Building Trades are crucial for safety

By Kevin Ferreira
Executive Director, Sacramento-Sierra’s BCTC

Heriberto Lopez Campos, 41, fatally struck by falling boxes. Brenton Chester, 47, died in fall through skylight. Michael Micheletti, 42, fatally crushed under tractor-trailer. Juan Ramon Gonzaga Del Pino, 50, died in fall from scaffolding.

These are just some of our fellow Californians who have died on the job in recent times. Whether they were our union sisters and brothers or working without the benefit of our protections, they were loved and valued and should not have died for a paycheck.

As we honor these workers and all those who have died on the job during Workers’ Memorial Day this year, I am reminded yet again how vital the Building Trades are in not just protecting our jobs but in protecting our lives. We deserve to have safe and fair workplaces, and unions are the strongest and most important key to achieving that.

That is especially true for construction workers, who face some of the highest fatality rates of any profession. As California pushes to build the housing we need, the Building Trades are standing firm that union members should be at the head of the line for those jobs because we are the best trained to do the work right, and to do it safely. Cutting corners costs lives.

There were 5,190 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2021, the most recent year for which statistics are available. That was nearly a 9% increase from the year before, and was the highest number since 2016.

That means a worker died on the job every 101 minutes in the United States—a rate that increased for Black and Latino workers. Construction and extraction occupations had the second most occupational deaths in 2021, with more than 950 of our construction brethren dying on the job.

More than 50 years ago, this nation passed the Safety and Health Act, which was meant to better protect working Americans and ensure that their work conditions didn’t put them in danger of injury or death. That Act helped raise the bar and raise awareness for the dangerous conditions that many people toiled in as this nation grew and thrived. It was a law passed because labor unions demanded it and supported it. But we still have far to go.

That is why unions are more important today than ever, and why the Building Trades fights so hard every day to improve the lives not only of our members, but of every working American. As the Trades build better workplaces, it raises the bar on all employers.

As we enter into a busy summer here in the Sacramento region, with dozens of large projects under way, I encourage every member to be aware of safety on their worksites. This includes being aware of the weather in the hot months. We are entering the season of triple-digit temperatures, which are only hotter and more dangerous in the trades where our members work outdoors, on roofs, in trenches and in other areas that can be even hotter than the surrounding environments. Stay safe and be smart when you are working, and never hesitate to call our Building Trades representatives if you see unsafe conditions.

We all need to stick together to ensure our job sites are safe and fair. That’s what the Sacramento-Sierra’s Building and Construction Trades is here for, and you can count on us to continue this fight.