Calls Grow for NIOSH Job Reinstatements

West Virginia’s U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R) is urging Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to reverse approximately 2,000 job cuts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown as part of a nationwide reduction of approximately 2,400 NIOSH jobs.
The cuts come despite President Donald Trump’s executive orders earlier this month to boost U.S. coal production as power demand rises.
“I believe in the President’s vision to right size our government, but I do not think eliminating the NIOSH coal programs and research will accomplish that goal,” wrote Capito.
“The mission and work conducted by the specially trained NIOSH employees is not duplicative of any other government program.
Separately, the American Industrial Hygiene Association tweeted Wednesday that it has launched a second campaign urging Congress to restore key NIOSH programs that protect worker health and safety.
“This effort underscores the urgent need to reinstate core NIOSH functions that are essential to supporting the OEHS community,” read the AIHA’s tweet.
READ MORE

Fewer workers died on the job in 2023, though nearly 400 fatalities a day were still attributed to dangerous conditions, according to the AFL-CIO’s latest annual health and safety report.
Job injuries and illnesses cost the country somewhere between $174 billion to $348 billion annually, the union said in its 34th edition of the report, titled “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect”.
“The most recent policy decisions that we’re seeing at the national level are only going to make the situation worse,” said Rebecca Reindel, AFL-CIO’s safety and health director.
READ MORE

New Jersey’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development reported that the rate of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses fell 5.3% in the five years from 2017-2023 in both public and private sectors in the state.
The state’s latest Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses showed there were about 87,300 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in New Jersey’s public and private sectors in 2023, with an incidence rate of 2.6 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers. This compares with a reported 92,200 cases at a rate of 2.9.
In 2023, the private sector reported about 66,800 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses, a 6.8% decline from the 71,700 cases recorded in 2017. The incidence rate decreased to 2.3 from 2.6 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers.
READ MORE

The Wyoming State AFL-CIO has charged that Gov. Mark Gordon has not done enough during his time as governor to prevent workplace fatalities.
Worker deaths spiked by 25% last year to the highest rate per capita in the country.
The rate of workplace fatalities in Wyoming has not improved over the past 20 years. In fact, they spiked in 2023, increasing by 25% to 45 deaths, the most recorded in Wyoming in 16 years. Workplace fatalities have increased in Wyoming every year since 2017.
Liz Gagen, director of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services (DWS), told Cowboy State Daily that only six of the 2023 deaths fell under OSHA jurisdiction and the remaining 39 were either related to transportation accidents, drug overdoses, or other areas over which OSHA has no authority.
READ MORE