The union effect - Hazards magazine

Features

The Union Effect
Union workplaces are safer workplaces – so get organised, or you may not live to regret it.
Hazards 109, January-March 2010 [pdf]

Safety respect
Is it possible to take a dysfunctional workplace, battered by assaults, sickness and poor morale, and in less than a year make it a haven of safety and worker contentment, with managers valuing the union role? Union rep Mark White explains how they achieved just that in his workplace.
Hazards 107, July-September 2009

Souped-up safety reps
Trade union safety reps mean fewer accidents and less sickness at work. That’s why TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson is calling for more reps with more rights – and a clampdown on the dangerous employers who try to get in their way.
Hazards 104, October-December 2008

What gorilla?
The resource-starved Health and Safety Executive can no longer investigate some of the most serious workplace injuries. Fatalities are rising. HSE needs help. It just doesn’t seem to see it. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill says not only is HSE failing, it is shunning its best possible ally – trade union safety reps.
Hazards 99, August 2007

Safety repressed
The government admits the lifesaving work of safety reps saves society hundreds of millions of pounds each year. Now unions are asking why the Health and Safety Executive seems reluctant to expand their role.
Hazards 97, January-March 2007

Union protection
A new TUC report confirms what Hazards has said all along - union safety reps are your best defence against work-related accidents and ill-health.
Hazards 88, October-December 2004

Safety reps training factsheet
Union safety reps have a dramatic, positive impact on safety at work - and the more training they get, the more marked the "union safety effect." Hazards reports how the union training on your doorstep and now in cyberspace can be a workplace lifesaver.
Hazards 86, April-June 2004

Safety is better organised
When an official safety agency investigated what makes workplaces safer, it got a surprise. It was union safety reps — not managers, safety officers or inspectors — who made work safer. Plus more on the union effect from safety news from the UK and Australia.
Hazards 79, July-September 2002 [pdf] • TUC news release

No union, no protection
When it comes to workplace harm, hygienists might have a measure it and doctors a diagnosis for it, but only workers with collective power have much chance of doing anything about it. And there is no shortage of up-to-the-minute evidence demonstrating this "union safety effect." Organised workplaces are safer workplaces.
Hazards 78, April-June 2002 [pdf] • TUC backs the Hazards union effect initiative

The safety squad
Worker Safety Advisers, selected and trained by unions and funded by the government, become the first UK union reps to have an officially sanctioned "roving" remit, and are now taking the union safety effect to non-union workplaces.
Hazards 78, April-June 2002 [pdf]

HSE knows you know the answer
Companies that ask their employees for their views on health and safety issues can cut down on accidents, a study by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found. This comes as no surprise to unions.
Hazards 77, January-March 2002

Courses, courses
TUC safety reps' training makes you so good you save lives.
Hazards 75, July-September 2002 [pdf]

What makes a rep work?
Research shows how union education leads to effective health and safety reps
Hazards 75, July-September 2002 [pdf]

Organise!
You slip, trip, fall. You are exposed to toxic chemicals. You lift, carry, you get strains. You are stressed to the eyeballs. All this and the law says you should be safe and healthy at work. Hazards looks at how safety reps can organise to close the reality gap on workplace safety.
Hazards 74, April-June 2001 • [pdf]

Thoroughly modern militancy
For years union negotiators have seen work organisation as a matter of organising shifts and work processes to maximise pay. Jon Richards of the UK public sector union UNISON says Europe's unions are now searching for solutions that improve all aspects of the working world, including health and safety.
Hazards 73, January-March 2001 [pdf]

Not what we bargained for
The economy is buoyant, but we work harder for less pay. We know more about hazards and their control, but work-related stress, strains, depression and violence are soaring. We have never been more productive, and we are rewarded with temporary contracts, long hours and back breaking workloads. Hazards lists the top 20 questions union reps should ask on workplace change and gives pointers on a better way to work.
Hazards 69, January-March 2000 [pdf]

Unions know-how on chemicals
Officially backed research found 90 per trade union reps understand the principles of chemical safety laws and almost 80 per cent know about chemical safety limits. By contrast, a third of companies using hazardous substances have no knowledge of the relevant law and two-thirds are unaware of their legal duties on chemical safety limits.
Hazards 60, October-December 1997

Super safety reps
It is two decades since the first trade union safety reps appeared in British workplaces. Research suggests safety reps have during those two decades helped prevent 2.5 million serious workplace injuries. Workplaces with a full union safety structure are twice as safe as those without. It is no wonder workers want union protection at work. Super safety reps
Hazards 64, October-December 1998

Other features

The union effect -El "efecto sindicato"
Mucha gente piensa que la principal función de un sindicato es luchar por mejores condiciones de vida. A menudo, sin embargo, la batalla es más básica y los sindicatos luchan por la vida de los trabajadores.
Por Experienca, n.21, Julio 2003 • More on Ardystil - Por experienca

When it comes to health and safety, your life should be in union hands
Many people think the labour movement is about fighting for a better standard of living. Frequently though the battle is more basic, reports Labour Education, the magazine of the ILO workers' bureau. The unions are fighting for their members' lives. When it comes to health and safety, your life should be in union hands Rory O'Neill, Labour Education, vol.126, April 2002 [pdf] • Español: El sindicalismo, un medio de prevención [pdf] • Français: Le syndicalisme comme moyen de prévention [pdf]

Safety behaviour in the construction industry Full report for Irish HSA

Employee involvement in health and safety: some examples of good practice HSE Health and Safety Laboratory report 2001 [pdf]

HSE publishes new research on how taking workers’ advice seriously can improve health and safety TUC comment, 21 December 2001

Resources

Global union agreements
A comprehensive annotated list of Global Framework Agreements concluded between transnational companies and Global Union Federations. more

TUC report confirms unions are good for you
An August 2004 report from TUC shows that UK unions are you best defence against work-related accidents and ill-health. Report author, TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson, said: “This report confirms in simple and clear terms that safety representatives are one of the most significant factors in improving the safety culture of an organisation. While unions have known this for along time, we need employers to look at the evidence and start accepting the huge impact that consultation can make.”
The union effect, TUC briefing, August 2004

Global: ILO report calls for bigger union role in safety
A new report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) highlights the crucial union role in securing safer, healthier work and “argues strongly for a strengthening of collective voice as the primary means of improving working conditions, and protecting workers’ health.”
ILO news release • Factsheet no.11: Work insecurity – work related ill-health, may be of particular interest [pdf] • ILO Socio-Economic Security website • Economic Security for a better world, ILO Socio-Economic Security Programme, International Labour Office, 2004. 50 Swiss francs. ISBN 92-2-115611-7. Free online summary [pdf]

UK: Vote with your feet and save your neck
In his August 2000 paper, Adam Seth Litwin of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics concludes: "Strikes and slow-downs serve as efficacious union tools for reducing workplace injuries. labour possesses vital, tacit, shopfloor knowledge regarding health and safety, knowledge that is imperative for reducing accident rates."
Adam Seth Litwin. Trade unions and industrial injury in Great Britain, Discussion Paper 468, August 2000. Abstract • Full paper [pdf format]

Danger: Educated union member

Northland Poster Collective

Unions protect both jobs and the environment
New union strategies can project both jobs and the environment. Global union co-operation and policies like "just transition" can mean better, more sustainable work. Trade Union World, ICFTU, March 2001

Union workplaces are safer workplaces
Unionised workplaces in Australia are three times as likely to have likely to have a health and safety committee and twice as likely to have undergone a management occupational health and safety audit in the previous 12 months, a major government survey has found.
Hawke, Anne & Wooden, Mark (1997), The 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, The Australian Economic Review 30 (3), 323-328, doi: 10.1111/1467-8462.00032. more

The impact of a worker health study on working conditions
Workers at 35 Las Vegas hotel-casinos have overwhelmingly approved union contracts that set new limits on housekeepers' workload. The workers' union, Hotel Employees/ Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 226, brought the workload issue into negotiations by citing preliminary results from a new workers' health study undertaken with the University of California at Berkeley's Labor Occupational Health Program.
The findings were published in the Journal of Public Health Policy, vol.23, no.3, 2002 USA, LOHP

Facts @ Your Fingertips - An Internet Research Manual
US public sector union AFSCME has produced a pretty impressive guide for union activists, Facts @ your fingertips. This includes a useful section on health and safety... although geared towards a US union audience, the resources on whole would be useful anywhere.
AFSCME • General research • Health and safety

Health and safety as a recruitment issue
Union health and safety services are a good selling point for the union, says UK print union GPMU. It adds that national, branch and workplace union officials all have a role to play in using health and safety issues to boost recruitment.
Health and safety as a recruitment issue • 10 good reasons why you're safer in the GPMU

Regional safety reps in Sweden
How the Swedish system of regional union safety reps works in the Swedish transport industry. Sweden.
TUTB paper, August 2000 [pdf format]

Back to Basics: Jump-starting stalled health and safety committees
It's time to jump-start health and safety committees, ensuring they're part of the solution, not part of the problem. Canadian public service union CUPE has launched a "back to basics" initiative to train CUPE activists. The union says: "Too often health and safety committees have become complacent or too 'warm and fuzzy' between workers and employers - or both." Canada.
CUPE, Canada. February 2001

Is organising enough?
"Is organising enough? Race,gender and union culture" concludes the best of the new organising "takes place in locals that balance the organizing priority with the need to encourage members in the life of the union". One local union director notes: "Things were good for a number of years. We got contract after contract with improvements in wages, benefits, pensions, and better health and safety in the plants. We were good grievance administrators and good arbitrators, but everybody got lulled to sleep. We became bureaucrats."
New Labor Forum V6 2000 Spring/Summer Issue • SEMCOSH review

News

Britain: The lifesaving union effect
Hazards magazine has updated its webpages on the extremely positive “union effect” on workplace health and safety. A new pin-up-at-work guide notes that “union workplaces are safer workplaces” and urges workers “to get organised – or you might not live to regret it.”
Hazards ‘union effect’ webpages and 28 April poster • Risks 446 • 6 March 2010

Britain: Watchdog confirms RMT rail safety fears
Rail union RMT has demanded an immediate halt to plans to axe up to 1,500 safety-critical Network Rail maintenance jobs after an official probe called for “a significant change in attitudes and behaviours throughout” the company. The call, in a letter from Bill Emery, the chief executive of the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), to Network Rail boss Iain Coucher, came as a damning report from ORR identified major safety concerns related to implementation of Network Rail’s maintenance restructuring.
ORR news release and letter to Iain Coucher, Network Rail [pdf] • RMT news release. BBC News Online • Risks 446 • 6 March 2010

Britain: GMB fights to protect security guards
A new campaign is aiming to tackle the increasing number of attacks on security guards at work. Security industry union GMB, whose SafeGuard campaign was launched on 1 March at the House of Commons, is asking all Britain’s security companies to sign the GMB SafeGuard Charter, committing them to act to tackle the attacks on 350,000 licensed security staff in the course of their work.
GMB news release and SafeGuard charter [pdf] • GMB Security website • BSIA news release • SMT Online • Risks 446 • 6 March 2010

Britain: Aslef go slow ‘saves lives’
A union call for train drivers to drive slowly – no more than 20 mph – over open level crossings has been praised after it was claimed to have saved at least one life. ASLEF general secretary Keith Norman commented: “Others may talk about level crossing safety, but our union actually does something about it, adding: “I hope others, like Network Rail, will follow our lead and get serious about this continuous loss of life.”
ASLEF news release • John O’Groat Journal • Daily Record • Press and Journal • Risks 440
Hazards news, 23 January 2010

Britain: The value of unions
With the recession putting pressure on Britain's workers, the TUC has published new materials to help unions attract new recruits and demonstrate the value of unions to employers. A new report, ‘The union advantage’, includes safety in an array of compelling reasons you are better off in a union.
TUC publication note • The union advantage: The positive impact of trade unions on the economy and British society [pdf] • Risks 436
Hazards news, 12 December 2009

Britain: Slow down gets speedy solution
A rail safety hazard has been remedied after the train drivers’ union ASLEF instructed its drivers to slow down for safety’s sake. The union had advised drivers to approach the New Barn Occupational Crossing in the Barnham, West Sussex, at no more than 30mph.
ASLEF news release • Risks 425
Hazards news, 26 September 2009

Britain: HSE takes its stall to the unions
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says it will use its presence at next week’s TUC conference in Liverpool to promote plans to get more employees involved in health and safety where they work. The watchdog says its research suggests that involving workers has a positive effect on health and safety performance, and there is “strong evidence” that unionised workplaces with health and safety representatives are safer and healthier.
HSE news release and worker involvement webpages • Risks 423
Hazards news, 12 September 2009

Britain: Safety reps make work happy and healthy
Is it possible to take a dysfunctional workplace battered by assaults, sickness and poor morale and in less than a year make it a haven of safety and worker contentment, with managers valuing the union role? UNISON rep Mark White, writing in the new edition of the trade union magazine Hazards, describes how they achieved just that in his workplace.
Safety respect • Hazards magazine, number 107, Summer 2009 • Risks 419
Hazards news, 15 August 2009

Europe: Safety reps are a ‘powerful force’
Trade union safety reps have a “huge potential” for improving workers’ health, a Europe-wide investigation has concluded. The ESPARE project – full name ‘The Impact of Safety Representatives on Occupational Health: A European Perspective’ – was launched in 2006 by the European TUC’s health and safety research arm, REHS.
ESPARE project • The impact of safety representatives on occupational health: A European perspective (the EPSARE project), Report 107, European Trade Union Institute, 2009. Order details • Risks 416
Hazards news, 25 July 2009

Australia: Minister backs union right of entry
Unions in Tasmania have welcomed an announcement by the state’s workplace relations minister that she will press for a union right of entry to workplaces for occupational health and safety issues. Simon Cocker, the secretary of Unions Tasmania, said: “Right of entry to worksites for appropriately authorised union representatives exists in most other states and is an integral part of a working occupational health and safety system.”
Unions Tasmania news release [pdf] • Risks 417
Hazards news, 1 August 2009

Europe: Social dialogue improves working conditions
Unions play a big role in making work better and safer, a European Foundation report has concluded. It says its research found social partners and social dialogue play a key role in helping to create better jobs and improve the quality of work and working conditions through influencing policy decisions, negotiating social pacts and collective agreements as well as through participating in particular programmes and policies.
European Foundation news release and draft report [pdf] • Risks 412
Hazards news, 27 June 2009

Global: International link up wins rights deal
Unions in the UK and US have linked up to win an employment rights deal for workers in Bangladesh. Workers Uniting, a partnership between UK union Unite and North American union USW said it had achieved a “major victory” at the RL Denim factory in Bangladesh.
Unite news release • NLC statement • Workers Uniting • Risks 412
Hazards news, 27 June 2009

Britain: Firm failed to listen to union
London Underground has paid “substantial” compensation to a Tube driver after it ignored union complaints about dirty, hazardous train carriages. Derek Walters, 45, is facing surgery on his hand after his finger was slit open by a piece of broken glass left in a train cab.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 408
Hazards news, 30 May 2009

Norway: Rail workers win violence protection
Railway workers in Norway have won improved protection against violence at work, following their unions’ lobbying efforts. Workers represented by Norsk Jernbaneforbund and Norsk Lokomotivmannsforbund won an amendment to existing criminal law after the union engaged the government in talks to improve the plight of railway workers who were experiencing increasing violence, particularly at night.
ITF news report • Risks 406
Hazards news, 16 May 2009

Britain: Brown praises union safety reps
In a message released to mark Workers’ Memorial Day the Prime Minister praised the role that trade unions and safety representatives play in promoting health and safety. Gordon Brown said: “Their dedication has protected countless workers and their families from the consequences of deaths and injuries at work and I pay tribute to their tireless efforts on behalf of us all.”
Statement by PM • TUC news release • Risks 404
Hazards news, 2 May 2009

Australia: Unions defend safety prosecutions role
Australia’s occupational health and safety laws should include a trade union right to bring safety prosecutions against dangerous firms, a top union official has said. Geoff Fary, assistant secretary of the national union federation ACTU, said a system for union-initiated prosecutions already works well in New South Wales (NSW) and shouldn’t be jettisoned.
Business Spectator • Safety at Work interview with Geoff Fary • ACTU OHS webpages, including links to ACTU submission • Risks 396
Hazards news, 7 March 2009

USA: Hero pilot stresses union role
The pilot of a plane that ditched into the Hudson River in New York with no loss of life has told a US government inquiry that airline employers must bargain with unions “in good faith” in order to keep the skies safe. Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger told the Congress subcommittee: “In order to ensure economic security and an uncompromising approach to passenger safety, management must work with labour [unions] to bargain in good faith, we must find collective solutions that address the huge economic issues we face in recruiting and retaining the experienced and highly skilled professionals that the industry requires and that passenger safety demands.”
Subcommittee hearing news release • Hartford Courant • The Guardian • BBC News Online • Risks 395
Hazards news, 28 February 2009

Australia: Top expert backs union safety effect
A top Australian academic has said no-one should underestimate the dramatic positive impact of trade unions on workplace health and safety. Professor Michael Quinlan of the University of New South Wales said “union campaigns played a very significant part in health and safety legislation in the first place, workplace compensation legislation in the first place” and in subsequent improvements in the safety system.
Safety at work blog and podcast • Safety in Action conference website • Risks 392
Hazards news, 7 February 2009

USA: The union role in NY air crash miracle
They're calling it ‘the miracle on the Hudson’ - the successful emergency landing on 15 January of a US Airways jet in the Hudson River and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers and crew. But what they are not telling you, bloggers have revealed, is that every single one of these heroes is a union member – and the pilot, 57-year-old Chesley B Sullenberger III, is a former national committee member and the former safety chair of his union, the Airline Pilots Association.
AFL-CIO Now • Blog coverage on Emptywheel and Examiner • BBC News Online • Risks 390
Hazards news, 24 January 2009

USA: Victory in the hog house
Workers at the USA’s largest hog slaughterhouse have won a 16-year fight to unionise. Safety had been a key organising theme in food union UFCW’s campaign at Smithfield’s plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina.
Labor Notes • American Prospect • Books, t-shirts and other ‘Troublemakers Union’ resources from Labor Notes • Risks 388
Hazards news, 10 January 2009

Australia: Minister leads union site 'raid'
A senior state government minister in New South Wales (NSW) has led a group of union officials onto the site of Sydney's proposed desalination plant to conduct a safety audit. NSW water minister Phil Costa visited the site run by construction firm John Holland.
The Australian • Business Spectator • Risks 382
Hazards news, 15 November 2008

Britain: HSE chair wants more reps
The benefits of trade union safety reps are beyond all doubt, the chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said. Judith Hackitt told SERTUC’s worker involvement conference: “Throughout my working life it has always been the case that the workforce has been fully involved in health and safety and the importance of safety representatives has never been questioned - because it’s never been in any doubt.”
HSE news release and worker involvement webpages • Risks 383
Hazards news 22 November 2008

USA: Tony Mazzocchi: A real union leader on safety
If you want to learn about union leadership on health and safety, you should learn about Tony Mazzocchi. And if you want a pacy, intriguing and immensely readable biography of the US trade unionist’s extraordinary life, you should read ‘The man who hated work and loved labor’.
The man who hated work and loved labor: The life and times of Tony Mazzocchi, Les Leopold, Chelsea Green Publishing, ISBN 978-1-933392-64-6 • Watch a video tribute to Tony Mazzocchi • Hazards 103 review • Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: STUC project tackles violence
A groundbreaking STUC-inspired project to tackle workplace violence has been showcased at the July National Hazards Conference. Four years ago, the Scottish union federation worked with Scotland’s then Labour administration on a report that STUC said “set the foundation for positive collaboration between the trade union movement in Scotland and the Scottish government to raise awareness of the extent of the problem and how to help unions, workers and employers address the issue.”
STUC project presentation [powerpoint] • Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Global: Union precarious work campaign
‘Precarious work affects us all’ is a global union campaign to stop the rise in precarious employment and to regain power and justice for working people. Campaign webpages prepared by the global metal unions’ federation IMF provide links to materials, background information and details on what trade unions around the world are doing to mobilise against precarious work.
IMF ‘Precarious work affects us all’ campaign websites • Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

South Africa: Union plans safety strike at Gold Fields
South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has said it is planning industrial action at Gold Fields’ four mining operations, in protest at its worsening safety record. Gold Fields is responsible for about a quarter of South Africa's 85 mine fatalities this year.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Turkey: Union protests win safety concessions
More than 5,000 supporters joined 300 striking shipyard workers in a 16 June protest in Turkey’s Tuzla shipyards. The high profile action, which was in response to horrific rates of work-related deaths and injuries, led within days to safety commitments from the Turkish prime minister.
IMF news release • Turkish Daily News • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Italy: National one-hour stoppage for safety
Metalworkers across Italy downed tools from 11am to noon on 17 June in support of a new draft law on health and safety at work. The action follows a public outcry at the escalating toll of workplace deaths in Italy, including a series of recent tragedies.
IMF news release• BBC News Online • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

USA: Unions win in Las Vegas strike deal
A construction safety strike that started on the Las Vegas strip on Monday 2 June, ended on Tuesday after unions secured major safety commitments. Construction workers had marched in circles outside the locked gates of the massive $9.2 million CityCenter development, picket signs raised above their heads reading “Unsafe job site.”
Las Vegas Sun feature and coverage of company statement • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Global: Worldwide safety pact with steel giant
The world's largest steel company and trade unions representing its employees worldwide have signed a groundbreaking agreement to improve health and standards throughout the company. The global union federation for the metalworking sector, IMF, said the agreement with ArcelorMittal recognises the vital role played by trade unions in improving health and safety.
IMF news release and global agreement [pdf] • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: RMT victory on rail assault pay
A Northern Rail policy which would have reduced pay to many to workers injured in violent workplace attacks has been withdrawn. The move came after pressure from rail union RMT, which said the policy would have meant victims of assault who had not suffered ‘severe physical injury’ would lose money if they needed time off work.
Risks 341
Hazards news, 2 February 2008

Mexico: Massive miner walkout for safety
Over a quarter of a million Mexican miners walked off the job on 16 January, denouncing a government attack on workers striking over horrendous health and safety conditions at Mexico’s largest copper mine, Cananea, in the northern state of Sonora.
IMF news release • Workplace health and safety survey and medical screening of miners at Grupo Mexico’s copper mine Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, October 5-8, 2007, final Report, MHSSN, January 2008 [pdf] • Cananea site photogallery • MHSSN website • Risks 340
Hazards news, 26 January 2008

France: Safety reps improve safety
Health and safety representatives clearly help to improve the quality of prevention policies in workplaces where they are present, according to an official French government report. Thomas Coutrot from the Dares, the research institute of the French labour ministry, reviewed recent studies and concluded: “Employees and their representatives can therefore significantly influence the prevention policies implemented, either through conflict, co-operation, or more likely, a combination of the two.”
Dares report [pdf] • Risks 339
Hazards news, 19 January 2008

Australia: Workers need access to union help
Australian unions have called for the elimination of ‘artificial restrictions’ on the right of union occupational health and safety experts and officials to represent workers at threat from workplace risks. Ben Swan, assistant national secretary of mining union AWU, said Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) – a system individual contracts introduced by the previous government in a bid to curtail union power – were being used to deny unions access to dangerous workplaces.
AWU news release • Risks 339
Hazards news, 19 January 2008

South Africa: Strike puts mine safety on agenda
A national strike by South Africa’s mineworkers has focused the attention of government and mining firms on workplace safety. Over 200,000 miners are believed to have been involved in the action.
Mining Weekly • Business Report and related item on South Africa’s inadequate workplace compensation system
Hazards news, 15 December 2007

Britain: Ergo cabs follow union campaign
Rail firm Freightliner is improving train cabs after a campaign by drivers’ union ASLEF. Union general secretary Keith Norman says the company’s production director has given an assurance the company is “more than happy to involve ASLEF as much as possible in the ergonomics of any new cab design.”
ASLEF news release and Squash campaign
Hazards news, 8 December 2007

Australia: Federal court supports role of unions
Australia’s Federal Court has supported the role of unions, declaring construction union CFMEU a “competent administrative authority” with a right of access to workplaces to undertake safety probes. The court also found it unlawful for a person to be sacked for reasons including complaining to the union.
SafetyNet Journal, number 128 • Read the judgment online Claveria v Pilkington Australia Ltd [2007] FCA 1692 • Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004
Hazards news, 1 December 2007

New Zealand: Worker participation key to improvements
“Involving workers in managing health and safety at work is a key to improving our record in this area,” NZCTU secretary Carol Beaumont has said. Her comments followed the release of the New Zealand government’s Workplace Health and Safety Strategy second progress report.
NZCTU news release • NZ Department of Labour news release
Hazards news, 24 November 2007

Global: Unions and enforcement are the safe option
Rigorous enforcement backed up by active unions is the best way to deliver safety at work, a new World Health Organisation report has concluded. ‘Employment conditions and health inequalities’ says contrary to the current fashion for deregulation, regulations are not the problem.
Employment conditions and health inequalities: Final report, WHO, 2007 [pdf] • The report is a contribution to the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health
Hazards news, 17 November 2007

Britain: Study shows safety specialists cut accidents
The more firms invest in safety specialists, the safer they get, new research suggests. The research commissioned by safety professionals’ organisation IOSH and carried out by Glasgow Caledonian University researchers also found organisations where health and safety personnel vet sub-contractors have an accident rate almost 60 per cent lower than in those that don't.
IOSH news release • Glasgow Caledonian University RISC project • Hazards union effect webpages
Hazards news, 3 November 2007

Italy: DHL forced to negotiate after strike
Managers at DHL’s air cargo fleet operations in Italy have promised to enter into talks with unions over safety after their hand was forced by strike action. Workers at DHL’s Bergamo hub went on strike on 10 October prompted by managers’ refusals to discuss safety concerns following an accident that seriously injured a worker; he was crushed by a 2000 kilogramme pallet that fell from a forklift truck.
ITF news release
Hazards news, 27 October 2007

USA: Tragedies spur calls for a union voice
Non-union workers at the Utah mine where six miners died in a 6 August collapse and three workers were killed on 16 August in the abortive rescue efforts have asked mining union UMWA to be their representative in discussions with the company and the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). In a highly contentious move, however, the official mines safety watchdog has turned down the request.
UMWA news release • ICEM In-Brief
Hazards news, 1 September 2007

Britain: Safety reps mean action at work
Union safety reps make workplace safety campaigns effective, research for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found. The study looked at the involvement of safety reps in HSE’s better backs campaign, examining the impact of the training and support provided by Unite’s Amicus section.
Hazards news report, 1 September 2007 • Hazards safety reps’ webpage • Hazards union effect webpage
Hazards news, 1 September 2007

Australia: New charter to protect workers
A new charter of workplace rights that sets out baseline health and safety and compensation standards has been launched by Australian national union federation ACTU. ACTU president Sharan Burrow said: “The health and safety of Australian workers is of paramount importance to the ACTU and the union movement and this charter spells out a decent set of minimum standards for workplace rights that can work in all workplaces across Australia.”
ACTU news release • ACTU occupational health and safety workplace rights charter [pdf] • ABC News
Hazards news, 9 June 2007

Britain: Community raises the alarm for safety
A union has demonstrated the safety protection unions can offer, even when the employer refuses formal union recognition. Workers in Betfred betting shops were concerned when the company switched off emergency alarms’ Community contacted the company and made sure that these were switched straight back on.
Community news release and betting shop campaign • Hazards organising news and resources
Hazards news, 12 May 2007

Earlier news stories