On April 14, 2011, United Steelworkers (USW) member David Roy was working at a Dow Chemical plant in Midland, Michigan. Roy, a 47-year-old father of two, was on a caged ladder on a distillation column when he suffered a heart attack. He fell backwards off the ladder, plummeted roughly 30 feet, and died from a combination of the heart attack and blunt force trauma. Following his death, Dow released a statement saying the accident was a reminder of “how fragile life is.”

Fifteen years later, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), of which Dow Chemical is a member, is pressuring the Trump administration to repeal an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule that the USW believes could have saved David Roy’s life—a reminder of how fragile the rules that keep us safe are in the face of corporate pressure.

In 2016, OSHA finalized its Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Protective Equipment rule. The rule, which aimed to enhance fall protections, included a provision requiring employers to equip all fixed ladders that extend more than 24 feet above a lower level with either ladder safety or personal fall arrest systems.

Personal fall arrest systems consist of a harness, a lanyard, and an anchorage, which, when properly used, catch and protect an employee from injury in the event of a fall. Ladder safety systems are rails or cables attached to a fixed ladder that workers hook onto during a climb, automatically locking in place in the event of a fall. OSHA’s rule applied to all new ladders installed after the rule’s two-year phase-in period and established a 20-year deadline—November 18, 2036—for employers to retrofit or replace old ladders.