Dying to Work: Death and Injury in the American Workplace

by Jonathan D. Karmel

Overview

In Dying to Work, Jonathan Karmel raises our awareness of unsafe working conditions with accounts of workers who were needlessly injured or killed on the job. Based on heart-wrenching interviews Karmel conducted with injured workers and surviving family members across the country, the stories in this book are introduced in a way that helps place them in a historical and political context and represent a wide survey of the American workplace, including, among others, warehouse workers, grocery store clerks, hotel housekeepers, and river dredgers.

Karmel’s examples are portraits of the lives and dreams cut short and reports of the workplace incidents that tragically changed the lives of everyone around them. Dying to Work includes incidents from industries and jobs that we do not commonly associate with injuries and fatalities and highlights the risks faced by workers who are hidden in plain view all around us. While exposing the failure of safety laws that leave millions of workers without compensation and employers without any meaningful incentive to protect their workers, Karmel offers the reader some hope in the form of policy suggestions that may make American workers safer and employers more accountable. This is a book for anyone interested in issues of worker health and safety, and it will also serve as the cornerstone for courses in public policy, community health, labor studies, business ethics, regulation and safety, and occupational and environmental health policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501709982
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	12/15/2017
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jonathan D. Karmel has practiced labor and employment law in Chicago for 35 years representing unions and their employee benefit funds. Karmel is a Fellow with The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and has been recognized as an Illinois Super Lawyer. Karmel is a frequent panelist on labor and employment topics, and has lectured internationally. Recently, Karmel became the Co-Chair of the American Bar Association's Occupational Safety and Health Committee where he hopes to increase awareness of the important issues affecting workers and their families.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1. America Goes to Work
2. The Torch That Lighted Up the Industrial Scene
3. Keeping Americans Safe at Work
4. Just the Facts
5. Stories
6. What Can We Do?
7. Are There Really Any Accidents?
Epilogue
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Don J. Lofgren

Dying to Work offers readable, powerful human stories of workplace injuries and illnesses. Jonathan D. Karmel also offers well-presented arguments for addressing the issues and preventing like tragedies.

Celeste Monforton

In Dying to Work, Jonathan D. Karmel presents issues faced by workers in a full range of industries, many of which the general public doesn’t typically think of as hazardous. Using the powerful stories of individual fatality and injury cases is an effective way to introduce each worker health and safety topic.

Editorial Reviews

The book to read if you want to know what’s happening with worker health and safety in these difficult times.

Labor Notes

[Dying to Work] highlights how corporations have simply not placed a premium on protecting their workers from harm.

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

A compelling call for action on a national health crisis that's hiding in plain sight.

Unionist

Most interestingly... the book features a collection of stories about workers who were killed or injured on the job. As one might expect, there are subsections devoted to risks of being an electrician, logger, oil & gas worker and coal miner, with corresponding horror stories for each occupation. But it’s the personal experiences of grocery clerks and hotel housekeepers—two other surprisingly high-risk occupations—that are the real page-turners.

Failure Magazine

[Karmel] directs our attention toward an awareness of a hidden-in-plain-sight problem, where instead of provoking outrage and indignation, death and injury on the job are considered to be a condition of doing business and a necessary evil in the production process.... Karmel argues effectively for changing that narrative.... [Dying to Work] is a call to action.

New Solutions

Karmel has written a gripping and disturbing book on the state of safety and health in the workplace. He has compiled a revealing series of personal accounts of workplace accidents. The cumulative impact is painful.

Choice

[Dying to Work] highlights how corporations have simply not placed a premium on protecting their workers from harm.

-- "Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review"

[Karmel] directs our attention toward an awareness of a hidden-in-plain-sight problem, where instead of provoking outrage and indignation, death and injury on the job are considered to be a condition of doing business and a necessary evil in the production process.... Karmel argues effectively for changing that narrative.... [Dying to Work] is a call to action.

-- "New Solutions"

A compelling call for action on a national health crisis that's hiding in plain sight.

-- "Unionist"

Karmel has written a gripping and disturbing book on the state of safety and health in the workplace. He has compiled a revealing series of personal accounts of workplace accidents. The cumulative impact is painful.

-- "Choice"

Most interestingly... the book features a collection of stories about workers who were killed or injured on the job. As one might expect, there are subsections devoted to risks of being an electrician, logger, oil & gas worker and coal miner, with corresponding horror stories for each occupation. But it's the personal experiences of grocery clerks and hotel housekeepers--two other surprisingly high-risk occupations--that are the real page-turners.

-- "Failure Magazine"

The book to read if you want to know what's happening with worker health and safety in these difficult times.

-- "Labor Notes"

From the Publisher

"Dying to Work offers readable, powerful human stories of workplace injuries and illnesses. Jonathan D. Karmel also offers well-presented arguments for addressing the issues and preventing like tragedies."

Don J. Lofgren

"In Dying to Work, Jonathan D. Karmel presents issues faced by workers in a full range of industries, many of which the general public doesn’t typically think of as hazardous. Using the powerful stories of individual fatality and injury cases is an effective way to introduce each worker health and safety topic."

Celeste Monforton

"Jon Karmel, in his recent book, Dying to Work, raises awareness of unsafe working conditions that have resulted in death and/or injury to workers. Karmel traveled the country to interview victims and their families and his book highlights how corporations have simply not placed a premium on protecting their workers from harm."

Reuben A. Guttman