Work-Related Fatal Injuries Among Latinos Keep Rising: Department of Labor

"I just watched as in slow motion as my friend dived headfirst when he fell off the ladder," says Luis Ortega, a construction worker in Metro Nashville describing the accident in which a fellow crew member died earlier this month.

That incident is part of a grim statistic and a trend that threatens the stability of hundreds of Hispanic families as the Department of Labor (DOL) reports that fatal injuries at the workplace are up, exposing Latinos and their livelihood.

According to the DOL's Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, work-related fatalities among foreign Hispanic or Latino workers rose to 727.

"(That is) a 5.1-percent increase from 692 in 2020 and the highest count since the series began in 2011," said the bureau in a note.

The DOL notes that of all fatalities at the workplace in 2021, the last year analyzed, 14 percent were to Hispanic or Latino workers.

Ortega, the worker from Nashville, told The Latin Times that his friend (whom he didn't name out of respect for his family and because some legal proceedings are going on), is not the only case in which he has witnessed an accident at work.

"It happens all the time, and not only with undocumented workers or Latinos, but people without permits are the most exposed because they don't measure any risks as they want to get their jobs done to continue on payroll," he said.

The DOL's report also highlights the perils of an occupation considered by official agencies as the most dangerous to Hispanic or Latino workers in the country.

In 2021, the DOL says, construction trades workers had 228 work-related fatal injuries, motor vehicle operators 100, ground maintenance workers 67, agricultural workers 43, and material moving workers 41 among the top five.

Sandoval Law Firm, A legal practice in Texas, has said that Hispanic and Latino workers "were the only published race and ethnicity group whose fatal injury rose in previous years."

In 2019- 2020, for instance, fatal injury rates at work for non-Hispanic White, Asian and Black workers dropped.

Empirically, Ortega can attest to these data: "In 10 years in Davidson County, Tennessee, I've never witnessed a fatal accident at work involving a non-Hispanic." And he ventures a theory: "It probably has to do with the fact that those who do the dangerous stuff are Hispanics while the foremen, managers and bosses are mostly White."