For several years now the CSN and the FTQ have organized workshops on occupational safety and health. These sessions are aimed at informing and promoting awareness among workers, as well as mobilizing and organizing around issues and actions leading to the improvement of working conditions. The sessions are built...
Tag - occupational safety
Death on the Job is a relatively short (196 pages) reference for workers, health professionals, and lay advocates, summarizing what everyone — industry, government, unions — is doing about occupational health and why. Berman's original research and radical perspective combine to make this a valuable work for those of...
Chest pain, coughing and dizziness brought Joe to the doctor, who performed a check-up and advised him to quit smoking. The doctor never asked about the fumes Joe found so irritating at his factory job. Nonetheless, smoking didn't help, Joe knew, so he went back to the job, resolving to cut out cigarettes except while...
Although the hazards of carbon disulfide exposure were recognized as early as 1851 in France, little has been written about the chemical in the United States. Both liquid and vapor are highly irritating to the skin, eyes, nose and air passages. This local irritation, however, is overshadowed by the serious long-term...
Social programs find direct expression in the people who carry them out. Who are OSHA inspectors? Where do they come from? What can we expect them to do? Most OSHA inspectors, particularly industrial hygienists, are white males. Women inspectors are notably rare, apparently constituting less than 10% of the total...
The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), passed by Congress in 1970, establishes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the Department of Labor. The Act sets minimum standards for working conditions, which are enforced by the inspection of workplaces and the levying of fines of up to $1000 for each...
This issue of Science for the People magazine is concerned with occupational health and safety. The Stony Brook Chapter chose this topic, not because of any particular expertise we possess in this area, but rather because of its relevance to workers' lives and to their organizing efforts. We knew that at least 30% of...
Where did this concern about health and safety grow out of? The issue itself has existed for a long time. Public concern with toxic effects of chemicals created fertile soil in which workers' complaints about conditions inside the plant grew. The threat that workplace hazards might leak into the community was another...
The health care system and the industrial health and safety conditions in America can only be described as institutional murder. In recent years radicals have worked to create alternatives to present health structures, to confront and expose the capitalist health system, and to organize around health and safety issues...