[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 28, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2754-S2755]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WORKER'S MEMORIAL DAY 2010

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, each year, we set aside April 28 as 
Workers Memorial Day, a time to remember and honor those who have been 
killed or injured or have contracted a serious illness in the 
workplace. Since the passage of the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act and 
Occupational Safety and Health Act four decades ago, countless lives 
have been saved and the number of workplace accidents has been 
dramatically reduced.
  Yet too many workers still remain in harm's way. In 2008, over 5,200 
people were killed at work in the United States and roughly 50,000 
workers died from occupational diseases. Millions more were injured on 
the job. This means that, on an average day, 151 workers lose their 
lives, 14 from injuries and 137 from job-related diseases. These are 
workers from all walks of life--firefighters, police officers, coal 
miners and farmers, men and women

[[Page S2755]]

who are working to put food on the table to support their families and 
loved ones. These deaths are tragedies that can and should be 
prevented.
  Our entire Nation mourned when we learned of the terrible tragedy 
that killed 29 miners in Montcoal, WV. But it is important to remember 
that mines aren't our only dangerous workplaces. Our Nation suffered 
another great loss when we learned of the 11 missing oil rig workers 
off the coast of Louisiana, and we still mourn the lives of those 
workers who died in explosions in Washington State and Connecticut 
earlier this year. All of these incidents could have been prevented. 
These terrible tragedies illustrate the dangers hardworking Americans 
face on the job every day, and why we need to redouble our efforts to 
make every workplace a safe workplace.
  Every April 28, for the past 9 years, Mary Davis and her family have 
observed Workers Memorial Day in honor of her husband Jeff Davis, a 
boilermaker who was killed in a sulfuric acid tank farm explosion at a 
refinery in Delaware. His body was never recovered, most likely because 
it was dissolved in acid. The disaster also injured eight other workers 
and caused major environmental impact in the surrounding area. Motiva, 
the company that owned the refinery, pleaded guilty to discharging 
pollutants into the Delaware River and negligently releasing sulfuric 
acid into the air, both in violation of the Clean Air Act, resulting in 
a $10 million fine. For the same accident, OSHA initially cited three 
serious and two willful violations against Motiva for Jeff Davis' 
death. The Agency proposed a penalty of $175,000 that Motiva later was 
able to reduce through settlement for a total of only $132,000.
  I recently spoke with Holly Shaw, a school teacher living in 
Pennsylvania. Her husband Scott drowned after falling into the 
Schuylkill River while working on two barges, helping to dredge the 
river. The barges had no life jackets for workers to wear, and no life 
preservers in the event of an accident. The two barges were connected 
by a series of old tires that workers had to navigate to move from 
barge to barge. OSHA found Armco, the company that employed Scott, had 
committed four serious violations and was fined $4,950. Holly later 
found out that Armco was given the opportunity to plead down the fine 
and ended up only paying $4,000 for Scott's death. It is truly shocking 
that the company faced such minor consequences for its appallingly 
inadequate safety practices.
  Unfortunately, stories like Jeff Davis's and Scott Shaw's are all too 
common. Although a willful or repeat violation of OSHA carries a 
maximum penalty of $70,000 and willful violations a minimum of $5,000, 
most penalties are far smaller. In both cases, current penalties 
weren't sufficient to force recalcitrant employers to take workplace 
safety more seriously even when a worker is killed. To date, OSHA has 
cited Motiva for nearly two dozen other violations since Jeff Davis' 
death. In 2009, workers went on strike against the same company that 
leased its barge to Armco, protesting unsafe workplace practices, after 
a deckhand was crushed to death between two barges. As Holly said to 
me, ``another family suffers because of the same negligence.''
  This has to change. We need to increase penalties for irresponsible 
employers who ignore the law, and give our federal agencies the 
enforcement tools they need to keep workers away from imminent danger. 
This week we held a hearing in the HELP Committee to explore these 
challenging issues. And, in the weeks ahead, I intend to work with my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle on legislation to make our mines 
and all our dangerous workplaces safer.
  Workplace safety is an issue that is very personal to me. My father 
was a coal miner, and I saw firsthand the devastating effects of the 
lung problems created by his work in the mines. We still have a long 
way to go to ensure that our sons and daughters, moms and dads, 
brothers and sisters all come home safe from a hard day's work, and we 
should not rest until workplace tragedies are a chapter in the history 
books, and we no longer have any need to observe a day of mourning for 
American workers killed on the job.

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