Tree Worker Deaths on the Rise

August 10, 2023

New England sees more fatalities among tree workers

  • Fatalities involving tree work have increased across New England this year.
  • The number of deaths in the region’s tree industry this year has far exceeded the total for all of 2022, according to data from OSHA as of mid-July.
  • Deaths from tree work in New England have varied from year to year, with the most recent peak of eight across the region in 2018.
  • Only one worker died in New England in 2022, but six died in 2021. Vermont’s numbers are excluded from the totals due to its separate administration of OSHA.
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Missouri Amazon workers file complaint

  • Amazon employees at a St. Peters, Missouri, fulfillment center, along with the Missouri Workers Center, filed a complaint with OSHA, alleging work practices have led to job-related injuries and a failure to ensure safety.
  • The complaint, signed by 14 employees, details examples of how workers suffered job-related injuries because of dangerous working conditions and received inadequate treatment from the facility’s in-house medical team, AmCare.
  • Earlier this year, 400 workers at the same facility sent managers a petition asking for safer working conditions.
  • An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement the company would welcome OSHA into its sites at any time.
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Immigration group files grievance with OSHA

  • An immigrant advocacy group filed a complaint with OSHA against a Stamford, Connecticut, grocery store on behalf of a former worker who alleged unsanitary working conditions and low wages.
  • Lorenzo Moreno immigrated from Ecuador earlier this year and worked for about a month at Utuado Grocery, where he was getting paid $12.15 an hour.
  • Moreno said a flea infestation at work negatively impacted his health.
  • Moreno told the owner about the infestation, but that no action was taken to solve the problem.
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Worker could lose finger after wall collapses

  • A worker could lose his finger after a brick wall collapsed during a renovation on a Lake Zurich-area home in Illinois.
  • The work crew was tasked with removing the layer of bricks from a home on the 21300 block of West Ridge Road before placing new siding.
  • The wall gave way and injured the worker’s finger and then he was taken to a local hospital.
  • The Lake County building department and OSHA are investigating the collapse.
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