Vol. 72/No. 27      July 7, 2008

With the price of coal doubling in the past year, energy companies are competing to get an edge on the lucrative market. That means pushing miners to work harder, faster, longer, and more unsafely. Now the toll stands at 15 miners killed so far this year—twice the number of mine deaths by this time last year.

The construction boom has lined the pockets of U.S. building magnates. What is the cost for working people? Some 1,200 U.S. construction workers are killed on the job every year—casualties in the war by the employer class against the working class.

Latin American immigrants are 50 percent more likely to be killed on the job than other workers, according to a recent government report.

Bosses and their paid political servants claim they are “concerned” about us getting killed, but that “some jobs are dangerous and you will always have fatalities.” This class arrogance underscores the only conclusion we can draw: working people must look to our own collective action and solidarity to protect lives. Our banner must state the truth: “No worker has to die on the job!”

Work can be performed safely. But only when workers have control over job conditions. The first step is for workers to organize into unions. That includes organizing immigrants and championing the fight to legalize all undocumented workers. Above all, this means using the collective power of the union ranks to enforce safe conditions—including stopping work until a hazardous situation is resolved. Shipyard workers in Tuzla, Turkey, and construction workers in Las Vegas, Nevada, have given examples by shutting down production to demand action in face of coworkers being sacrificed to the bosses’ speed-up drive.

Capitalist politicians, from Democrat Barack Obama to Republican John McCain, have nothing to say about this problem. Their concern is serving the billionaire class they represent. No matter which of them moves into the White House in November, the toll on working people will only increase.

Just as workers need to organize on the job, we need to organize in the political arena—independently of the Democrats, Republicans, and other capitalist parties and politicians. We need a labor party based on a militant union movement that can lead millions in action to defend the interests of working people.

In Cuba, workers consider it normal that if conditions are unsafe, they stop work until the problem is fixed. Why? Because in Cuba working people made a socialist revolution, overturning capitalist rule and taking political power. They have the most powerful instrument possible—a workers and farmers government that responds to the needs of the majority.
 
 
Related articles:
Study: gov’t agency hides workplace injuries
15th coal miner killed in 2008; retreat mining used
Construction worker killed at Las Vegas site  
 
 
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