At 6 a.m. on Nov. 11, Amber Czech was found dead at her work station at Advanced Process Technologies, in Cokato, Minnesota. She was 20.
Czech, who had finished a 10-month welding program in spring 2024, was still new to the trades. She was working at the facility for the mechanical and electrical/automation engineering firm when her coworker David Bruce Delong allegedly struck her with a sledgehammer multiple times, according to a criminal complaint filed by Wright County Attorney Brian Lutes on Nov. 12.
Delong confessed to officials that he had killed Czech after planning to do so for some time, per the criminal complaint. Lutes is seeking second degree murder charges.
Delong reportedly told investigators he “just didn’t like” Czech, according to the Dassel, Minnesota Enterprise Dispatch. The newspaper reported that a purported family member issued a public statement on Facebook, saying Delong’s relatives had cut off contact with him years ago due to safety concerns.
In response to her death, trade groups and organizations called for action. Industry stakeholders are advocating for better measures to protect employees, especially women, from facing violence at their workplace.
“We must confront the truth that too many tradeswomen have endured hostility, intimidation, harassment, and threats on jobsites where warning signs were visible—but unaddressed,” said Rita Brown, president of the National Association of Women in Construction, in a statement.
NAWIC held an emergency town hall on Nov. 14 to underscore the urgency of safeguarding workplaces from violence. The organization called for systems to protect physical and psychological safety, to include:
- Clear, accessible and retaliation-free reporting pathways.
- Mandatory, meaningful training on intervention and violence prevention.
- Zero-tolerance enforcement of harassment, bullying, discrimination and threats.
- Accountability for supervisors and managers who fail to act.
- A cultural reset that rejects the normalization of hostility toward tradeswomen.
In response to Czech’s death, North America’s Building Trades Unions President Sean McGarvey condemned the violence and called for change.
“Violence has no place on our job sites,” McGarvey said in a statement. “Through initiatives like the NABTU RESPECT program and TradesFutures TWBN, we are working to transform jobsite culture by addressing harassment, bullying, and violence head-on, ensuring every worker is treated with dignity and protected from harm.”
Czech was not a member of NABTU, the release said.
OSHA does not have a standard rule for protecting workers from violence in the workplace. Instead, the agency has highlighted a few industries that often see workers at higher risk for violence, such as those with frequent exchanges of cash by hand or those requiring long work hours through the night.
The agency also recommends employers establish a zero-tolerance policy toward workplace violence and implement a well-written workplace violence prevention program.
