Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Health, Safety and Environment Conference: Review and Photos
CWA President Larry Cohen: To gain economic justice and real democracy, we must overcome the broken Senate rules, eliminate corporate money on politics, stop voter suppression, and create a path to legalization for immigrants.
More than 1,200 CWA and USW safety and health activists participated in the first USW/CWA National Health, Safety and Environment Conference conducted March 5-9, 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Highlighting the conference activities was a panel presentation involving CWA President Larry Cohen and USW President Leo Gerard. Their message to conference participants focused upon the importance of occupational health, safety and environment activities; integrating health, safety and environment work and issues into the greater movement building activities of the two unions; as well as the need to restore our mutual collective bargaining and political power.
Additional presentations targeting the current state of workplace health and safety, the challenges faced by local unions, and strategies for improving workplace safety and health and working conditions were given by representatives from the AFL-CIO and U.S. and Canadian leaders of the USW.
Following the Monday- Thursday morning plenary sessions as well as all day Friday, some eighty different workshops were conducted.
A sampling of the topics included:
| Introduction to OSHA and MSHA Workplace Ergonomics Temperature Extremes Rights to Mid-Term Bargaining to Prevent Bad Health and Safety Policies, Practices, and Programs Workplace Violence Industrial Hygiene for Union Activists What’s Wrong with Employer Behavior-Based Safety/Blame the Worker Safety Programs | Union Strategies for Increasing the Involvement of Young Workers in Union Health and Safety Activities Emergency Response Confined Space Hazards and Preparedness Chemicals and Our Health Hazard Mapping Health and Safety Risks of Nanotechnology and Safe Patient Handling |
Photo highlights from the conference: