Union Approach to Health and Safety Course

The United Steelworkers has developed training programs for local union health and safety committees, local union officers, activists and members. Some parts of this training have been developed through at grant from the U.S. Department of Labor-Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The goal of the training is to help local unions develop or improve their union approach to health and safety. This will assist in improving workplace conditions, involving members, confronting employers’ blame-the-worker safety programs, and building stronger local unions.

With these goals in mind, the USW Health, Safety and Environment Department is offering training on:

• Worker and union roles in workplace health and safety
• Hazard identification (including body mapping, hazards mapping, identifying and reducing work-related stress, identifying sources of information, and developing and conducting health and safety surveys)
• Worker and union rights to a healthy and safe workplace (focusing on OSHA and NLRA legal rights)
• OSHA’s new recordkeeping rule for recording workplace injuries and illnesses (including reading and understanding OSHA 300 logs)
• Ergonomics
• Effective safety and health committees
• Adopting a continuous bargaining approach to health and safety
• Dealing with health and safety impacts of work restructuring (covering issues such as understaffing, mandatory overtime, extended work hours, speed-up, job combinations, lack of training, etc.)
• Confronting employers’ blame-the-worker safety programs (including behavior-based safety, safety incentive programs, injury discipline policies and post-injury drug testing)

If your local union is interested in finding out more about these training opportunities, contract the USW’s Health, Safety and Environment Department at safety@usw.org
412-562-2581. If you are interested in arranging for any of the other training offered under this USW initiative, contact your District Staff Representative.