1. Allison Susan Eric

2.  Unions negotiate contracts ◦ Wage and benefits ◦ Workplace safety language  Unions enforce contracts through grievance procedures  Local unions may join forces to form national or international unions (e.g. SEIU: Service Employees International Union; IBT: International Brotherhood of Teamsters)  Unions are involved in political action  Baker R, Stock L. (2006) Labor Unions: Their role in occupational and environmental health. In Levy, B et al. (eds.) Occupational and environmental health. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

3.  Are involved in occupational health research ◦ Center to Protect Workers Rights: Research and training to prevent illness, injury and death in the construction industry ◦ Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union in San Francisco: contract language to allow labor or management to initiate research on workplace safety  Negotiate for representation on workplace safety committees  Unions are involved in worker training

4.  Unions have been instrumental in getting laws passed that addressed: ◦ Working conditions  Safety  Work hours (i.e. 8 hours/day, 5 days/week) ◦ Minimum wage ◦ Child labor ◦ Right to organize ◦ Discrimination ◦ Workers’ Compensation ◦ Whistleblower protection

5.  Unions have been instrumental in passing laws to protect workplace health and safety:  1968: Mine Safety and Health Act (MSHAct)  1970: Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct)  Extension of OSHA: ◦ Hazard communications (MSDS) ◦ Blood-borne pathogen protection ◦ Ergonomic protection

6.  WSNA (Washington State Nurses Association) has been instrumental in passage of: ◦ 2000: Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act ◦ 2002: Law limiting mandatory overtime ◦ 2006: Safe Patient Lifting Law ◦ 2007: Safe Nurse Staffing Legislation

7.  1983: 20.1 % of US workers  2007: 12.1%  2008: 12.4%  Government workers: 42.2% ◦ Includes teachers, police officers and fire fighters  Education: 38.7%  Transportation and utilities: 22.2%  Telecommunication: 19.3%  Construction: 15.6% ◦ From the US Bureau of Labor Statistics

8.  All states in the East North Central, Middle Atlantic and Pacific areas had higher rates of union membership than national average  All states in East South Central and West South Central had lower rates of union membership than national average.  States lowest rates(below 5%): NC, GA, SC, VA, TX, LA  States with highest rates: NY, HI, AK From the US Bureau of Labor Statistics

9.  To combat declining union membership and strengthen employee’s abilities to form unions  Would establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union  Provide mediation and arbitration for contract disputes  Allow employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation From AFL-CIO website: http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfm

10. Employee Free Choice Act  To combat declining union membership and strengthen employee’s abilities to form unions  Would establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union  Provide mediation and arbitration for contract disputes From AFL-CIO website: http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfmhttp://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfm White house initiatives  Obama signed executive orders on Friday, Jan. 29 which reversed several Bush policies which favored management.  Bill signed on Thursday, Jan 28 gave workers more time to sue for wage discrimination.

14.  Made up of labor and management representatives who meet regularly to deal with health and safety issues  First created in 1920s in US and Canada  1977 – In Canada, mandatory for employers with 20 or more employees to have a joint health and safety committee  2002 – In WA, mandatory for employers with more than 10 employees to have a safety committee

15.  1999 – developed by the healthcare workforce, healthcare employers, and unions  Labor-management (bipartite) governed organization  Mandated to implement evidence-based programs to reduce injury rates in health care ◦ Reduced lifting injuries through “no unsafe manual lifting” policy, govt funded ceiling lifts ◦ Prevention and Early Active Return-to-work Safely (PEARS) – dec. in days lost, workers’ comp costs

16.  Created to provide education and training to JCs to ensure high-quality bipartite cooperation ◦ Ensure that committee members understood roles and responsibilities ◦ Increase problem-solving skills of members ◦ Improve JC’s ability to ID and resolve health and safety problems  Free one-day workshops to groups of both management and labor JC members  Standardized through entire province

17.  Telephone surveys 7 to 15 months after workshops  Retrospective pre-versus-post intervention survey  Included only those who participated in the workshop that were still JC members ◦ This was around half of the workshop participants ◦ 93% response rate in this group

18.  More health and safety programs were in place after workshops  More workers and managers were participating in inspections  Cooperation and efficiency of JCs were improved after workshops  Committee roles were better understood after workshops  More managers than workers tended to rate degree of cooperation as “high”

19.  Retrospective recall  Only surveyed workshop participants that were still JC members  Others?

20.  Establish common understanding of external pressures  Obtain senior management and union leadership commitment  Identify and acknowledge stakeholder differences and workable tradeoffs – consensus over vote  Create solutions should fit with other initiatives  Use external facilitators  Share all information  Set realistic goals, timeframes and expectations  Measure and communicate results

21.  Improved health and safety conditions  Fewer injuries  Higher job satisfaction  Enhanced problem solving expertise

22.  Baker R, Stock L. (2006) Labor Unions: Their role in occupational and environmental health. In Levy, B et al. (eds.) Occupational and environmental health. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  Baker, R., Szudy B., Guerriero, J. (2000). Working with labor unions: What occupational health nurses need to know. AAOHN Journal, 48(12), 563-572.  Yassi, A. et al (2005). Joint health and safety committee education and the value of bipartite cooperation in the healthcare sector in British Columbia, Canada. Int J Occup Environ Health, 11, 305-312.  Zelnick, J., Campbell, R., Levenstein, C., Balback, E. (2008). Clearing the air: The evolution of organized labor’s role in tobacco control in the United States. Int J of Health Services, 38(2), 313-331.  Bureau of Labor Statistics – Data on Unions http://www.bls.gov/bls/blsuniondata.htmhttp://www.bls.gov/bls/blsuniondata.htm  Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety - What is a Joint Health and Safety Committee? http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/hsprograms/hscommittees/whatisa.htmlhttp://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/hsprograms/hscommittees/whatisa.html  Employee Free Choice Act http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfmhttp://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfm  UW Health and Safety Committee http://www.ehs.washington.edu/ohssafcom/index.shtmhttp://www.ehs.washington.edu/ohssafcom/index.shtm  WA L&I Core Rules for Safety Committees and Safety Meetings http://www.lni.wa.gov/wisha/rules/corerules/HTML/296-800-130.htm http://www.lni.wa.gov/wisha/rules/corerules/HTML/296-800-130.htm  WSNA Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety Committee http://www.wsna.org/Topics/Workplace-Environment-You/Committee/ http://www.wsna.org/Topics/Workplace-Environment-You/Committee/