This article covers a few aspects of the history of worker safety from the 1800s to today. Let’s start with how dangerous things were for the working class back then. Life was hard, if you lived in the United Kingdom around the year 1900, you would have worked a 12-hour day 6 days a week just to keep your family fed and clothed. The conditions were so terrible that you would be lucky to live to your 50s, and even if you did live to your 50s, you would be an old man without any teeth and your body would be covered in scars from the workplace.

“From the year 1835, I have not been able to walk except with crutches. My left leg has been in a splint for 18 months. I have no feeling in the foot, excepting a tingling in the toes. My right leg is not much better. The toes are all gone. There is almost every day some pain in my head. I have been troubled with pains in my chest. My lungs are not good. I have been troubled with palpitation of the heart, and with sickness at the stomach. I am obliged to use a double convex glass in order to see to read. I have not been able to go into the factory for a full shift these past 18 months.”

-William Turner 1836

Safety was a foreign concept to the workers of the 1800s. Most of the time, when accidents happened, they were viewed as just a part of life. If you were injured, you had to tough it out and just get back to work. The state of affairs for the working class was very bad, but it was about to get much worse.

This next part covers the Industrial Revolution, which took place in the UK in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The Industrial Revolution caused many of the safety issues that are infamous today, as well as still prevalent today in developing countries that do not have the social support systems that western democracies have today. We will examine how the Industrial Revolution changed our world and how it affected the workers and their poor living conditions.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a time of great technological advances, but those advances didn’t always come with good safety outcomes for the workers. The Industrial Revolution saw the rise of the factory system, which meant that workers were now forced to live in a factory town in order to work in the factory. Those workers had very little say in what they did or how they did it, especially when it came to protective equipment. They were just taking orders and would be fired if they didn’t do what they were told. This is the Industrial Revolution in a nutshell, the workers were essentially slaves, operating heavy and dangerous equipment.

While the risk to your body was great when driving a horse-drawn plow, the addition of high-pressure steam engines, flammable oils and fuels, as well as uncovered, rapidly-moving flywheels, belts and cams simply took danger to a ridiculous level.

On the road to recovery

In the 1900s, with the rise of socially responsible governments and political movements, people became confident in demanding proper protective equipment from their employers. Safety became a responsibility of the company, the boss, and to some extent, the capitalist business owners, once the governments of the old world decided to stand up to them.

Alcoa safety revolution

In the 1980s, Alcoa, a huge industrial aluminium company was not doing so well financially. When the new CEO was appointed in 1987, everyone was surprised when he decided to prioritize and focus on worker safety. Perhaps you will not be surprised, but investors and capitalists were suddenly very nervous that the company would be abandoning their already fading hope of making money as a top priority.

In fact, what actually happened is that workers rallied behind the company, and as the number of accidents dropped, the company started to see profits go up. The company had achieved the top status for the global aluminium industry, and was highly ranked in safety. The company was known to be one of the safest companies of the industry in the entire world.

The Alcoa example is not unique, it is just one of many examples of how safety and profits can go hand in hand. However, in the process, you have to be willing to sacrifice the old ways of doing things and embrace the new ways.

Today, in 2021, we have all manner of new technological advances that allow even greater safety for the working class, from extremely high-quality PPE (such as acid-proof visors and clothing), to remotely operated bomb disposal robots, or even devices that allow civil engineers to inspect buildings (such as using a rebar locating device without having to physically drill into the wall)

Safety is a part of life that a person should become accustomed to from a young age. We are born with an innate desire to learn about our surroundings and how to protect ourselves, and we should always do that throughout our lives.

The future

What will worker safety look like in the future? Will humans be exempt from dirty or dangerous jobs, because robots can do all of the tasks we humans prefer not to? Or will our protective gear and safety equipment become so effective that we won’t need to worry about the dangers of human life, allowing us to safely keep our jobs while still being protected? Time will tell!