(Ohio) Workers who died on job to be honored (Monday is Workers Memorial Day in the US)

[Omaha Steve]

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080425/BUSINESS03/804250341

Article published Friday, April 25, 2008
Workers who died on job to be honored

By TED FACKLER
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

Workers nationwide will observe the 20th Annual Workers' Memorial Day on Monday, honoring those who have died on the job.

More than 100 events are scheduled, in cities including Toledo and Columbus, to call for safer workplaces and an end to workplace deaths.

Higher penalties for companies with unsafe workplaces also will be advocated.

"The day is important because we're memorializing the workers who were killed, and vowing to keep the fight for safety in workplaces," said Mark Buford, a local services liaison with the AFL-CIO, a national group of labor unions.

The Toledo event is at 5 p.m. at the United Auto Workers Local 12 hall on Ashland Ave.

In the past 12 months, northwest Ohio's 28 counties had 17 on-the-job fatalities, according to the Toledo office of the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

Locally, six fatalities were reported. Toledo had three: one worker pinned by the swing radius of a crane, another crushed by a crane, and a third who fell from a bridge.

Perrysburg had one, resulting from a part that flew off a machine; Sylvania one, an employee crushed by structural steel; and Rossford one, a worker struck by a forklift.

Nationally, the most recent figures are from 2006, when 5,840 workers were killed and 4.1 million were injured, according OSHA.

Ohio reported 193 workplace fatalities that year, ranking it 14th lowest among states in deaths per 100,000 workers. Michigan had 157 fatalities and was ranked 12th lowest.

Both were below the national fatality average of 4 per 100,000. However, both experienced higher fatalities than in 2005.

Bill Kojola, an industrial hygienist at the AFL-CIO, said better safety enforcement from OSHA is needed, along with higher fines to companies cited for violations. "The agency needs to recommit itself to doing its key function, to set standards and to conduct aggressive inspections," he said.

Contact Ted Fackler at:
[e-mail]
or 419-724-6199.