'It feels hollow': Advocates frustrated by lack of state action to prevent workplace deaths
For the past 20 years, Wyoming has consistently placed among the top five states in the nation for highest workplace fatality rates, according to the Wyoming AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations).
Total workplace fatalities rose from 34 in 2022 to 45 in 2023 in Wyoming, the highest recorded number of deaths in a single year in the state for at least a decade, according to the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.
Wyoming had the highest workplace facility rate in the nation in 2023, with 16 deaths per 100,000 employees, according to AFL-CIO. This is nearly double the second-highest rate in the country: West Virginia's 8.3 deaths per 100,000 employees.
'Everything you remember tonight represents not just a statistic, but a universe, a web of relationships, dreams, morning coffee rituals, favorite songs and loved ones who still fill the empty space at their dinner tables,' said Wyoming AFL-CIO Executive Director Marcie Kindred. 'Behind every workplace fatality lies a story that was cut short, too.'
Workers Memorial Day lands on April 28, the same day the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) went into effect nearly 25 years ago, and commemorates the men and women who lost their lives on a job site. The primary purpose of OSHA is to ensure healthy and safe working conditions for all American employees.
A group of around 40 people attended Monday evening's event, many of them representing local unions from a myriad of industries, including steel, transportation, fire, mining, and construction and energy. Miner and United Steelworkers Local 13214 President Marshal Cummings said right-to-work laws are standing in the way of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
'(Right-to-work is) not about jobs. It's not about freedom,' Cummings said. 'It's about weakening the very organizations, our unions, that keep us safe.'
Speakers at the event said they were tired of repeating these same words after little action from the state. Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association Executive Director Marcia Shanor said 'it feels hollow.'
'It shouldn't be one time a year that we all get together and talk about why this is an important issue,' Shanor said. 'It should be every day.'
She said the state needs to collect more data on workplace accidents in order to strategize better solutions that reduce casualties on the job. Kindred said Wyoming has six OSHA inspectors, and it would take them 307 years to inspect every workplace in the state just one time.
'Isn't that tragically poetic? 307, the single area code that Wyomingites share,' Kindred said. 'This isn't a criticism of OSHA. It's a stark illustration of how severely under-resourced our safety infrastructure is.'
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was heavily affected when 10,000 employees were laid off April 1 in the federal Department of Health and Human Services. NIOSH is an agency of HHS, and most of its supervisors and research scientists were terminated, according to the National Roofing Contractors Association.
Cummings told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle a scheduled health hazard evaluation for his mine was cancelled because the inspector was fired.
'She emailed me and said, 'I want to let you know it's not happening. I was fired,'' Cummings said. 'There's not much I can do.'
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