US Department of Labor teams with New Bedford labor organization to improve seafood processor workplace safety

The U.S. Department of Labor is working with local labor organization Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores to improve worker safety at seafood processing facilities in New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) offices in Braintree, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island have signed a formal agreement with Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores to establish an alliance to address the risky workplace conditions faced by New Bedford area immigrants and low-wage workers, according to an OSHA press release.

"The Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores' alliance with OSHA will help us reduce the number of workers injured on the job in the New Bedford area, including the many employed in the seafood processing industry,” Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores Executive Director Adrian Ventura said.

OSHA, the federal government’s workplace safety regulator, announced last month that it would be conducting random, comprehensive safety inspections of New England seafood processors and wholesaler operations. The inspections are part of a new local emphasis program launched by OSHA to crack down on occupational hazards in the area, where seafood processors have reported injury and illness rates 2.5 times higher than industry average. OSHA has recorded two fatalities and four finger amputations at New England seafood facilities since 2016.

Of particular concern to OSHA is the use of temporary labor and outside workers at those facilities, and the regulator noted that the alliance helps them reach the most vulnerable worker populations.

"OSHA's alliance with Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores will help enhance our efforts to reach southern New England's immigrant and low-wage workers to inform them of workplace hazards, as well as their rights to a safe and healthy workplace," OSHA Braintree Area Director James Mulligan said.

The alliance will provide culturally and linguistically tailored training and education on workplace hazards, workers rights, whistleblower protection laws, and employers’ responsibilities, OSHA said.

“The center looks forward to working with other area organizations to better inform our region's immigrant and low-wage workers and their employers about the importance of workplace safety and health,” Ventura said.

Workers and labor advocates in New Beford, including Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, have been fighting the mass firing of over 100 contracted workers from Eastern Fisheries’ New Bedford-based processing plant.

In February, the company ended its relationship with a staffing agency, telling the workers to reapply for jobs directly with the company. Centro Comunitario De Trabajadores claimed the company took that action in order to dismiss workers who were calling for improvements to working conditions at the plant and better wages.

“They don’t want us organizing,” Ventura told The New Beford Light through a translator. “It’s clear this is about retaliation.”

The 26 workers wrote a letter to Eastern Fisheries when an employee was fired after raising concerns over productivity tests. An NLRB investigation determined Eastern Fisheries had unlawfully terminated the employee and forced the company to rehire the employee and pay back wages, according to the New Bedford Light. That same employee was one of the workers to receive termination notices earlier this year.

Labor advocacy nonprofit Justice At Work filed a charge of unlawful termination in response which is still under investigation by the NLRB.

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