AFL-CIO's Fred Redmond on Worker Deaths, OSHA and USW Leadership

Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss Workers’ Memorial Week and a look at the AFL-CIO's annual Death on the Job report, as well as an assessment of what the rollback of federal OSHA enforcement means for working people.

Redmond noted that approximately 15 workers die on the job every day in America, with workers of color disproportionately represented in those numbers. He warned that the dismantling of workplace safety regulations by the current administration is making an already difficult fight significantly harder.

He also offered an update on new United Steelworkers General President Roxanne Brown, who has been tested immediately by two simultaneous lockouts in Northwest Indiana and, in Redmond's words, is proving herself a fighter from day one.

• The AFL-CIO's annual Death on the Job report, released during Workers Memorial Week, documents that approximately 15 workers die on the job each day in the United States, with workers of color making up the greater share of those fatalities. Redmond said the current administration's rollback of OSHA regulations and enforcement is making the labor movement's fight for workplace safety measurably harder than it has been in recent years.
• States with Democratic governors and state-level workplace safety programs — including California and Illinois — are attempting to fill the void left by weakened federal OSHA enforcement, and Redmond said workplace death rates in those states, while still unacceptably high, are lower than in “so-called” Right to Work states without comparable protections.
• United Steelworkers General President Roxanne Brown, who took office in early March, immediately faced two simultaneous lockouts in Northwest Indiana — one at Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) and one at the BP Whiting oil refinery. Brown has been on the ground with locked-out members, with the NIPSCO dispute now headed toward ratification, while the BP situation remains unresolved.

Workers’ Memorial Week and a Report That Should Embarrass Both Parties

Fred Redmond has spent most of his working life in the steel industry, where the dangers are real, the consequences of cutting corners are sometimes fatal, and the fight for workplace safety regulations has been waged for decades at enormous cost.

The AFL-CIO's annual Death on the Job report was released this week, and its findings are a call to action that Redmond said should not divide along partisan lines — though the current reality of OSHA enforcement suggests it does. Approximately 15 workers die on the job every day in the United States. Workers of color represent a disproportionate share of those fatalities. The companies most likely to produce those numbers, Redmond said, are the ones that have consistently chosen to cut corners in pursuit of a wider profit margin, knowing that weak enforcement and modest penalties make the gamble worth taking.

OSHA's Record and the Threat of Rollback

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was signed into law in 1970 by President Richard Nixon — a fact Redmond noted with some historical irony, observing that a Republican president who understood the dangers facing American workers and felt the government had an obligation to address them would find no home in today's Republican Party. In the more than five decades since OSHA's creation, its inspections, regulations and penalty structure have saved thousands of lives by compelling employers to take worker safety seriously as a matter of legal and financial consequence.

That framework is now under sustained attack. Redmond described the current administration's approach to OSHA as one of elimination rather than enforcement — rolling back regulations at a moment when the data argues for strengthening them. Redmond said the former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, was largely unresponsive when coalitions of unions and companies sought to make the case for maintaining and expanding safety standards based on injury data and investigation findings. The appointment of new leadership at both OSHA and the U.S. Department of Labor represents an opportunity, Redmond said, but also a test, and the labor movement will be watching closely.

States Stepping In Where the Federal Government Has Stepped Back

In the absence of robust federal enforcement, some states are moving to fill the gap. California's state-level OSHA program — Cal/OSHA — has long been a model of more rigorous workplace safety enforcement. Now, Illinois and other states with Democratic governors have taken similar steps. Redmond credited those efforts while being clear about their limitations: state programs are responses to a federal failure, not substitutes for a national standard that applies uniformly to every qualifying workplace in the country.

The data reflects both the value of state action and its insufficiency. Death rates in states with active workplace safety programs are lower than in states without comparable protections. But they are not low enough. Redmond said the labor movement's goal remains a year without a single workplace fatality — an aspiration he acknowledged is distant but one he refused to abandon as a standard. Anything less, he argued, is a concession that some workers’ lives are acceptable losses, which the AFL-CIO is not prepared to make.

Roxanne Brown Takes Charge at the United Steelworkers

Redmond also offered a firsthand assessment of Roxanne Brown, who became the United Steelworkers' International President in early March. The transition brought immediate challenges: two simultaneous lockouts in Northwest Indiana landed on her desk almost from day one. The first, at Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), has moved toward resolution — a tentative agreement is pending ratification and is expected to be approved. The second, at the BP Whiting oil refinery, remains unresolved. BP has brought in replacement workers, and the picket lines remain active.

Redmond said Brown has responded to both situations the way a general president should: by showing up. She has been on the ground in Northwest Indiana, walking with locked-out members and making her presence felt at a moment when the membership needed to see its leadership committed to the fight. Redmond described her as battle-tested and battle-ready — someone who came into the role prepared for exactly this kind of challenge and is already earning the confidence of the members she represents.

The Death on the Job report is available at aflcio.org, where workers and their advocates can find the full data and resources on workplace safety rights.

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