The AFL-CIO and 27 labor unions sent the letter to members of Congress highlighting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH’s) crucial role in protecting workers
(Washington, D.C.)—The AFL-CIO and 27 labor unions urged members of Congress to push President Trump to reverse his gutting of NIOSH in a new letter.
“[I]n its attempt to restructure the Department of Health and Human Services using artificial intelligence, the so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ functionally dismantled NIOSH—one of the most critical and impactful agencies to every worker in America, their families and to industries alike,” the labor organizations wrote. “This decision must be immediately reversed as it will take working conditions back centuries, when chronic occupational diseases and fatalities skyrocketed with no government agency to help identify causes and research interventions.”
More than 85% of NIOSH staff have been placed on administrative leave and will be terminated in June without action. The letter outlines their critical work that will be left undone: certifying respirators and lifesaving protective equipment; investigating job fatalities in dangerous occupations like firefighting and mining to save worker lives in the future; conducting Health Hazard Evaluations to identify new health risks on jobsites; and administering medical care to 9/11 responders and survivors, and compensation for nuclear workers from the Cold War. In response to public pressure, some NIOSH staff on firefighter and coal worker programs have been temporarily recalled but are still scheduled to be terminated in June. The letter’s authors emphasize that all of NIOSH’s experts must be permanently reinstated in order for workers to be protected.
This letter follows the annual Workers Memorial Day on April 28, a day when the labor movement commemorates workers who died on the job and recommits to the fight for safer workplaces. The AFL-CIO’s newly released Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect report found that 385 workers die each day from hazardous working conditions; in 2023, that was 5,283 workers killed from occupational injuries, and another estimated 135,304 workers killed from occupational diseases.
As the authors emphasize, without a fully staffed and functioning NIOSH, those numbers will only increase. They conclude: “Safe jobs are a fundamental right for every worker in America, and NIOSH is necessary to make this right a reality.”
Signatories of the letter include:
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
American Postal Workers Union (APWU)
Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM)
Communications Workers of America (CWA)
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada (IATSE)
International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers (IW)
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers (IBB)
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
International Chemical Workers Union Council (ICWUC)
International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC)
International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC)
International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE)
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT)
International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW)
Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA)
National Nurses United (NNU)
Operative Plasterers’ & Cement Masons’ International Association (OPCMIA)
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute Trust (SMOHIT)
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United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA)
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)
United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial & Service Workers International Union (USW)
Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA)
Contact: Prerna Jagadeesh, 202-637-5018