Related Papers
Indus. & Lab. Rel. Rev.
Are mandated health and safety committees substitutes for or supplements to labor unions
1998 •
David Weil
SSRN Electronic Journal
Are Mandated Health and Safety Committees Substitutes or Supplements for Labor Unions?
2000 •
David Weil
New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS
The labor movement's role in gaining federal safety and health standards to protect America's workers
2014 •
Deborah Weinstock
In the United States, unions sometimes joined by worker advocacy groups (e.g., Public Citizen and the American Public Health Association) have played a critical role in strengthening worker safety and health protections. They have sought to improve standards that protect workers by participating in the rulemaking process, through written comments and involvement in hearings; lobbying decision-makers; petitioning the Department of Labor; and defending improved standards in court. Their efforts have culminated in more stringent exposure standards, access to information about the presence of potentially hazardous toxic chemicals, and improved access to personal protective equipment-further improving working conditions in the United States.
NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy
Characteristics of Effective Job Health and Safety Committees
2009 •
Nicholas Warren
Although Health and Safety Committees (HSCs) are widely used, there is very little empirical information on what specific characteristics of HSCs (structure, activities, and resources) are associated with effectiveness in lowering injury and illness rates. An exploratory study was conducted in Connecticut, a state which requires HSCs in all workplaces with at least 25 employees. The study included analysis of administrative data (including HSC meeting minutes) of 29 committees. Lower injury rate companies were found to have a higher ratio of hourly workers to managers on the HSC, a larger committee compared to size of the employer, and reviewed a larger average number of worker complaints and suggestions.
Canada: Joint Committees on Occupational Health and Safety
1995 •
Elaine Bernard
The Pennsylvania Certified Safety Committee Program: An Evaluation of Participation and Effects on Work Injury Rates
2010 •
John Mendeloff
Labor Studies Journal
Participative Regulation of Hazardous Working Conditions: Safety Committees of the United Mine Workers of America, 1941-1969
1993 •
Alan Derickson
NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy
Labor-Management Cooperation in Illinois: How a Joint Union Company Team Is Improving Facility Safety
2018 •
Ruth Ruttenberg
This study of Afton Chemical Corporation’s Sauget facility and its International Chemical Workers Union Council (ICWUC) Local 871C demonstrates how significant safety improvements can be made when committed leadership from both management and union work together, build trust, train the entire work force in U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration 10-hour classes, and communicate with their work force, both salaried and hourly. A key finding is that listening to the workers closest to production can lead to solutions, many of them more cost-efficient than top-down decision-making. Another is that making safety and health an authentic value is hard work, requiring time, money, and commitment. Third, union and management must both have leadership willing to take chances and learn to trust one another. Fourth, training must be for everyone and ongoing. Finally, health and safety improvements require dedicated funding. The result was resolution of more than one hundred safety c...
American Journal of Public Health
A Short History of Occupational Safety and Health in the United States
2020 •
Gerald Markowitz
As this short history of occupational safety and health before and after establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) clearly demonstrates, labor has always recognized perils in the workplace, and as a result, workers’ safety and health have played an essential part of the battles for shorter hours, higher wages, and better working conditions. OSHA’s history is an intimate part of a long struggle over the rights of working people to a safe and healthy workplace. In the early decades, strikes over working conditions multiplied. The New Deal profoundly increased the role of the federal government in the field of occupational safety and health. In the 1960s, unions helped mobilize hundreds of thousands of workers and their unions to push for federal legislation that ultimately resulted in the passage of the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1969 and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. From the 1970s onward, industry developed a variety of tactics to undercut OSHA. Industry argued over what constituted good science, shifted the debate from health to economic costs, and challenged all statements considered damaging.
Rock Products
Employee Engagement: Establishing and Using Safety Committees at Work
2020 •
Emily Haas
