Unions and Workplace Health and Safety History, from 1989 Video Those Who Know Don’t Tell

This clip, describing the role of unions in advancing workplace health and safety, is from Abby Ginzberg’s award-winning 1989 documentary, tracing the history of the struggle to rid the workplace of occupational hazards. In 1935, the Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (known as the Wagner Act for Senator Wagner) creating a new national labor policy for the United States. The NLRAct created a new independent agency-the National Labor Relations Board, made up of three members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate-to enforce employee rights rather than to mediate disputes. It gave employees the right to form and join unions, and it obligated employers to bargain collectively with unions selected by a majority of the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit. In 1936 Congress passed the Walsh-Healey Act, which included a section that authorized the secretary of labor to promulgate safety standards for firms doing more than $10,000 of business yearly with the federal government. During the 1930s Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, who had become an expert on industrial hazards and workers’ compensation during her long tenure on the New York State Industrial Commission (1919-1933), charted an unprecedented course of activism for the Division of Labor Standards (DLS) of the United States Department of Labor. The DLS promoted trade union organization because it understood that organized workers had a better chance of pressing management for workplace health and safety. The DLS also began providing information to union safety councils and other union bodies and training state health and safety inspectors.
The labor movement has always led the charge to protect working people from workplace injury, illness and death. Working with allies, labor won strong protections against hazards and stronger rights for workers. Through organizing and collective bargaining, unions have gained even stronger protections and rights that have given workers a real voice in safety and health at the workplace. The labor movement fought to pass the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 that promises working people the right to a safe job. Workplace deaths and injuries have declined dramatically. In fact, the lives of more than half a million workers have been saved by strengthening workplace protections. But too many working people still work in unnecessarily unsafe conditions. Thousands of workers are killed each year-and millions more suffer injuries or illnesses-because of their jobs. There is much more work to be done and unions continue to advocate for safe workplaces. Thanks to filmmaker Abby Ginzberg for permission to post her wonderful film. To see more of her amazing work, visit the website www.socialactio....