Unions count 23% jump in workplace fatalities
SPRINGFIELD – Fifty-nine workers died on the job in Massachusetts in 2025, a 22.9% increase from 2024, according to a report released Wednesday by workplace safety advocates MassCOSH, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and local labor councils across the Commonwealth.
“They don’t have a voice,” said Tatiana Sofia Begault, executive director of MassCOSH, which stands for Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety & Health. “We must be their voice.”
With signs reading “Mourn the fallen, fight for the living,” she spoke Wednesday at a Workers Memorial Day celebration at Teamsters Local 404 in Springfield and one of several celebrations held around the state.
They read the names of the 59 people who died in 2025 and the 19 others killed on the job since the start of 2026.
“We come together because no paycheck should ever cost a life. And yet, here in Massachusetts, it still does,” Begault said.
The list included Igor Costa, 26 from Marlborough; Ryan Almeida, 48, of Brockton; and Raul Bohorquez, 57, also of Brockton. All three were struck and killed in March 2025 while working at a highway construction site on Interstate 91 in West Springfield.
The list included Matthew Nedorosti, 66, of Westfield, killed in January 2025 while working at a concrete plant in Greenfield.
The list also included deaths at sea. The fishing boat Lily Jean sank while returning to Gloucester after a fishing trip on January 30. Killed were father and son Paul Beal Sr., 70, and Paul Beal Jr., 34, as well as the ship’s captain, Gus Sanfilippo, 55, John Paul Rousanidis, 33, Sean Therrien, 30, and Freeman Short, 31, and fisheries observer Jada Sammit, 22.
Of these 59 cases, seven were workplace suicides. Four were workplace overdose deaths.
These 59 deaths represent 1.6 deaths per 100,000 employees, the highest rate since 2021.
“These are preventable deaths linked to unknown dangers, weak enforcement, delayed protections and a woefully inadequate accountability system. » said Bégault. “The report shows that deadly jobs remain on job sites that move, clean, repair and support our economy.”
Construction and trades dominate the list, accounting for 24 of the 59 deaths. If researchers expand the category to include other manual field workers, the share increases further.
“No life is more valuable than another,” said Jeffrey W. Jones, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1459. “And one life is too many.”
Twelve of the 24 were falls, five were transport accidents, five were contact or crush incidents and two were exposures to harmful substances.
Ten of the people who died were immigrants. A dozen are not unionized.
“There are no random accidents,” Begault said. “These are preventable deaths linked to unknown dangers, weak enforcement, delayed protections and a woefully inadequate accountability system. »
Speakers advocated the creation of fully-based state programs to track workplace deaths. They called for tougher penalties and more enforcement.
Immigration enforcement is also a problem, Begault said. Immigrant workers may be pressured to abandon certain precautions and remain silent or risk being reported.
She also called on the state to implement hat protections, preventing illness in summer workplaces.
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