Minnesota Labor Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach speaks during local Building Trades unions’ Workers Memorial Day ceremony on the Capitol grounds.
From the first day on the job to the last, each and every worker, each and every shift, has the right to a safe and healthy workplace. Unfortunately, in Minnesota between October 2023 and March 2024, Minnesota OSHA (MNOSHA) investigated 10 workplace fatalities. We take time each April 28, Workers Memorial Day, to honor and remember all workers whose lives were cut short by a workplace injury, illness or disease.
Workers Memorial Day began in 1970 and, within the year, the first Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed, establishing federal OSHA. That first OSHA law – and every worker protection law enacted since then – has passed thanks to the power of the labor movement and concerned citizens, standing up to advocate for the right to a safe workplace and to protect working people.
Every year our agency meets with unions, businesses, trade organizations, medical professionals, workers’ advocates and individuals who share their ideas for improving worker safety. Our role is to listen, to learn from their experiences and to advocate for advancements in workplace safety laws and regulations.
This year I had the honor of meeting the parents of two young men who died in two separate workplace incidents while removing aquatic weeds in 2022 and 2024. I am grateful to these parents for their strength to fight for improved safety for employees who dive on the job.
After completing its investigations, MNOSHA’s compliance office issued citations to those employers for violations of the commercial diving standard. Earlier this year, the Minnesota Legislature introduced legislation designed to increase protections for workers using scuba-diving equipment to perform aquatic weed and plant removal. Called the Brady Aune and Joseph Anderson Act, the new legislation will align the efforts of MNOSHA Compliance and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to ensure employers permitted to perform this work have formally trained and certified scuba divers and use required standardized equipment.
As summer quickly approaches, Minnesota employers performing aquatic weed removal at lakes across the state will be tasked with implementing requirements to protect workers using scuba-diving equipment as a result of this new legislation.
When employers follow required safety standards, have proper controls in place and make safety and health programs a priority, our brothers, sisters and siblings are safer and our state is stronger. On Workers Memorial Day and throughout the year, we must work together to make sure employers embrace safety and health as a core value in their operations so that every worker goes home safe every day.
All workers – no matter their age or experience – have a right to a safe and healthy workplace. When I came to work for the Department of Labor and Industry, I wanted to make a difference in the lives of workers across Minnesota. I joined a workforce of more than 600 dedicated people working in service to all workers of Minnesota, ensuring safety and health in the workplace is a right, not a privilege. It is now more important than ever to protect the rights that exist for workers while advocating to advance safer working conditions that will save lives.
– Nicole Blissenbach is commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Her column appears in the May 2025 issue of The Saint Paul Union Advocate.
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