Fighting for workers’ safety on Workers Memorial Day

The AFL-CIO’s annual report–Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect–outlines the deadly toil of workplace hazards and how defunding OSHA puts even more workers at risk

OLYMPIA, WA (April 28, 2026) — $3.85. That’s about the cost of a gallon of milk (not organic), a Rainier tall boy, or a 16oz. energy drink at the corner store. Those 385 cents are also the paltry amount that the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)’s budget allocates to protect the safety of each U.S. worker. 55 years after it opened it’s doors, OSHA has been so thoroughly defunded that there are now only five inspectors per one million workers; it would take more than 190 years for OSHA staff to inspect every workplace in the United States.

These troubling findings are outlined in the AFL-CIO’s annual report, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, released in advance of Workers Memorial Day, a solemn recognition of workers who’ve lost their lives as a result of workplace hazards, marked each year on April 28. This year’s report delves deep into the massive defunding of OSHA and other workplace safety agencies and the devastating toil of these policy failures on working families across the U.S. Per the report:

“Over the last 35 years of this report, job safety agencies’ resources have diminished dramatically, even as their responsibilities have grown immensely. For instance, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is now in charge of 85% more establishments, 44% more workers and new hazards and technologies, yet Congress has reduced its budget by 10% and staffing by 26%, including a 16% reduction in inspectors…Agencies now have a paltry number of staff to write standards, analyze data, conduct inspections, perform oversight on states, orchestrate needed research on important hazards and respond to emerging threats. The number of OSHA inspectors has now hit a new low, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) does not have enough inspectors to meet its statutory requirement to inspect each mine multiple times a year.”

Illustration: AFL-CIO, Design: The STAND

Decades of underfunding the government’s responsibility to protect workers on the job carries a deadly cost. In 2024, 5,070 workers were killed on the job in the U.S. and an estimated 135,000 workers died from occupational diseases. About 530 workers died from extreme heat exposure alone, a horrifying fact that is still likely an undercut of the real impact of deadly heat.

For decades, corporate power has eroded worker protections. That erosion hit warp speed last year, when the Trump administration joined corporations and billionaires in aggressively accelerating efforts to dismantle the institutions that stand in the way of maximizing profit at the expense of workers’ lives. As organized labor recognizes Workers Memorial Day today, calls to defend workers’ right to a safe workplace carry renewed urgency.

“Every worker should be able to go home safe and healthy at the end of their shift—but 55 years after the founding of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, that fundamental right is in danger,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler in a statement. “From the dismantling of critical federal agencies and laws to the expansion of unregulated, untested AI technology, the protections that workers fought and died for are under serious threat. The labor movement refuses to go backward. More than 5 decades after a Republican signed the landmark Occupational Safety and Health Act into law, we urge all members of Congress—from both sides of the aisle—to join us in this fight.”

Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO President April Sims will speak at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon at the headquarters of the Washington Department of Labor & Industries during their Workers Memorial Day ceremony. This annual gathering honors fallen workers and offers a reminder of work still to be done to ensure safe workplaces. This year, 97 fallen workers from across the state will be remembered. All are invited to attend or watch the ceremony live. 

An excerpt from Sims’ forthcoming remarks:

Today we remember workers lost to toxic exposures, vehicle incidents, on-the-job accidents, and workplace violence. Every one of these deaths is a tragedy. Every one of these deaths was preventable.

Our movement carries forward the words of Mother Jones, who organized miners facing deadly conditions more than a century ago. Workers who went deep underground, toiling in the dark with the immediate threat of mine collapse and the long term threat of black lung disease. After witnessing so much loss, her call still guides us:

Mourn the dead. Fight for the living.

Today, we mourn with the families who carry this loss every day. And we recommit ourselves to the fight. Recommit to our purpose, our duty, to ensure every worker, in every job, in every industry, comes home safe and whole. That is how we honor those we have lost.