Tammy Miser speaks out for families who lost a loved one
Advocating a safer workplace
Tammy Miser was giving advice to Bethlehem Steel retirees and their family members about how to press their case for compensation for the workers’ health problems.
Make sure your story is getting out to the public, she told them. “Who is going to get up and say this isn’t right for you all once it’s out there in public?” Miser said Tuesday at the Hearthstone Manor in Depew.
Several years ago, the Kentucky resident never imagined this role for herself, talking about how to get the ear of elected officials or extract information from an uncooperative government agency.
But life thrust it upon her in 2003 when her brother, Shawn Boone, died from injuries suffered in an explosion at a manufacturing plant in Indiana. That incident sent Miser trying to locate any information and resources available to family members who lost loved ones in such industrial accidents.
“I had to search for every little thing I found,” she said.
All of that research eventually led her to create the United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities, creating a place for families seeking support after such accidents. The group maintains a Web site, www.usmwf.org . Miser came to town as a guest of the Buffalo AFLCIO and Western New York Council on Occupational Safety and Health. Miser said her goal is to give the families of workplace accident victims more of a voice in the wake of the incidents. “People are starting to notice that the families are going to get involved and they aren’t sitting still,” she said.
Sometimes her organization serves as a resource for congressional panels or media interviews, making family members who agree to participate available to share the personal stories behind workplace deaths.
“It takes the number away,” she said. “It gives a face.”
Miser has testified in Washington and appeared last June in a “60 Minutes” piece on the hazards of industrial dust, the type of explosion that led to her brother’s death.
With the change in administrations, it appears more likely that OSHA will embrace tougher standards on combustible dust in the workplace. “I’m really optimistic about it,” she said.
Miser remains a tough critic of OSHA’s performance, but she said the agency faces limitations. “They haven’t had the funding, they need more people,” she said.
Miser spent part of her visit talking to retirees and family members of Bethlehem Steel workers from the Cold War-era. They are seeking changes to the compensation program for nuclear workers at former atomic weapons production facilities. A large number of them have had their claims denied, spawning legislative efforts aimed at helping them overcome the obstacles.
A recurring theme in Miser’s remarks is to improve work place safety and health so that others don’t have to lose loved ones in on-the-job accidents.
The parents of Jonathan Fundalinski, who died in a construction accident at the Webb Building in 2007, were among those who attended the AFL-CIO meeting.
Fundalinski’s father, Andrew, said he hoped to help others avoid enduring similar tragedies, through improved safety standards.
“I really strongly advocate for that,” he said.
According to the Buffalo AFL-CIO, 11 individuals have died in workplace fatalities in Western New York since the start of 2008.
Miser said she sees her organization as a way to help families touched by workplace deaths, by connecting with others who can relate to their experiences as well as to access information that she believes is crucial in the healing process.
“The biggest thing we hear is, ‘nobody’s listening to me,’ ” Miser said. “Well, you’ve got to make them hear you.”
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