By Walter Sutton, Baggage Handler, Bedford, Texas
As an airport baggage handler, I know about dangerous jobs—it comes with the territory of working by 100-ton jets!
But that proximity makes clear the importance of protections on the job. It’s something my fellow workers with Airport Workers United have been fighting for years to get!
One benefit of fighting together in a union is that our demands help ensure accidents don’t happen, and if they do, a worker can heal without worry or seek justice if negligence was involved.
This part of our fight matters more now that corporations and anti-worker politicians are trying to roll back policies that give us foundational protections.
And death data doesn’t lie. We must support more worker protections, not fewer.
According to the AFL-CIO’s latest Death on the Job report, hundreds of working people were killed on the job from hazardous conditions in 2023 alone.
On top of that, over 100,000 died from occupational diseases.
And for Black and brown communities already disproportionately and negatively impacted in so many aspects of life, safety on the job is no different.
How can we continue to fight for more comprehensive protections like those that cover hazardous conditions, unsafe heat, injury, occupational disease, violence, and the racism that makes these things worse for people of color?
We act, and we raise our voices. Take one step to fight back >> Sign our petition to demand more protections for workers!
And, while our safety should NEVER be made important simply because of the economic impact, the data is there too! Corporations LOSE OUT when they let protections slip and when they push back against us as we fight together in our unions for such protections.
This fight will continue to be a major priority for working people. With attacks on our unions and rollbacks of regulatory protections that keep us safe and healthy, we need to take action!
