Every day, workers are dying horrible deaths -- on the job

Every year an average of 4,400 workers are killed at work in the United States. That's 12 workers every day. Now and then you may hear or read about a worker who died at a worksite in your community: crushed under heavy equipment, struck by a vehicle, pinned by a forklift. But it seems like an isolated incident. 

It isn't. Just yesterday, a worker was killed in a 50-foot fall from a bucket truck in Ogden, Pa. A construction worker died in northwest Iowa after he was pinned under a piece of equipment.

And those are just the two we know about. 

Low pay and part-time work can be as deadly as a dangerous machine. A 32-year-old Newark woman who worked at three Dunkin' Donuts died of asphyxiation recently when she tried to take a nap in her car between shifts. And an estimated 50,000 people die every year from occupational illnesses.

Here's a rundown of worker deaths we've followed recently (and we now include them in our daily news roundup, Today's Teamster News.

• On Thursday, a 57-year-old autoworker was reported killed at a Georgia Kia plant in an 'industrial accident.
• Also reported on Thursday was a 55-year-old highway worker killed on a highway project in Tilden, Neb.  
• On Wednesday, a 27-year-old man was reported killed after he was struck by large metal plates in a Tualatin, Ore., manufacturer. 
• On Sunday, a St. Louis trucking company employee was reported dead after being struck by a box truck in the company parking lot. 
• A 61-year-old man died last week in a south Georgia industrial accident while he was working on a hydraulic system at an agricultural business.
• Another Nebraska man died after a truck with gravel tipped over on him. The same day, also in Nebraska, a worker at Midwest Manufacturing was killed when a standing forklift backed into a shelving unit and pinned him. 
• On October 1, Charlotte, N.C., firefighters reported a worker was killed at a recycling plant after being struck by a forklift. A Texas port worker was reported killed after metal collapsed on him at a Port of Brownsville recycling center.  A farmworker was reported dead in an East Idaho potato harvest accident; he was working on a tarp covering a truckload of potatoes when another truck backed up and crushed him.
• On Sept. 30, a Philadelphia zoo worker was reported killed after being pinned under a golf cart.

Remember that one of tne of the most important things your union does is to fight for workplace protections. 

And remember to stay safe out there!