May 9, 2014 By Richard Trumka 4 min read

Some moments never leave you – like after a roof fall in a coal mine, when for endless seconds you hardly know if you’re dead or alive. If you’ve ever been through something like that, the older you get, the harder it is to hear about anyone’s death on the job.

The numbers are hard to wrap your mind around: 4,628 workers died on the job in the United States in 2012, the most recent year for which we have full figures. But that is only a part of the deadly toll. Each year 50,000 workers die from occupational diseases caused by exposures to toxic chemicals and other health hazards. Black lung is one of the killers. It look the life of my own father.

The AFL-CIO will soon release our annual comprehensive report on worker deaths. We commemorated those workers on April 28, known as Workers Memorial Day, and the news is not good. I’ll break down the details a bit: 826 workers fell and suffered other fatal injuries on construction sites, 347 manufacturing workers were killed, 142 workers died in the oil and gas industry, 36 miners were killed. The list goes on and on.

One of the most dangerous industries is oil and gas. It’s one I’ve been thinking about a lot, because of the February death this year of 27-year-old Ian McKee, who was killed by a Chevron shale gas well explosion and fire in Greene County – my home county.

I never knew Ian, but I can’t forget his story. One news report at the time said a full 12 hours after the explosion the fire sounded like “a jet engine going five feet above your house.”

Too many of the jobs in America are dangerous, not only in Pennsylvania but across the country.

Last year, a deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas killed 15 workers and injured hundreds. Yet at the federal level, there have been meetings and recommendations, but no new regulations or laws to prevent the next explosion.

Texas has done nothing at all, even keeping a rule that bans its counties from having fire codes. No fire codes! Can you imagine that? Some people think safety is bad for business.

The use of chemicals like those in the fertilizer plant is increasingly common, as are chemical fires. And then there are the exposures that poison workers. Inadequate and outdated rules are failing to protect workers, who breathe and work around dangerous substances all over the place.

It’s not right. It’s not just. Yet most people don’t realize how hazardous work is: 194 died on the job in Pennsylvania alone. Four people were killed every week.

Back when I worked as a coal miner in and around Greene County, I learned the best guardians of workers are workers. You see, we never put profit ahead of the lives of our friends and fellow miners.

The truth is, businesses are operated to make money, not to keep people safe. That’s the way it is. And workers – especially young workers who sometimes feel invincible – will all too readily put themselves in harm’s way if asked, especially to provide for families.

And that’s why, as workers, we need each other for protection. That’s why union health and safety committees are so critical.

I can remember, when I was the president of the United Mine Workers, driving all over Pennsylvania and the entire Appalachian region to investigate and solve safety problems and to help make mines less dangerous. It wasn’t something I did because I read about it in a book. I learned from experience. Those memories remain fresh and vivid with me today, just the same as the sound of that Chevron explosion and fire that killed a young man with so much of life ahead of him will remain with all who heard it.

By the grace of God, I managed to survive my years of mining work, but I never have and never will leave behind the responsibility I feel for all of the good people in America who get up and do a job every day.

Richard Trumka, who was born and raised in Southwest Pennsylvania, is president of the AFL-CIO, America’s largest federation of unions with 12.5 million members.