Health and Safety

The health and safety of workers on the job is a human right, but, as a nation, the United States is failing to protect its workers. Laws and regulations addressing health and safety have waxed and waned since passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, indicating that worker health and safety is not just a legislative and regulatory issue, but a political issue susceptible to ideological differences.

Indoor air quality and work-related violence are obvious workplace hazards. But so are physical stresses, such as repetitive motions that lead to carpal tunnel syndrome or tendonitis, and environmental factors like poor lighting that can cause eye strain and headaches. Increasingly, workers also find themselves under threat from a variety of biological and social epidemics, from the coronavirus to the opioid epidemic. We also contend with the effects of the climate crisis with increased flooding and fires.

There are 23 states where public employees do not have OSH Act protections, including the right to know about toxic chemicals in products they use, the results of air sampling conducted by the employer or personal medical information held by the employer, just to give a few examples. Currently, over 8 million public employees lack any kind of coverage under the OSH Act. And even in the states with Occupational Safety and Health Administration-approved programs, there is room for improvement. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for example, does not have an ergonomic standard or an indoor air quality standard.

The devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic reemphasized how important it is for all workers, including government employees, to have a right to a safe workplace and for the definition of safety to be expanded.

Increasingly, American workers also find their safety at risk from hazards even an expanded OSH Act would not address. The evolving opioid epidemic has taken the lives of over half a million Americans since the first wave of the crisis began in the 1990s, and the distribution and use of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have caused the crisis to claim the lives of record numbers of Americans in the past several years. The AFT supports affiliates in seeking workplace policies and collective bargaining language that provide resources to those working to combat addiction and the opioid crisis through their work, that protect them from exposure to workplace hazards and hazardous drugs, and that strengthen employee assistance programs.

Gun violence also threatens workers, with record numbers of gun deaths and public shootings in recent years. The AFT has begun offering local affiliates a three-hour course in how to respond in an active-shooter situation, so our members can learn and practice the elements of situational awareness, how to safeguard themselves and others, how to disarm an attacker and how to treat wounds. Furthermore, the AFT is committed to pursuing commonsense gun reforms and will continue to fight for a peaceful way of life.