LEWISTON, Maine — Maine lost at least 23 people last year to injuries and illnesses related to work, according to the Maine Department of Labor.
"We today mourn those losses, and also recommit ourselves to having a safe workplace," Laura Fortman, the commissioner of the Maine DOL, said during Workers' Memorial Day on Sunday.
This year's death toll is slightly above the roughly 20 work-related deaths Fortman's agency recorded in 2022. Fortman believes the Lewiston shootings, which killed 18 people including three employees on the job, was a factor in the increase.
The new data comes as Maine remains a leader in a different workplace metric. The most recent numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show our state had the nation's highest rate of recorded non-fatal injuries and illnesses at private workplaces in 2022, the last time data on the subject was released by the bureau.
For labor activists, who held commemorations this week for Workers' Memorial Day, the path to a safer work environment requires rethinking of what is asked of workers on the job.
Kilton Webb, a union electrician, believes exhaustion from long hours is a central driver of injury.
"Those little bits of mental fatigue are where the big accidents live in," Webb said Monday.
This notion has led to calls for policy changes, including an end to mandated overtime at paper mills in the state.
A bill passed in the Legislature this spring, LD 1794, seeks to create a commission to study the impact of requiring overtime work on the safety and morale for employees at the facility.
Andy O’Brien, a spokesperson for the Maine AFL-CIO underscored the damage exhaustion from a double-shift can have on an employee's ability to function, especially around dangerous machinery: "When you haven’t slept in that many hours, its like you’re drunk."
O'Brien also called for greater funding for inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) the federal entity responsible for regulating the safety of workplaces in the private sector.
The Maine Department of Labor also has a website, safetyworksmaine.gov, with resources and information on workplace safety.