion to tell us what to eat and how to live. Oh, wrong agency. How about the leading cause of death is paying taxes. I pay them. People die.!
It is just a lot of BS, that the Government is trying to say, "Hey we can keep going to WAR, cause more people die at Work, then at War"....
Bunch of BS, to continue Wars....