Labor-Management Interactions and Occupational Health

1. Labor-Management Interactions and Occupational Health Allison Susan Eric

2. Unions: an overview • 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. Unions and Occupational Health • 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 and Labor Law • 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 and Workplace Safety Laws • 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. Unions and labor law • 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. Number of Union Members • 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. Union membership by State 2008 • 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. 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 • 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. Future trends? 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.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.

11. Unions and Tobacco Control

13. Joint Health and Safety Committees and Bipartite Cooperation

14. Joint Committees • 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. Occupational Health and Safety Agency for Healthcare – British Columbia, Canada • 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. Joint Committee Education and Development Program (JCED) • 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. Evaluation of the JCED program • 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. Evaluation results • 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. Limitations of study • Retrospective recall • Only surveyed workshop participants that were still JC members • Others?

20. Keys to bipartite effectiveness • 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. Benefits of an effective JC • Improved health and safety conditions • Fewer injuries • Higher job satisfaction • Enhanced problem solving expertise

22. Resources • 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.htm • Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety - What is a Joint Health and Safety Committee? http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/hsprograms/hscommittees/whatisa.html • Employee Free Choice Act http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfm • UW Health and Safety Committee http://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 • WSNA Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety Committee http://www.wsna.org/Topics/Workplace-Environment-You/Committee/