Abstract
The inaugural Workers’ Voice Summit was held in Washington DC in 2022. Worker advocates from across the country spoke directly with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), part of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) about their concerns and ideas for solutions moving forward. Worker advocates shared their experiences with ineffective OSHA enforcement and a lack of accountability for poor employer behaviors. National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) network members developed priorities in advance of the summit that laid out a path for progress. Priorities included: engagement of workers and advocates as collaborators with OSHA; protection for workers from being silenced due to immigration status; enabling workers to fully participate in workplace investigations and enforcement proceedings; protection for temporary workers; and collaboration with state and federal agencies to maximize worker protections. The summit was a good start and worker advocates are prepared to keep pushing.
A shattered arm. A cover-up of safety violations. Workers dying, with minimal penalties for employers. That's the kind of testimony frontline workers and safety advocates brought to Washington DC at the first-ever Workers’ Voice Summit held in September 2022. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), part of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), held the three-day event in an effort to provide space for workers, organizations, and worker advocates to “come together and foster global community, build new relationships, and discuss ideas for addressing workers’ concerns.” 1 The event provided workers and worker advocates a chance to speak directly with OSHA about their concerns and ideas for solutions.
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) and allies in the movement for workplace justice worked together prior to the summit and advocated strongly for an inclusive, accessible event to provide genuine representation and to uplift the voices of workers who face dangerous, life-threatening hazards every day on the job. COSH's network of 26 local health and safety groups encouraged workers whose voices are overlooked, including low-wage workers, temporary workers, immigrants, and workers of color, to attend and share their experiences.
Addressing the History of Ineffective OSHA Enforcement
Many workers and worker advocates came forward to share their experiences. All too often, when workers have brought safety and health concerns to OSHA, the agency's efforts have fallen short.
Workers, such as Rebecca Miles, a worker leader from the National COSH-affiliated Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights in Greenville, Mississippi, told harrowing stories of poor conditions and employer negligence. “My grandson works at the postal service in Jackson, sorting mail,” said Miles. “Last Wednesday, they didn’t have enough employees at work, so they put him on the conveyor belt. His arm got caught there,” Miles explained, needing a moment to compose herself. “No safety guidelines, no training, they just placed him on the conveyor belt. Nineteen years old, he has broken every bone in his arm. I mean, when does this stop? When does this stop? I don’t want this to happen to anyone else's grandson.”
“When a worker files a complaint, he gets let go or faces retaliation, and he ends up without a job,” said Isaura Martinez, an organizer from the Chicago Workers Collaborative. “Where is the justice? Where are their workers’ rights? We want action, OSHA, not words.”
Others brought forward concerns about ineffective enforcement. “One of our colleagues in Orange County reported several OSHA violations and none of them were taken care of,” AM Davies, a leader with the California-based Strippers United, explained. Instead of fixing an unsanitary bathroom used by dancers, an employer “sent pictures [of the customer bathrooms] and OSHA wrote it off as being fixed. [The dancers] have to go back and file more OSHA complaints, and now there are even more things wrong at the club.” Strippers United worked closely with SoCalCOSH during their campaign to win safer working conditions and union representation at Star Garden in Los Angeles. They achieved a landmark victory in May. Workers at the club joined Actors Equity, had their union election certified, and became the first unionized strippers in the United States.
Worker-Led Ideas for Progress
Before the Workers’ Voice Summit, COSH Network members and worker leaders developed proposals for progress. Milagros Barreto, with the MassCOSH worker center, presented them to OSHA officials. “I am here presenting the five priorities COSH and other worker center networks have identified to ensure OSHA is accessible, protects the most vulnerable workers so we can work together for jobs with dignity and our voices are heard,” she said. The priorities included:
Engagement of Workers and Advocates as Collaborators With OSHA
At the current staffing level, it would take OSHA 190 years to inspect every workplace in its jurisdiction. 2 OSHA is lacking a great deal of information regarding conditions that workers experience. It has not earned the trust needed for workers to feel confident reporting dangers, which hinders enforcement. Actively encouraging worker collaboration would tap into the critical first-hand knowledge workers have and give OSHA access to the experience and relationships of COSH and other worker organizations. This would help OSHA coordinate with the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor, as well as state labor agencies, to maximize the impact of legal protections.
Protection for Workers From Being Silenced due to Immigration Status
Too often employers use workers’ immigration status and desperate need to earn a living to exploit them for free or cheap labor. Employers seek to maximize profits by cutting corners on worker safety and worker pay. They take advantage of workers’ precarious immigration status and their fear of retaliation or deportation. When any worker is unable to speak up about dangerous conditions, it puts all workers at risk of injury, illness, and death. National COSH and its labor partners have been advocating for OSHA to support workers with temporary legal status, so they can speak up and participate fully in labor investigations. OSHA regional staff, state plan officials, and worker advocates need to be well informed about how to make the best use of these tools to ensure that workers who need to be protected can gain access to them. This demand was presented at the Workers’ Voice Summit. Less than three months later, DOL responded by providing OSHA with the authority to provide non-immigrant visas that allow victims of specific crimes (in this case violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970) to help law enforcement (in this case OSHA) to detect, investigate and prosecute crimes without fear of retaliation based on their immigration status. 3
Enabling Workers’ Full Participation in Workplace Investigations and Enforcement Proceedings
“Too many construction workers are dropped off at the workplace with no safety information,” said Mayra Molina, a painter and worker leader from MassCOSH. “I work in construction and I see this all the time. We don’t want to see this conversation just on paper, but we need action.” Workers should be regarded as integral to OSHA investigations because they are on the front lines and, often, the reporters of potential OSHA violations. In order for an investigation to be effective, OSHA needs to put steps in place that fully engage workers in the process. In addition, OSHA should empower workers to conduct ongoing safety and health monitoring at their workplaces. Workers should be aware of their right to speak off-site in a safe community setting in their own language with what support they need, including the presence of a union representative if the workplace is unionized. They have the right to select a representative to participate in the inspection walk-through, providing more depth to the investigation and sending a message that it is safe to speak to OSHA. Additionally, workers should be consulted regarding the viability of potential resolution of the hazards, including inserting language in the citation that reflects the priorities of the workers and creates opportunities for them to speak up in the future without fear of retaliation.
Protections for Temporary Workers
Temporary workers—particularly those supplied to an employer by an outside agency—are at greater risk of injury or death than permanent workers. In factories, warehouses, and other locations, temporary workers are often assigned dangerous semi-skilled or unskilled work, but provided with little or no training. When a temporary worker is injured on the job, the temp agency and employer may argue over which entity is responsible for workers’ compensation. In many cases, the temp agency is ultimately responsible, enabling host employers to avoid repercussions for their lack of workplace safety.
4
Similarly, employers don’t make it clear to temporary workers who is responsible for their safety or how to report dangerous workplace conditions. To strengthen protections for temporary workers, National COSH and partners developed recommendations
5
for procedures that address the particular concerns of temporary workers, such as obtaining a roster of all workers employed during a serious incident or investigation to monitor whether they were dismissed after the event. Collaboration with state and federal agencies to maximize worker protections on issues such as wage theft, safe working conditions during disaster clean-ups, and more.
“Workers have too little power, employers have too much,” said Oscar Londoño, co-executive director of We Count, a National COSH affiliate based in South Florida. “We need more worker engagement, more worker voices at the table with the Department of Labor.”
As multiple state and federal agencies are involved in ensuring worker safety and health, coordination is essential to maximize impact. OSHA should take advantage of existing systems across the federal government to protect workers from threats to their health and safety. Agencies that conduct surveillance, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local health departments, can provide information contributing to OSHA priority setting. Agencies that investigate workplaces for labor trafficking or wage and hour violations, such as the Department of Labor and state and local labor departments, may be able to identify employers who are also violating safety and health laws.
A Starting Point to Work Together
Doug Parker, head of OSHA as Assistant Secretary of Labor, shared with summit attendees that the agency was rebuilding after years of neglect. According to Parker, OSHA is hiring more staff, conducting more inspections, and carrying out more enforcement actions. The agency is focused on bringing cases against the most “egregious” employers with repeat violations that often result “in the tragic death of a worker.” Parker also announced that OSHA is finally implementing a pocket card available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Portuguese that reads “Is your employer putting your safety at risk? We’re here to help you, regardless of your immigration status.” This kind of pocket card has been an idea suggested by safety activists for years and many were glad to see the idea finally come to fruition. Workers and activists want the opportunity to provide feedback in order to make these cards as successful as possible. Wrapping up the three-day session, Parker said the summit is “a beginning … for all of us to work together better.”
“This was a good start,” said National COSH co-executive director Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, who was part of the team of safety activists helping to plan and prepare for the inaugural Worker Voices Summit. “Now it's up to all of us to keep pushing and keep demanding that OSHA listen and respond to workers. When workers have a voice, we can prevent injuries and illnesses and save lives.”
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
