A historic advance for worker safety
In 1911, 146 women and men, mostly immigrants, died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village. These deaths were preventable. The workers died because their employers were indifferent to their health and safety.
In response, the New York State Legislature convened an investigative commission that would come to propose new, progressive regulations to protect worker safety.
The Real Estate Board trade association opposed the new rules. Its president, Terence McGuire, said that jobs would be lost, and that “the best government is the least possible government.”
More than a century later, history is tragically repeating itself.
In a three-year period, 39 construction workers, again mostly immigrants, have died of injuries on New York City building sites. And, as with the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, their deaths were preventable. These workers died because, in many cases, their employers were indifferent to their health and safety.
In response, City Councilman Jumaane Williams introduced legislation that would require that every construction worker on a worksite bigger than a three-family home receive a minimum of 40 hours of safety training. The bill has the support of an overwhelming majority of his colleagues in government, including the mayor, City Council speaker and Manhattan borough president.
Regardless of this consensus from the Council, we are once again witnessing opposition by loud voices in the real estate industry, including the Real Estate Board of New York, to strong safety training standards for one of the most dangerous occupations anywhere.
Opponents suggest a recent spike in construction explains the increase in fatalities. But an analysis by the New York Times in 2015 showed that the rise in number of deaths and injuries outpaced the uptick in development.
That same investigation concluded that worksites where deaths had occurred typically lacked proper supervision, including measures to prevent falls. The study also uncovered a disturbing pattern of fast-tracking, where accelerated project timetables pressured undertrained workers to cut corners and disregard their own safety.
Opponents have also expressed concern that new safety rules would reduce employment opportunities for minority workers. Yet these are the workers who stand to reap the greatest protection from safety training. In 2015, federal inspectors visiting New York fatality sites calculated that 57% of construction workers who died after falls were Latino, even though Latinos comprise 30% of the construction workforce.
It’s also wrong to claim that the construction sector is being singled out when it comes to requiring comprehensive training.
For example, to work as a barber in New York State, you need to complete a course of study over 200 hours apprentice for two years. To be a real estate salesperson, you are required to have 75 hours of training — ironically offered through the Real Estate Board of New York.
Safety training protects all workers and the public. While all unionized construction workers must complete hundreds of hours of rigorous training programs, nonunion employers do not require it at all.
Currently, the law says that construction workers on projects taller than 10 stories must have at least 10 hours of safety training, known as OSHA-10.
Smaller sites have no training requirement. It should come as no surprise that 90% of construction-related fatalities over the past three years in New York City were on non-union projects.
Even with the rigorous training that union construction workers receive, they are not immune from serious injury and fatalities.
This is not complicated. This is a dangerous industry.
The City Council’s proposal gives us an opportunity to make history again by setting a new standard for worker safety.
Just like locked stairway doors in 1911 consigned the Triangle Shirtwaist seamstresses to a fiery death, the lack of safety training today also puts the contemporary construction worker at unnecessary risk of accident or death. This must end. The men and women working in the New York City construction industry deserve a safe workplace. We can act now and write a new chapter in our progressive fight for worker safety.