REPORT: Texas Workers’ Safety & Health in Danger Under Trump, Abbott Attacks

TEXAS – Today, on Workers Memorial Day, Texas workers are dying and being injured on the job after Donald Trump and Greg Abbott cut essential funding and staffing, directed resources away from agencies, and preempted policies that protect workers, according to a new report by the AFL-CIO.

“Every single family deserves to know that their loved ones will come home from work at the end of the day — safe and alive,” said Texas AFL-CIO President Leonard Aguilar. “This Workers Memorial Day, we remember those Texans who didn’t get to come home. For them and for every Texan who works for a living, we won’t stop fighting for the protections we deserve: the basic dignity of a water break, an end to workplace violence, and fundamental safety precautions.” 

READ THE REPORT: “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect”

KEY TEXAS FINDINGS

According to the AFL-CIO’s report “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect”, 557 Texas workers died on the job in 2024 (pg. 45). The state’s worker fatality rate is still above the national average (pg. 274).

In Texas and across the country, Latino workers continue to face the greatest risk. Of the Latino workers who died on the job nationally, 68.5% were immigrants, a larger percentage than in previous years (pg. 72). 

Texas has the fourth-worst ratio of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspectors to number of employees at 1/199,091, following Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi (pg. 149). With these numbers, it would take OSHA 215 years to inspect each Texas workplace once (pg. 219). 

Texas remains one of two states to have instituted measures that preempt their localities from issuing requirements to protect workers from heat, like mandatory breaks for water, rest and shade (pg. 163).

KEY NATIONAL FINDINGS

• Workplace hazards kill approximately 140,000 workers each year in the United States—more than 380 workers each day. 
• 5,070 workers died from traumatic injury on the job in 2024, the latest year of data available, and an estimated 135,000 died from occupational diseases. An estimated 530 workers died from heat alone.
• Black workers still die on the job at a disproportionately higher rate than the national average. 
• Latino workers continue to face the greatest risk of dying on the job in 2024, at a rate 30% higher than the national average. Of the Latino workers who died, 68.5% were immigrants, a larger percentage than in previous years.
• The rate of young worker deaths has nearly doubled since 2020, and workers ages 65 and older are nearly three times as likely to die on the job than other workers. 
• Workplace injuries create an enormous burden on the economy, costing an estimated $177 billion to $354 billion a year. 
• Underreporting is widespread, and the true toll of work-related injuries and illnesses is estimated to be between 5.0 million and 7.5 million each year in private industry.

“Every worker should be able to go home safe and healthy at the end of their shift—but 55 years after the founding of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, that fundamental right is in danger,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “From the dismantling of critical federal agencies and laws to the expansion of unregulated, untested AI technology, the protections that workers fought and died for are under serious threat. The labor movement refuses to go backward. More than 5 decades after a Republican signed the landmark Occupational Safety and Health Act into law, we urge all members of Congress—from both sides of the aisle—to join us in this fight.” 

“It is a disgrace that in 2026, being Black, Latino or an immigrant can still be a death sentence on the jobsite,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond. “Our new report makes it terrifyingly clear that the Trump administration’s anti-DEI, mass deportation agenda will only make this crisis worse. When workers are afraid that reporting threats to their safety could result in their work permits being revoked and their families being ripped apart, and when employers fear that reporting workplace data will hurt their bottom line, we are all less safe: workers of color and white workers, immigrant workers and U.S.-born workers. We must fight the Trump administration’s attacks on communities of color like our fellow workers’ lives are on the line—because they are.” 

The “Death on the Job” report comes the week of Workers Memorial Day, when the labor movement remembers those who have suffered injury or illness or lost their lives on the job and renews the fight to prevent these tragedies. The AFL-CIO, its state and local labor federations, and affiliated unions will turn out to call attention to this crisis throughout the week at events across the country.

The full 2026 “Death of the Job: The Toll of Neglect” report can be found here. 

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The Texas AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) is the state labor federation consisting of more than 250,000 affiliated union members and advocates for working people in Texas. Learn more at texasaflcio.org