|
The decline of quality jobs - increased workloads, fewer employees and faster production rates - is emerging as a major safety and health issue for workers across a broad range of occupations and industries, according to a newly safety report released by the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).
Truck drivers, health care workers, steelworkers and flight attendants are some of America’s many employees whose health risks are growing as the quality of their jobs declines.
In 2004, 36 steelworkers were killed on the job and USW (the merged union of the United Steelworkers of America and PACE International Union) says extraordinary pressure to compete with low-wage countries has led the steel industry to make unsafe cuts in production costs.
Longshore workers at ports around the nation are seeing record levels of shipments, but the number of workers hasn’t grown enough to safely handle the surge. Dock workers’ unions say the recent upsurge of harbor accidents and fatalities is tied to the increased workloads that force longer, back-to-back shifts in an already dangerous work environment.
Meanwhile, flight attendants are working 18-hour shifts-and longer. Calling long hours on the job a major safety issue, AFACWA President Patricia Friend says, “Airlines are cutting every corner to keep flight attendants on duty, and that’s affecting our health and our ability to safeguard our passengers.”
Truck drivers are on duty for 14 hours a day, 11 of those behind the wheel. Despite studies that show the risk of accidents greatly increases after eight hours at work, federal rules that govern how many hours truckers can drive on a shift were increased in 2004 by 10 percent. Along with accident risks, longer hours in the cab have been linked to obesity, insulin-dependent diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnia and cardiovascular disease.
For nurses and other health care workers, inadequate staffing and mandatory overtime puts patients’ safety at risk and threatens caregivers’ health and safety, according to Death on the Job. Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants had the highest number of musculoskeletal (MSDs) injuries of any occupation in 2003.
Employers that downsize work crews, implement speedups and cut corners on safety have little to fear from the Bush administration’s Occupational Safety and Heath Administration (OSHA), safety advocates say. Funding for important worker safety programs has been cut and the agency has shifted its emphasis from tough enforcement of safety standards to encouraging employers to voluntarily comply. With current staffing and inspection levels, it would take OSHA 108 years to inspect every workplace under its jurisdiction just once, according to the report.
|
