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Vol. 77/No. 7      February 25, 2013

 
On-the-job construction
deaths rise in New York
 
BY EMMA JOHNSON  
NEW YORK—One worker was killed and another seriously injured within two days at construction sites in Queens in the last week of January. Records show a marked rise in the number of construction injuries and fatalities in the city over the past few years, as city officials have increasingly been licensing contractors to oversee the safety of their own projects.

On Jan. 24 a 42-year-old worker died from injuries sustained at a construction site in Astoria. He fell through a hole in the floor, plummeted 15 feet and struck his head on a steel girder.

The day before, a worker at the site of the New York Police Department’s new academy in College Point suffered serious injuries when he fell 12 feet into an elevator shaft.

In Long Island City, in Queens, seven workers were injured when a crane collapsed Jan. 9. The crane belongs to New York Crane and Equipment Corp., a company notorious for safety violations.

In the New York metropolitan area, including northern New Jersey and Long Island, construction fatalities increased from 28 to 40 between 2010 and 2011.

According to city records, the number of injuries in New York rose 46 percent between 2011 and 2012, from 128 to 187.
 
 
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Uruguay strikers win right to suspend work over safety
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Membership in US unions is lowest in nearly a century
On the Picket Line
 
 
 
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