Here we go again. These corporations can spend all this money on really snazzy websites but can’t protect people the way they are supposed to.

Debi Fergen, testified Wednesday in Las Vegas, telling state lawmakers if they would have taken her sons death more seriously and held Boyd Gaming accountable construction deaths on the Strip might have been prevented. Debbie said, “For that reason, I lay some of those deaths at the feet of Nevada OSHA.”

Debbie describes her son’s last words, “I got his head up, get me a rope, I can’t do this alone.” These words are what Debbie has to holds on to now, this is what gives her; her fight! Being a family member I know how important these things are no matter how horrid it may seem, Travis spoke them with his last breath. With his last breath he was trying to save a life that could never be saved and Boyd knew this. They sent Travis to an early grave and the only ones who seem to have to live with this is his family. The sad thing is they will never know what they have really done because they are too worried about covering their butts. We love you Debbie and you are in our hearts and prayers.

Oh there are ways to make Boyd pay. Just keep on pressing the issue and start a campaign. Boyd Gaming is a public corporation and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. They are trading at $4.03 per share. How’s about working to bring that down to a dollar! Someone could even start a website like boydharmsworkers.com or something.

Good effort by the Weekly Toll blog to highlight things like this. I also hope that Nevada OSHA is going to get their act together.

Bill Moyer’s Journal has a really good piece on the horrible working conditions at some House of Raeford plants. The expose goes into how employers are under reporting workplace injuries. They even discuss how badly OSHA has crumbeled under the Bush administration.

Technorati : bill moyers, house of raeford, osha

I happened to see this in the Wall Street Journal online today.

The U.S.’s system for measuring workplace safety is flawed and misses up to half of all workplace injuries, according to independent studies that will be presented Thursday at a hearing on the federal agency charged with protecting workers’ safety and health.

Here’s more…

Some safety experts say the underreporting problem is growing as more immigrants who typically underreport injuries enter the work force, and as more employers classify workers as independent contractors whose injuries aren’t tracked. Those issues are gaining traction in a Democratic-controlled Congress in light of recent construction accidents in New York and Las Vegas.

What’s sad is that the Republicans should be up in arms about this as well. That is if they truly represent the so called heartland middle class worker that they claim to.