Union Approach to Health and Safety: - United Steelworkers

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involves regular union-only meeting time before and during negotiations; many unions involved in joint labor-management health and safety committees often meet only with management and rarely or never as a union-only committee. Using a union and continuous bargaining approach to health and safety, it is essential for the union side of joint labormanagement committees to meet independently, regularly, to prepare for joint meetings, evaluate progress, and engage in strategic planning. In the course of continuous bargaining on health, safety and environmental issues, it is crucial to build involvement and unity within the union. Union health and safety committee members and representatives can support a continuous bargaining approach to health, safety and environmental issues by engaging in activities such as: ‣ surveying members regarding their health and safety concerns; ‣ developing fact sheets and newsletter articles on particular issues to keep members informed; ‣ making presentations at membership and/or special meetings; ‣ having one-on-one conversations with members; ‣ analyzing data such as the employer’s injury and illness logs to identify injury/illness trends, hazards and priorities; ‣ obtaining and reviewing materials on particular hazards from sources such as the USW Health, Safety and Environment Department (www.usw.org; www.usw.ca ); the AFL-CIO; the Canadian Labour Congress; the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety; the Ontario Workers Health and Safety Centre; websites such as www.workhealth.org; www.hazards.org/bs; the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA); the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH); and other sources; ‣ identifying and documenting health, safety and environmental impacts resulting from workplace changes (e.g. increased symptoms, injuries and/or illnesses from downsizing, speed-up, 12+hour shifts, mandatory overtime, job combinations, new technologies, work restructuring, etc.) Unions may be able to formally bargain over these and other changes that can impact health and safety. ‣ identifying strengths and weaknesses of current health and safety training programs; developing union priorities for the type and content of training, and determining training providers; and ‣ developing and undertaking strategies that involve local union members, build the union and get health, safety and environmental conditions improved. To be successful in getting health and safety problems addressed, including tough, longstanding dangers that threaten the health and safety of members, it is essential that the union have a functioning union-only mechanism in place, with the elements and characteristics described above. Successful joint labor-management efforts and programs require a strong union-only program to be in place and functioning. These elements and characteristics of a union-only program and continuous bargaining approach are pre-requisites for an effective joint labor-management health and safety program.
United Steelworkers Health, Safety & Environment Department Draft Code of Conduct for Union Members Involved in Joint Labor- Management Health and Safety Committees Many local unions have had years of experience with joint labor-management health and safety committees. Gains in workplace health and safety have resulted from having such a committee where the union can raise and discuss its concerns. In some cases, however, management has used these committees to stall, redirect attention away from union concerns, and limit progress in addressing union issues. Every local union member participating on a joint labor-management health and safety committee should be aware of the pitfalls of these committees, and what he or she can do to best represent and pursue the interest of the union and its members. This is a draft code of conduct for union members who are involved in joint labor-management health and safety committees and activities. Note that this code is not much different from what we would expect of a union member in other settings – especially when union members are engaged in any type of discussion with management. Many consultants in the labor-management field have tried to convince unions that we are in a new era – a new period of history – and that the code of conduct for us as union members therefore has to be different. They focus on “trust,” “listening,” “respect in meetings,” and “looking out for the needs of everyone.” But despite all the rhetoric, there are certain basic union values, and a code of conduct that goes with them, that cannot be abandoned. The following are ideas for that code of conduct as it relates to union members serving on joint labor-management health and safety committees. 1) Always remember that a union approach to health and safety that is different from a management approach to health and safety Union approaches to health and safety recognize that workplace injuries and illnesses are caused by exposure to hazards, and that the goal of all health, safety and environmental efforts must be to identify and eliminate or reduce hazards. Management approaches often blame those who are exposed to hazards – the workers – for job injuries. A union approach views health and safety hazards as anything in the workplace that can damage a worker’s physical or emotional health – including toxic chemicals, unsafe equipment, poor ergonomic job design as well as understaffing, long work hours, speedup, heavy work load, rapid work pace and other work organization issues. Management generally seeks to limit the definition of health and safety and often resists, for example, dealing with the health and safety impacts of how work is being organized or restructured. Union approaches support the “hierarchy of controls” in hazard control and prevention, which promotes hazard elimination or engineering controls over the use of personal
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Union Approach to Health and Safety
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Activity Handout: Goals for Workpla
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Activity Worksheet: Planning for a
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3. Why did this problem get correct
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Activity Handout: Impacts of Workpl
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involvement groups or teams. Genera
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discourage workers from reporting i
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References Aiken, L.H., Clarke, S.P
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National Institute for Occupational
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High levels of monthly overtime (84
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Multi-skilling Multi-tasking Flexib
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All of these trends have negative i
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Arenas of Struggle: Where Managemen
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Introduction In 1993, the USWA init
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substance of collective worker powe
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Management is seeking to create a p
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"rubber hits the road," in the actu
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would with a management facilitator
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their sense of solidarity with fell
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People are told that the reason tha
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Lost in the Desert is one of severa
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include: * Success and failure are
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In the workplace, where management
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1) that everything that happens in
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impacts of changes while ignoring l
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include: How does the appearance of
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Ideas for Acting Like a Union: Make
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Involvement programs often utilize
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waste as management defines it incl
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A favorite trick of involvement con
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A flip chart and magic marker are o
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Please send comments and suggestion
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consultant is claiming that they ha
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Where will the data be stored? What
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Questions about New Work Systems an
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What is the anticipated impact of t
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2. Often the main problem with safe
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What Is The Most Effective Way To P
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In any investigation of an injury,
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tasks at ground level rather than w
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Some people thought that this prove
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design a simple health and safety s
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ACTIVITY HANDOUT GOALS FOR WORKPLAC
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United Steelworkers Health, Safety
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United Steelworkers Health, Safety
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8) The union members of the joint c
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Activity Handout: COLOR-CODE FOR WO
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Activity Handout COLOR-CODE FOR WOR
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To create a body map, you need the
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A set of “sticky dots” in 6 dif
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Example of Life Map in Progress Ask
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Activity Handout COLOR-CODE FOR WOR
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4. Why did you choose this particul
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STEP #1: IDENTIFY THE SURVEY TOPIC
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those being surveyed care about ano
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time, and so on. These are consider
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Access to Exposure and Medical Reco
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• The names of chemical hazards i
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Sample Request Letter to Employer f
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Workers and/or unions who request i
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There can be a charge for these cop
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equired to provide the union with i
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• The NLRB usually defers to the
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Calling For An Inspection If you wa
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9. Building Leverage: a. Come up wi
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WHY DO STRATEGIC PLANNING? Most uni
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Who: Someone needs to be assigned t
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