Despite their deep political differences, the two candidates vying to lead North Carolina’s Labor Department agree on this:
Too many construction workers are dying on the job.
An average of one construction worker in North Carolina dies on the job once every 10 days, a recent investigation by the Charlotte Observer found. Construction workers die on the job here significantly more often than nationally, the report showed, and many of those deaths are preventable.
Democrat Braxton Winston and Republican Luke Farley both say they would work to change that if elected labor commissioner.
“When a construction worker is killed on site every 10 days, urgent action is needed,” said Winston, 41, a three-term former Charlotte councilman who is a stagehand and grabber by trade.
“My first and most important point is that you need a department with enough staff,” he added.
Farley, 39, is a Wake County attorney who regularly represents construction companies cited by the state Labor Department for workplace safety citations. He has been to construction sites where workers have died, he said.
“I’ve seen legs amputated, arms shattered,” said Farley, who has served on public boards but never held elected political office. “So I know how high the stakes are… When you see things like this up close, they touch you deeply. I don’t think the fact that I’ve been involved in this industry will stop me from doing the work that needs to be done here.”
Below, read what each candidate had to say on the key issues raised in The Observer’s research.
What does it take to make workplaces safer?
While the race for labor commissioner is typically not that exciting, both candidates know the stakes are high for North Carolina on Nov. 5.
The workplace death rate among construction workers in North Carolina — 11.5 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2022 — was about 20% higher than that for construction workers nationally, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.
Among those who lost their lives last year: five construction workers who died in Charlotte in high-profile cases linked to a scaffolding collapse and a historic fire.
To improve safety, Farley would have the department focus on training workers and consulting employers on a voluntary basis, in addition to penalizing companies that fail to comply with workplace safety rules.
“The very first thing I want to do – and this will be a key focus in my time as Labor Commissioner – is to ensure that businesses understand that the Department of Labor is not their enemy, that we are there to help them do the right thing and create safe work environments,” said Farley.
“We issue citations, fines and sanctions. But that’s just part of what we do,” he added, noting: “I would much rather help someone figure out how to do something right than punish them afterwards when they’ve done something wrong and someone has already has been injured. .”
Winston said the labor department needs to be better staffed so it can conduct more inspections.
The number of workplace safety inspections at North Carolina construction sites has fallen by more than half since 2013, during a decade in which the death toll has risen and construction employment has grown by nearly 50 percent, federal data show.
Staffing shortages have made it difficult for the state to conduct as many inspections as in years past, labor officials say. Currently, only about 80 of the department’s vacancies for safety compliance officers have been filled.
“You need a department that is adequately staffed,” Winston said. “…When you have 400,000 businesses, 20,000 elevators and millions of employees, I wonder if we have a department with enough staff to get the job done.”
Inspectors should be paid more to help curb the high vacancy rate, he said. The starting salary for safety inspectors is $58,000 — lower than what many could earn in the private sector, department officials say.
Farley said he would also work to fill vacancies and investigate whether inspector salaries are competitive.
How can North Carolina reduce deaths among Hispanic workers?
Latino workers are at a much higher risk of dying on construction sites in North Carolina than white and black workers, the Charlotte Observer study found. That’s also the case for Latino workers in North Carolina, according to a 2022 study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
State workplace safety officials who inspect work sites cannot always communicate with non-English speakers. Of the approximately 80 compliance officers currently working for the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Department, nine speak fluent Spanish.
The Labor Department needs more Spanish-speaking inspectors, Winston said.
“We need to make sure that we communicate with workers effectively, and I mean that we speak their language, especially in the construction industry,” he said.
Farley said: “We need to make sure that the counseling services, and the education and technical assistance that will be such a large part of my administration, are offered to Latinos in a language they can understand. There is no point in training people in a language they do not understand.”
What distinguishes the two candidates?
Farley is backed by former Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, a conservative Republican who led the Department of Labor from 2000 to 2020. Berry was admired by some for working with companies and raising the profile of the labor commissioner, primarily by placing her photo on elevator inspection certificates. Others criticized her for being overly lenient with the companies her department was supposed to regulate.
Farley has also been endorsed by current Labor Commissioner Josh Dobson, a Republican who is not seeking re-election.
Farley surprised some political observers by calling NC Rep. John Hardister in the primaries. After that election, the NC Chamber said it believes it could work well with Farley.
“A self-proclaimed ‘reluctant regulator,’ Mr. Farley is a sharp contrast to his opponent,” the chamber said on its website. “Our vision for North Carolina includes maintaining our competitive position as a right-to-work state and Mr. Farley shares that vision.”
Farley said he would introduce a “common sense approach to regulation.”
“I think it’s entirely possible to protect workers and their jobs at the same time, that you can enforce our rules in a fair and balanced way, in a way that keeps our workers safe without putting companies out of business,” he said. he. said. “And that is the approach I want to take. My opponent is an activist. We are different in that way.”
Winston, who previously served as mayor of Charlotte, rose to prominence in Charlotte during the 2016 protests over the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. He has been endorsed by the NC State AFL-CIO and the North Carolina Association of Educators, among others. He did not face a primary opponent.
He is a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union. Unlike Farley, he said he embraces unions in part because he believes they make workplaces safer.
When thinking about what it takes to protect workers, Winston often thinks of a line uttered by Charlton Heston in the 1956 film “The Ten Commandments.”
‘Blood makes bad mortar.’
In North Carolina workplaces, he said, deaths and injuries devastate families, hinder progress and damage worker morale.
“The choice is up to an employee like you, or your boss’s lawyer, to be the primary advocate for workers,” he said of this fall’s election. “The choice couldn’t be clearer.
