Al Franken: “I come to the floor today to talk about the need for a safer and healthier workplace and to urge my colleagues to join…”

“I come to the floor today to talk about the need for a safer and healthier workplace and to urge my colleagues to join me and Senator Murray in supporting the Protecting America's Workers Act, which I am proud to introduce today. Today, April 28, is Workers' Memorial Day--a day for our Nation to remember and focus on those workers who have died or been injured on the job. Today is also a day to acknowledge the significant suffering experienced by families and communities when workers die or are injured and to recommit ourselves to maintaining safe and healthy workplaces for all of our workers. April 28 is also the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the OSH Act, which created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. When the bill was passed on a bipartisan basis and signed into law by President Nixon 45 years ago, 14,000 workers were dying on the job each year. Now the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there were 4,405 worker fatalities in 2013. That is a huge improvement, and it would not have happened without the OSH Act. But it also means that far too many workers are still getting hurt and dying on the job. Our workforce and workplaces have changed significantly in 45 years, but our laws have not kept pace. We have made no real updates to our workplace safety laws even though thousands of workers die every year on the job, many in large industrial disasters that could be prevented.…”