One year ago, Ronald Adams Sr. was killed because the safety systems designed to protect him had been systematically dismantled—with cheater keys, incorrect placards, bypassed lockout procedures—and the union that was supposed to represent him stood by and said nothing. Today, MIOSHA has still not released its investigation results. Stellantis and the UAW refused to answer questions from Adams' family and co-workers. That is not a coincidence. That is a cover-up—and it must end now. I am calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the MIOSHA investigation results, and for the full disclosure of every act of obstruction by Stellantis and by the UAW that has delayed this investigation for twelve months.
But the deaths of Ronald Adams Sr., Antonio Gaston, and Gregory Knopf make something else absolutely clear. We cannot wait for Stellantis to act. We cannot wait for the UAW bureaucracy to act. We cannot wait for MIOSHA. Every day workers remain dependent on a union apparatus that enforces management's production dictates rather than protecting our lives, more workers will be killed. The only answer is for workers on every shop floor to build rank-and-file safety committees—democratically controlled, answerable to workers ourselves and not to management, with the real power to halt production over unsafe conditions and the authority to conduct our own independent investigations. Workers must assert control over safety and production ourselves. No one else will do it for us.
For a full year, the UAW bureaucracy under Shawn Fain has issued no public demand for accountability from Stellantis over the death of Ronald Adams Sr. It has made no public demand of MIOSHA. It moved as quickly as possible to resume full production at Dundee Engine. The plant now runs three shifts, producing engines on the site where Adams was killed, with UAW approval.
These deaths are not accidents. They are the predictable, measurable product of the capitalist system. The US Department of Labor reported that 5,070 workers were killed on the job in 2024. That figure itself vastly understates the true toll, as it excludes most deaths from occupational illness—the AFL-CIO estimates that workplace disease claims an additional 135,000 lives annually. Across American industry, roughly 15 workers die on the job every single day.
Our lives are sacrificed for corporate profit, and the institutions that are supposed to protect us—the unions, the regulatory agencies, and the corporations themselves—participate in the cover-up when things go wrong. Now Trump makes the agenda plain: gut OSHA, defund every protection workers have, and pour the money into war. This slaughter must stop. Workers must stop it. The life of Ronald Adams Sr. demands it. The lives of every worker who will go to work tomorrow demand it.
