From New Bedford Standard Times [1]

By Joao Ferreira [1] Standard-Times staff writer May 01, 2008 6:00 AM

DARTMOUTH - Rogerio Ventura, 54, fisherman, New Bedford.

Michael Milot, 23, pilot, Dartmouth.

Rafael Guevarez Sr., 45, truck driver, Westport.

The names rolled off the tongues of students in a health and safety class sponsored by the UMass Dartmouth Labor Education Center during a local Workers' Memorial Day ceremony Wednesday night.

They are the names of three of the 80 people that died at work in Massachusetts last year in what were often preventable deaths, according to the "Dying for Work in Massachusetts" report released during the event.

"When you go to work in the morning, you expect to come home in the same condition that you left. That's not what happened to 80 workers in Massachusetts," said Kim Wilson of the UMass Dartmouth Labor Education Center during a modest ceremony in which the names of 13 Southeastern Massachusetts workers were read.

Among those were the four fishermen who perished aboard the Lady of Grace in January of 2007.

Jennifer Patrao, Rogerio Ventura's daughter, said that like many other worker's deaths, her father's death seems to have been preventable.

The sinking of the Lady of Grace wasn't simply an act of God, as many had initially thought, she said.

For example, she said, a Coast Guard report revealed that the Lady of Grace had failed a stability test performed for insurance purposes. Federal regulations didn't require the 75-foot vessel to pass a stability test, she said, because it fell short of the 79-foot guideline.

"The vessel failed and was still allowed to go out to sea," Mrs. Barroqueiro said. "Unfortunately, that my father didn't know about. Unfortunately, that his family didn't know about."

John Drinkwater, organizing and mobility coordinator with the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, a labor union that helped produce the report, said that while safety equipment that would prevent worker deaths is often in place or exists, most often it is not provided and worker training is lacking.

"When you really get to see the data, you know many of these deaths were preventable," he said.

Tolle Graham of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health said that when deaths in the workplace occur, employers are often only slapped on the wrist. The average Occupational Safety and Health Administration fine for a preventable workplace death is $5,000, she said.

"Pretty pitiful amount of money to trade for a life," she said.

Immigrants and temporary workers are especially lacking training, Ms. Graham said as she called for stronger regulations requiring immigrant workers to be informed about the safety precautions they need to take at work, for example.

"These are things we really need to work on," she said.

Contact Joao Ferreira at

jferreira@s-t.com