PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Mike McGuire, Political Director of Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) in New York City
0:16:03
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5 min
Mike McGuire, Political Director of LIUNA in NYC, testifies in support of Intro 865, which would create a public database of workplace fatalities in NYC. He draws on his experience as the author of a similar statewide law for the construction industry and emphasizes the importance of accurate, comprehensive data in protecting workers and improving workplace safety.
- Highlights the disproportionate impact of workplace fatalities on Latino and immigrant workers, especially in the construction industry
- Discusses current limitations in data collection, including underreporting and inconsistent classification of workplace deaths
- Argues that the proposed database would provide crucial information for crafting better workplace health and safety legislation
Mike McGuire
0:16:03
Good morning.
0:16:04
Mike Maguire, I'm the political director of the laborers union here in New York City, representing 17,000 members of LYUNA in 5 local unions.
0:16:12
My testimony today comes from a a place of knowledge that I acquired as the original author of the statewide construction industry fatality registry law, which I was lucky enough to work with council member Carmen Dela Rosa on when she was an assembly member.
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So the New York State Constitution states labor of human beings is not a commodity nor an article of commerce or and shall never be so considered or construed.
0:16:38
You know, this tells us that New York always had a respect for its workers.
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In support of this clause of the constitution, hundreds of laws have been passed over the decades to protect the health and lives of our state's workers.
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However, without complete accurate and timely data, we have no way of gauging the efficacy of those laws.
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Further, and once again, for lack of data, we have no way of knowing who among the workforce is most vulnerable.
0:17:04
In working on this issue, I found the deadly Skylands report produced by New York Committee on Occupational Safety And Health, Nikash, to be invaluable.
0:17:11
This annual report details workplace fatalities in the construction industry in New York State, revealing some startling statistics.
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For instance, over roughly the last 2 decades, one construction worker was killed at work every 5 days in New York State.
0:17:23
To be sure, that number shrinks and grows depending on how much construction activity occurs, In bus times, when there are fewer construction jobs, the number lessens in boom times, particularly when underhanded contractors provide little or no health and safety training, the number grows.
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Suffice to say that each year, somewhere between 5075 construction workers, are killed on their job sites in New York State.
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Now Generally, federal OSHA only investigates about 40% of those fat fatalities despite what the administration does testify to, leaving a large majority uninvestigated.
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Approximately 85% of the victims are Latinos or immigrants.
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And in some years, we found up to 93 percent of the fatalities were on nonunion worksites.
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The only good statistic is there are no female victims in this list.
0:18:06
Of course, the bad side of that is the fact that the nonunion industry steadfastly refused to hire any women.
0:18:12
The problem with all these statistics painstakingly compiled by Nikos is that they likely, woefully, under count the actual number of deaths and do not supply or reflect demographic realities due to the lack of readily available information.
0:18:29
Sorry.
0:18:30
I crossed out some stuff here.
0:18:31
Yeah.
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So okay.
0:18:32
Corin another issue is coroners may not actually report accidents as construction or even workplace fatalities.
0:18:37
Cause of death, blunt force trauma to the head, manner of death fall from second story.
0:18:41
That doesn't tell us if it was on a worksite or at a home or anything else.
0:18:45
Another issue leading to inaccuracies is the fact that different municipalities count workplace fatalities in different ways.
0:18:51
For instance, for many years, the New York City Department of Buildings only counted a workplace fatality a member of the public was also endangered.
0:18:58
That is to say, if a construction worker fell off a fifty story building onto the sidewalk where he or she could potentially hit a pedestrian, that was recorded as a workplace fatality.
0:19:08
However, if a construction worker fell down a a fifty story shaft in the center of the building where only other construction workers could get hurt, that wasn't considered a workplace fatality by the Department of Buildings.
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This measure advances the intent of Section 44.
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It provides the same demographic information to the victims.
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Age, gender, ethnicity, nationality, trade, union status at each other that is needed to craft better workplace health and safety legislation as well as supplying information on the employers.
0:19:35
The employer information is extremely important.
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For instance, right now, in New York City, a certain contractor that has killed 6 workers over the last 7 years is working on publicly subsidized projects.
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One contractor.
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A city version of this law is necessary for several reasons.
0:19:49
1st and foremost, section 44 only covers construct construction fatalities.
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And while construction remains the most dangerous major industry in the country, it's certainly not the only dangerous industry in our city.
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The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics put out in a press release for the year 2022, the latest year for which numbers are available that revealed 23 construction workers were killed at work in the 5 boroughs during that year.
0:20:10
Yet there were actually an additional 60 workers killed at various other jobs in New York City.
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Leaving more than 62% of the workplace fatalities out of the system.
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It further resolve the problem of noncompliance.
0:20:23
Corners outside the city are most definitely underreporting the number of fatalities in their counties.
0:20:27
Although, to be fair, This is more likely due to ignorance of the law than any malintent.
0:20:33
It still leaves us with flawed fat fatality numbers.
0:20:36
And finally, we don't know the vagaries of each county's processes, and so much like we used to have with the Department of Billings, we have no way of knowing whether those counties even classify any deaths as worker fatalities.
0:20:50
With all the data under intros 865 being compiled and submitted by one agency, the office of the city medical examiner, we are sure to have accurate and timely information that will undoubtedly save the lives or workers in the future.
0:21:03
The labor union strongly supports 865 and urges the council to pass it with all due haste.
