CWA Occupational Safety and Health Department
Using Occupational Safety and Health as a Tool to Help Build and
Strengthen the Union
Occupational safety and health issues are a top priority for CWA. As a result, in 1979 the union established an Occupational Safety and Health Department. The Department is located within the office of the President at CWA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In addition, at the district level, through their respective CWA vice presidents designated CWA staff work in a coordinated fashion with the Safety and Health Department and with local leaders and members to address workplace safety and health concerns. Of particular importance, through the establishment of active, effective occupational safety and health committees, CWA locals work on the "front-lines" to identify and resolve member issues.
The union's occupational safety and health activities function effectively through continuous communication and coordination between each of these three organizational levels: headquarters, district, and local. In addition, using the communications process, it is extremely important that CWA leaders and activists utilize these lines of organization in their efforts to resolve member safety and health issues.
Establishing Safety and Health Committees
The establishment of an effective local union occupational safety and health committee is necessary to adequately and successfully represent our members' safety and health interests. The committee should be comprised of knowledgeable, dedicated, and hard-working safety and health activists. Ideally, the committee should include representatives from all of the major employers with which the union has a contractual relationship. Where possible, the local committee should include representation from different departments of the same employer. Through scheduled meetings and worksite inspections (held at least on a monthly basis), the local committee will be well equipped to identify and resolve member safety and health concerns.
Within the collective bargaining process, the union should work to negotiate joint CWA employer occupational safety and health committees. Where possible, the union should try to look toward negotiating provisions that would allow union personnel to conduct safety and health activities during work time. The establishment of and activities associated with the work of joint committees should allow the union to more effectively represent its members as well as involve them in the process of improving working conditions.
Conducting Investigations
A primary Function of local committees is conducting occupational safety and health workplace investigations. When conducting such an investigation, the local committee should gather the facts through the collection of employer-maintained information, member interviews, and an inspection of the workplace. Regarding information maintained by the employer, the committee member(s) should request a copy of the Log of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. The log lists all OSHA recordable occupational injuries and illnesses within the requested time frames (either monthly or yearly). In order to identify trends or patterns of workplace illnesses and injuries, it is recommended that local union activists request the OSHA logs for the last three years.
Additional sources of information include grievance and arbitration awards, workers' compensation records, and decisions under the Family Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition to gathering information from the union's files, the union should request this data from the employer.
After gathering all of the relevant information, local representatives should conduct interviews with affected workers and perform walk around investigations at the involved work site(s). The interviews and walk around investigations will allow the safety and health committee member(s) to identify member health problems, obvious physical hazards, as well as establish a better understanding of job design and content/job stress issues.
Data collected from these activities should be documented and compared to the information obtained from the employer. In turn, the data should be translated into a report detailing the findings of the investigation as well as suggested recommendations to resolve the identified safety and health issues.
In addition, based upon the above collected information, the local union safety and health committee might consider using surveys on working conditions and health problems. Given the complexity of developing and conducting a survey as well as analyzing collected data, locals are encouraged to contact CWA's Occupational Safety and Health Department for assistance in this process. For additional information regarding the identification and resolution of workplace safety and health issues, local union activists and staff are encouraged to refer to The CWA Occupational Safety and Health Manual.
Provision of Information and Request for Assistance to the CWA Occupational Safety and Health Department
Preferably, after collecting the basic safety and health information, local leaders and occupational safety and health activists are encouraged to contact the union's Occupational Safety and Health Department for further assistance. The expertise of the department's staff will allow for more specific identification and resolution of identified workplace safety and health issues as well as related worker health problems. The union's Safety and Health Department is located within the Office of the President at CWA Headquarters, 501 3d Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001. The department's staff includes:
David LeGrande, Departmental Director. (In addition to overall departmental responsibilities, David provides coverage for Districts 1, 2, 6, 7, and 13.) His phone number is 202-434-1160, e-mail- legrande@)cwa-union.org, and fax 202-434-1318.
Charles Barrett, CWA Representative, Occupational Safety and Health. (Charles provides coverage for Districts 3, 4, and 9.) His phone number is 202-434-9511, e-mail- CbarrettC&cwa-union.org, and fax 202-434-1250.