Nominations open for 2019 National COSH “Dirty Dozen”

Nominations open for  2019 National COSH “Dirty Dozen”
Spotlight on Dangerous Employers; 2018 Report Identified Workers Crushed to Death, Denied Bathroom Breaks and Victims of Sexual Harassment 

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a non-profit organization advocating for worker safety, announced today an open call for nominations of “Dirty Dozen” employers who put workers’ lives and limbs at risk through unsafe practices.

 Nominations can be submitted at tinyurl.com/DirtyDozen2019 and are due on Friday, March 8th.

“Every single day, workers get sick, injured or killed because employers are not preventing known safety and health hazards,” said Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of National COSH. " 'The Dirty Dozen’ will call out employers that put the lives of workers and communities at dangerous risk. We’ll work with unions, COSH groups, workers’ centers and others who are lifting up the voices of workers fighting for safer conditions on the job.”

National COSH, which links the efforts of local health and safety groups across the United States, will release its annual “Dirty Dozen” report in April 2019, in observance of Workers’ Memorial Week (WMW). The annual event, observed in the U.S. and around the world, calls for action to prevent tragic and preventable injuries, illnesses fatalities that affect millions of workers every year.

The National COSH 2018 “Dirty Dozen“ report identified horrifying – and preventable workplace events, including:

• A warehouse worker crushed to death by a forklift and six other deaths at Amazon facilities since 2013
• Poultry workers at Case Farms forced to wear diapers because they were denied bathroom breaks
• More than 60 sexual harassment complaints at Dine Global, owner of the IHOP and Applebee’s restaurant chains

The 2018 Dirty Dozen report received national and international media attention, including coverage in the Associated Press en Español, Engadget, Gizmodo, The New Yorker, Now This, Vanity Fair and others.

“No one should be crushed to death by a machine, denied basic dignity or forced to endure harassment as the price of earning a paycheck,” said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, also a co-executive director of National COSH. “Gathering nominations for the "Dirty Dozen" is an opportunity to name employers who skimp on safety and make workers pay the price.”

Criteria for inclusion in the “Dirty Dozen” included severity of injuries to workers; citations by national and state safety authorities; and activity by workers to identify and correct safety problems.