Worker deaths rose to 5,190 in 2016 from 4,836 in 2015, and the national fatality rate climbed to 3.6 per 100,000 workers from 3.4

Rise in worker deaths a ‘national crisis,’ AFL-CIO president says during Workers’ Memorial Week

Photo: AFL-CIO

 

Washington — The state of workplace safety and health protections in the United States is a “national crisis,” according to Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, which has released its annual report detailing the hazards that workers face every day on the job.
Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect was published April 26 during Workers’ Memorial Week (April 23-30), which honors workers who have lost their lives on the job. The report features state and federal data on worker fatalities, injuries and illnesses, as well as on worker protections.

Worker deaths rose to 5,190 in 2016 from 4,836 in 2015, and the national fatality rate climbed to 3.6 per 100,000 workers from 3.4, according to the report. In addition, the AFL-CIO estimates that occupational diseases accounted for up to an additional 60,000 deaths, resulting in 150 work-related deaths a day.
Other highlights in the report:

• Workplace violence was the second-leading cause of death on the job – behind transportation-related incidents – rising to 866 in 2016 from 703 in 2015, including 500 homicides.
• The construction sector experienced the most fatalities, followed by transportation and warehousing; and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting.
• The fatality rate was highest in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, followed by transportation and warehousing; mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; and construction.
• States with the highest fatality rates were Wyoming (12.3 per 100,000 workers), Alaska (10.6), Montana (7.9), South Dakota (7.5) and North Dakota (7.0).

The AFL-CIO is calling for safety and health improvements from federal agencies, including the development of an OSHA standard on workplace violence, and for OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration to issue and implement rules regarding infectious diseases, silica, beryllium, coal dust, injury reporting, combustible dust and chemical safety.

Also released during Workers’ Memorial Week was the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s report, The Dirty Dozen 2018, a list of U.S. employers that the organization claims have jeopardized worker safety.

Loren Sweatt, OSHA deputy assistant secretary of labor, noted in a statement released April 28 that Workers’ Memorial Day marks the day the agency opened its doors in 1971, after its authorization by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.

“American workplaces have become much safer in the decades since. However, one life lost is one too many,” Sweatt said in an April 27 press release. “We will continue to work with our partners across the country – job creators, trade associations, labor unions, safety and health professionals, and individual workers – to make every workplace safe and healthful.”

The National Safety Council echoed that sentiment in an April 25 blog post.

“At the National Safety Council, we believe we can eliminate preventable deaths in our lifetime,” Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of NSC, wrote. “Workers’ Memorial Day on April 28 reminds us that our mission is far from over. This day also reminds us that for every worker lost, there are many more people affected than we count in the statistics.

“Preventable deaths are tragedies because they should not have happened. Committing to eliminating all preventable workplace deaths may seem like a daunting task, but when you think of the 5,190 families and communities that carry the loss of loved ones for a lifetime, it is the only acceptable goal.”

Sappi Paper mill worker Ryan Martin, 53, died at the Cloquet, MN paper mill.

• Sappi Paper mill worker Ryan Martin, 53, died at the Cloquet, MN paper mill.

  Millwrite at Sappi
• Went to Morgan Park High School, Duluth, MN
• Lives in Duluth, Minnesota
• From Duluth, Minnesota

CLOQUET, MN- 

Sappi Paper and authorities are investigating the death of an employee at the Cloquet paper mill.

Sappi Limited, originally incorporated as South African Pulp and Paper Industries Limited in 1936, is a South African pulp and paper company with global operations.

 
Police say officers and firefighters responded to the mill just before 5 p.m. Tuesday and found a 53-year-old man who had died. A company spokesperson identified the man as Ryan Martin. He was a millwrite at the Sappi plant.

Corporate Communications Manager Olga Karagiannis said the company is "shocked and saddened" by the death. She said authorities are working with Sappi to understand the cause of death.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Martin’s family and friends," she said.

Police said the medical examiner's office is investigating the cause of Martin's death.

In 2003, a worker died at the plant when a machine cycled while he was troubleshooting a mechanical problem. Sappi paid $50,000 as part of a settlement with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration following that incident.

Franklin Palacios Carrillo, 34, an employee of Walsh Vineyards Management in Napa, was crushed to death as he was working at Arrowhead Vineyard in Sonoma when a tractor’s tiller attachment fell on him

A Fairfield man died Tuesday morning after being crushed by a tractor implement he was cleaning in a Sonoma Valley vineyard, authorities said.

Franklin Palacios Carrillo, 34, was found by another vineyard worker about 7:30 a.m. pinned beneath his tractor’s tiller attachment, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said.

Carrillo was working in a vineyard managed by Walsh Vineyards Management and was apparently trying to remove a tangle of vineyard wire from his tractor’s tilling tines when the implement dropped and crushed him, according to Cal-OSHA, which is investigating.

The property where Carrillo was found, Arrowhead Vineyard, off Napa Road east of Nicholas Road, has been owned by Gundlach Bundschu Winery, though ownership could not be confirmed Tuesday.

Gundlach Bundschu Winery is listed as a client on Walsh Vineyards Management’s website.

Neither business responded to requests for comment.

When Schell-Vista firefighters arrived on the scene, they found the man trapped beneath the tractor, said Capt. Tony Anderson. By the time they were able to free him, it was clear he was dead, Anderson said.

“It appeared somebody was out there trying to do some kind of repair, and it went bad,” he said.

The death is the first investigated at a Sonoma County vineyard in at least a decade, according to Cal-OSHA records.

In April 2016, a vineyard worker drowned in a reservoir at a St. Helena vineyard, Cal-OSHA records show. Four months after that, Cal-OSHA investigated the death of a Napa winery employee, who died while working at Joel Gott Wines after a stack of metal wine barrel racks fell on him.

The investigation into what happened Tuesday at the Sonoma vineyard could take three to four months, and Cal-OSHA has six months to issue any citations for violations of workplace safety regulations, said agency spokesman Frank Polizzi.

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Cal/OSHA is investigating a fatality at a Sonoma vineyard following the death of a worker on Tuesday morning.


The man, an employee of Walsh Vineyards Management in Napa, was working at Arrowhead Vineyard on the 2300 block of Napa Road in Sonoma when a tractor’s tiller attachment fell on him, according to reports.


The man’s body was found when another worker arrived shortly before 8 a.m. Responding deputies discovered that vineyard wire had gotten tangled in a tractor’s tilling lines and, as the worker tried to untangle the lines, the tiller attachment dropped, crushing him, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.


The worker’s death is being investigated as an industrial accident and has been referred to Cal/OSHA. His name has not yet been released.

Cal/OSHA has six months to issue any citations for violations of workplace safety regulations, agency spokesman Frank Polizzi said Tuesday.



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Vineyard worker dies after being crushed by tractor part
2nd May, 2018 by Phoebe French 

A man working at Arrowhead Vineyard in Sonoma has been killed after being crushed to death by a tractor’s tiller when trying to remove some wire from its tines. 

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office received a call just before 8am local time on Tuesday 1 May from Arrowhead Vineyard, located in the 2300 block of Napa Road in Sonoma, following reports that a worker had died.

Officers who attended the address were told that the man had been attempting to free some wire caught in the tilling tines. It is thought that while trying to do this, the tiller attachment fell on him and crushed him to death.

The man was discovered by another worker who found him apparently deceased and trapped under the tiller, according to the authorities.

The coroner’s office subsequently identified the man as 34-year-old Franklin Palacios Carrillo from Fairfield.

The incident is now being investigated by the Californian Division of Occupational Safety and Health “Cal OSHA” who, according to Sonoma County Police, will examine the tractor and other equipment in order to determine exactly what happened.

CAL OSHA spokesman Frank Polizzi said inspections generally take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. The board now has six months to issue citations for any violations of workplace safety regulations.

It is believed that Carrillo was an employee of Walsh Vineyards Management who oversee the vineyard.