OSHA — the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — was created in 1970 specifically because workers were dying at rates that a civilized society couldn't accept. It has never had enough inspectors: even at full strength, it would take OSHA more than 150 years to visit every workplace under its jurisdiction once. Under Trump, the inspectors it did have were cut to a historic low, and the inspections they conducted became less rigorous.
The Peco Foods case is specific and documented. On September 15, 2018, a worker at a Peco Foods poultry plant in Pocahontas, Arkansas suffered an amputation. OSHA did not inspect. Three months later, another worker at the same plant suffered an amputation. OSHA did not inspect that either. At Wayne Farms in Dothan, Alabama, two workers were hospitalized with severe injuries in the same year. OSHA did not inspect either incident. These are not random examples — they are documented in OSHA's own enforcement data, analyzed by the National Employment Law Project.
The pattern is consistent across the first term: inspections involving hazardous chemical exposure were cut by a third. Inspections for heat stress were cut in half. Musculoskeletal disorder inspections — for the number-one workplace illness in the country — were cut to a third of their previous level. Meanwhile, OSHA fatality investigations reached a 10-year high in 2018, which NELP noted was "a strong sign that more people are dying on the job." When enforcement is cut, employers who had been complying because of inspection risk stop complying. Workers get hurt.
In the second term, Trump fired approximately 870 workers at NIOSH — the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the research arm that studies workplace hazards, develops exposure limits, and identifies what's killing workers. Divisions focused on miner health and firefighter safety were essentially eliminated. Trump also blocked a long-awaited OSHA heat standard that would have required employers to provide cool water, rest breaks, and acclimatization time to the 36 million American workers exposed to extreme heat. A 26-year-old farmworker named Salvador Garcia Espitia died on his first day at a farm in Belle Glade, Florida after working for hours in nearly 90-degree heat. That standard might have saved him. It was blocked.
This post distinguishes between documented facts, allegations, and analysis. Where motive, intent, corruption, or illegality remains disputed in the public record, the text attributes that judgment to court findings, official records, direct quotes, or the reporting linked below.
- National Employment Law Project — "Workplace Fatalities Rising Under Trump OSHA as Enforcement Declines" (2019); "Workplace Safety Enforcement Continues to Decline" (2019); OSHA's own enforcement data.
- OSHA inspector count — fell from 952 (2016) to 862 (early first term) to 761 (end of first term); lowest in agency history; NELP.
- Peco Foods / Wayne Farms — documented from OSHA enforcement database; Center for Public Integrity analysis.
- NIOSH 870 workers fired — EPI, second term; documented April 2025.
- Heat standard blocked — proposed rule for 36M workers; blocked by second term administration.