diff --git a/go/base/context.go b/go/base/context.go
index f8c179984..f12f62e35 100644
--- a/go/base/context.go
+++ b/go/base/context.go
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ type MigrationContext struct {
 	CutOverType                  CutOver
 	ReplicaServerId              uint
 
-	// Number of workers used by the Coordinator
+	// Number of workers used by the trx coordinator
 	NumWorkers int
 
 	Hostname                               string
diff --git a/go/cmd/gh-ost/main.go b/go/cmd/gh-ost/main.go
index 3e6057995..4b3e0bed1 100644
--- a/go/cmd/gh-ost/main.go
+++ b/go/cmd/gh-ost/main.go
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ func main() {
 	defaultRetries := flag.Int64("default-retries", 60, "Default number of retries for various operations before panicking")
 	cutOverLockTimeoutSeconds := flag.Int64("cut-over-lock-timeout-seconds", 3, "Max number of seconds to hold locks on tables while attempting to cut-over (retry attempted when lock exceeds timeout)")
 	niceRatio := flag.Float64("nice-ratio", 0, "force being 'nice', imply sleep time per chunk time; range: [0.0..100.0]. Example values: 0 is aggressive. 1: for every 1ms spent copying rows, sleep additional 1ms (effectively doubling runtime); 0.7: for every 10ms spend in a rowcopy chunk, spend 7ms sleeping immediately after")
+	flag.IntVar(&migrationContext.NumWorkers, "workers", 8, "Number of concurrent workers for applying DML events. Each worker uses one goroutine.")
 
 	maxLagMillis := flag.Int64("max-lag-millis", 1500, "replication lag at which to throttle operation")
 	replicationLagQuery := flag.String("replication-lag-query", "", "Deprecated. gh-ost uses an internal, subsecond resolution query")
diff --git a/go/logic/coordinator.go b/go/logic/coordinator.go
index 56e137649..ceb8f1d9a 100644
--- a/go/logic/coordinator.go
+++ b/go/logic/coordinator.go
@@ -276,8 +276,6 @@ func NewCoordinator(migrationContext *base.MigrationContext, applier *Applier, t
 		waitingJobs:   make(map[int64][]chan struct{}),
 
 		events: make(chan *replication.BinlogEvent, 1000),
-
-		workerQueue: make(chan *Worker, 16),
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/go/logic/migrator.go b/go/logic/migrator.go
index bd0e6aea7..b2c4538a8 100644
--- a/go/logic/migrator.go
+++ b/go/logic/migrator.go
@@ -332,8 +332,6 @@ func (this *Migrator) Migrate() (err error) {
 		return err
 	}
 
-	// TODO(meiji163): configure workers
-	this.migrationContext.NumWorkers = 16
 	this.trxCoordinator = NewCoordinator(this.migrationContext, this.applier, this.throttler, this.onChangelogEvent)
 
 	if err := this.initiateStreaming(); err != nil {
@@ -364,7 +362,7 @@ func (this *Migrator) Migrate() (err error) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	this.migrationContext.Log.Info("starting applier workers")
+	this.migrationContext.Log.Infof("starting %d applier workers", this.migrationContext.NumWorkers)
 	this.trxCoordinator.InitializeWorkers(this.migrationContext.NumWorkers)
 
 	initialLag, _ := this.inspector.getReplicationLag()