CWA Spouse Wins National Award for Workplace Safety Activism

A CWA member's wife has been awarded the Community Service Award by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health for her efforts to memorialize victims of workplace fatalities and to prevent such tragedies in the future.

Katherine Rodriguez, whose husband, Randy, is a steward and safety and health chair for Local 6222, said her drive began with her father's death in 2004. Ray Gonzalez and coworker Maurice Moore were fatally burned by 500-degree water when a pipe burst at a BP refinery.

"The next year, in 2005, 15 more workers lost their lives at the same BP facility in Texas City," she said. "That site had 22 worker fatalities in five years. I want to make sure their deaths are not forgotten and that no other family has to endure the pain and grief that we have."

Rodriguez received the award last week at a banquet during the organization's National Worker Health and Safety Training Conference in Baltimore. CWA and locals nationwide work with NCOSH on workplace safety and health issues, and training to prevent accidents and injuries.