Download Heat-Related Materials

• Heat advisory
• Hot Weather Advisory Fact Sheet
• Hot Weather Workplace Preventions
• OSHA HEAT STRESS CARDS SPANISH
• OSHA heat stress cards

Heat stress and heat-related illness are both issues that can easily arise in a workplace that does not appropriately prepare workers for physical work in the summer. The Safety and Health Office’s advisory has created the following employer checklist to ensure a safe workplace for all workers:

• Adequate, accessible drinking water (recommended one quart per worker per hour).
• Regular rest breaks or periods in a cool area, in accordance with heat and workload.
• Increased air circulation, air conditioning, and ventilation.
• Worker awareness of the early signs and dangers of heat-related illness and the ability to take a break should these signs arise.
• Work acclimatization for new workers (allow one week for the body to adjust to working in the heat).

With outside temperatures starting to soar, now is the time to make sure employers are taking the steps necessary to protect workers from heat stress and heat-related illness. Heat can cause more than just discomfort. Exposure to high heat and high humidity can be life threatening. Employers should make sure workers know the signs, symptoms and appropriate first-aid procedures for serious heat illnesses.

For more information about heat and heat-related illness, you can contact the UFCW Occupational Safety and Health Office in Washington, D.C. at 202-223-3111.

Download Heat-Related Materials

• Heat advisory
• Hot Weather Advisory Fact Sheet
• Hot Weather Workplace Preventions
• OSHA HEAT STRESS CARDS SPANISH
• OSHA heat stress cards

Extreme heat can kill or seriously injure workers.

As summer approaches, we need to be prepared to keep workers safe with the additional stress of hot weather. There are lots of things we can do to protect workers. While employers have a duty to protect workers from heat-related hazards under the OSH Act, it is our duty to make sure that employers are enforcing those protections and workers are safe.

In order to help protect workers, we need to learn:

• When heat and humidity are becoming workplace hazards.
• What a heat-related medical emergency is and how to respond quickly and effectively.

To prevent heat-related injury or death, we need to make sure our work sites:

• Are using preventative measures to protect workers from heat-related
  hazards.
• Have a clear procedure for responding to a heat-related medical
  emergency that is well-known to workers.

Additional resources to help protect workers from heat-related hazards
and keep workplaces safe include:

• The OSHA heat safety tool can be downloaded to Android or iPhones in
  English or Spanish here.
• The UFCW Safety and Health Office can provide live training via computer for local union staff and members.
• OSHA’s heat stress e-tool.

>>>Hot Weather Workplace Preventions

>>>Sample Heat Emergency Procedure

Every year on April 28—Workers Memorial Day—the UFCW joins workers in the U.S. and around the world to remember and pay tribute to the thousands of workers who have been killed on the job and the millions of workers who have suffered from injuries, sickness or diseases in their places of work.

While the efforts of union members and their families have resulted in significant workplace safety laws, including the passage of the mine safety law and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, too many workers are still suffering or dying on the job.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 4,000 workers lost their lives on the job in the U.S. in 2013 alone. And according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 50,000 workers die from illnesses caused by exposure to chemicals and other workplace hazards and millions more will suffer non-fatal workplace injuries each year.

Although the Obama Administration has taken action to strengthen safety and health protections, including proposing new safeguards on silica and other workplace hazards, Republican lawmakers and their corporate backers are trying to stop these protections and shut down all future regulations. Republican lawmakers are also supporting right-to-work laws, which make it harder for unions to bargain for workplace safety protections, along with decent wages and benefits.  In addition to political obstacles, our country’s growing wealth gap and low-wage, part-time economy has emboldened many employers to cut corners, violate workplace safety laws, and punish those workers who report job hazards or injuries.

On Workers Memorial Day and every day, the UFCW stands with workers who are fighting to uphold their basic rights – including safe jobs, workplace fairness and collective bargaining. Working people deserve a safe place to work, and those politicians and corporations that weaken work safety laws and exploit workers for profit and put them in danger must be held accountable.

Workers Memorial Day Resources:

Workers Memorial Day Handbill

Not an Accident: Preventable Deaths 2015

AFL-CIO Death on the Job Report

Marc Perrone Op-Ed on Workers Memorial Day

UFCW Statement on Workers Memorial Day

For the first time, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has recognized that federal labor law protects workers in the medical marijuana industry. The government authorized a complaint absent settlement of the charges that Wellness Connection of Maine, a medical marijuana company, repeatedly retaliated against and interfered with workers who were exercising their right to form a union. The company subsequently settled charges alleging nearly a dozen instances where Wellness Connection violated the National Labor Relations Act and the rights of its employees.

For the first time, the NLRB has recognized that federal labor law protects workers in the medical marijuana industry.

The alleged violations began last February, after workers at an Auburn cultivation site organized a walk-out in protest of the company’s unlawful practice of applying pesticides. The federal government was prepared to issue a complaint stating that the company unlawfully disciplined workers who stood together, and interfered with their right to join the UFCW by interrogating them, creating the impression of surveillance, and soliciting them to oppose the union. The NLRB also found merit to the charges that the company maintained several overly broad confidentiality policies that unlawfully prevented employees from discussing their wages and working conditions.

“Only by sticking together, we were able to find the strength to speak out about the gross violations that we saw at work,” said Ian Brodie, a former Wellness employee who is included in the charges. “By fighting for our union, we are protecting our customers and shaping the medical marijuana industry into a safe and well regulated industry that provides good jobs and needed medicine for our community. I am proud of what we workers have done to bring justice to Wellness Connection.”

Previously, Wellness Connection workers reported other regulatory and health and safety violations to the Department of Health and Human Services, resulting in $18,000 in penalties for more than 20 violations of state law. OSHA also fined Wellness Connection $14,000 for numerous health and safety violations. Workers were emboldened to blow the whistle on their employer’s inappropriate practices after joining together in an effort to organize a union.

Thousands of medical cannabis workers in six states and the District of Columbia are UFCW members. They work predominantly in dispensaries, coffee shops, bakeries, patient identification centers, hydroponics stores, and growing and training facilities. UFCW members have been key leaders in coalitions and advocacy groups that work for real change at all levels of policy and have been instrumental in working to advocate for the good jobs provided by the medical cannabis industry.

This week, Thanksgiving is upon us, and it also happens to be International Food Workers Week. It’s a time when we should be celebrating and giving thanks to all, but especially to those that work to provide the food we feast on during this holiday.

Unfortunately, right now, “government officials are moving forward with plans to privatize some poultry inspections at chicken and turkey slaughter plants in a manner that could compromise worker and consumer safety”, reports an In These Times article. Rather than use government officials, some poultry companies will now conduct poultry inspections with individuals directly hired by them. Additionally, the speed of inspections will be allowed to increase, meaning slaughter line speeds will “be increased from 32 turkeys per minute to 55 birds per minute, with similar increases for other poultry. That’s too fast to do proper inspections for signs of disease or other health problems in the birds,” according to Ken Ward, a retired veteran of the USDA, “and could lead to unsafe food being shipped out to local supermarkets and butcher shops.”

This USDA pilot program “seems rigged to provide financial benefits to the producing companies while putting food safety at a lower priority” says one top lobbyist from a food safety advocacy group. He notes that in order to correct the problem, we must create new legislation to ensure food and worker safety is not ignored.

Over 65,000 UFCW members work in the meatpacking industry, including the poultry sector.  If the plans  go through, our members are at risk of ailments that have been associated with increased line speeds, including musculoskeletal disorders like carpal tunnel syndrome. The UFCW is calling for  further study on the worker safety elements of the USDA proposal before it goes forward.

“The hardworking people who produce our food should be protected from dangerous conditions that lead to avoidable injuries,” says another activist, Tom Fritzsche. “The current system may be profitable for the poultry companies, but it relies on systematic exploitation of workers. Now, regulators are about to make conditions even more hazardous.”

Last week, in a press conference, “former turkey plant worker Esmundo Juarez Carranza endorsed efforts to stop the USDA plan and issued a plea for better treatment of poultry workers. Carranza says he was unfairly fired from his job at a Cargill turkey slaughter facility in Springdale, Ark. after leaving his post on the production line to use the bathroom without first getting permission from supervisors.” Carranza and his coworkers “suffered from low pay, onerous working conditions and abusive managers. As the poultry producers strive to maintain fast line speeds, he says, they’re subjecting workers to tighter restrictions—and often disregarding the workers’ emotional and physical well-being.”

With a union, workers can stand together to fight for better working conditions at poultry plants. Workers like Esmundo Carranza don’t deserve to be treated like animals, simply because the company values profit over people. UFCW members are continuing to support legislation that will ensure safety first for the workers and protect consumers. Together, we can ensure food-workers are treated with the respect they deserve.

This Sunday, April 28th is Worker Memorial Day, in which we take time to remember and honor those who have lost their lives on the job.  With the tragedies of the past two weeks fresh on our minds, this year’s Worker Memorial Day is particularly somber and offers us a chance to rededicate ourselves to the fight for safer workplaces.

Last week, in West, Texas, a fertilizer plant exploded, killing at least 15 workers and emergency responders.  The amount of deadly chemicals stored at the plant was thousands of times beyond the mandated limit, and inspections of the factory had not been performed in several years.

This week, news of a collapsed garment factory in Bangladesh that has killed at least 300 workers saddened us all.  Reports that cracks in the building’s foundation found yesterday were ignored and that management still forced employees to come to work are alarming.  This incident comes only months after more than 100 workers perished at another Bangladesh garment factory, when a fire broke out and locked doors (done by management) trapped workers inside.

• Can you take a moment to sign the petition asking Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju to Make garment factories in Bangladesh safe?

Workers at a Nicaraguan Walmart supplier were recently physically attacked by a paid mob when they protested about being fired for trying to organize for a voice on the job.

It’s time that companies stopped putting workers’ lives at risk in order to make a profit.  The working people who make corporations successful deserve basic human rights, and deserve safe working environments.

Take a moment to remember the victims of workplace fatalities, and help us continue to fight for worker safety. If you have a story of a friend or loved one lost or injured on the job that you would like to share, please send us a message on our Facebook page.

2013 Worker Memorial Day Break Room Flyers

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You may have heard that the USDA has proposed a rule that will waive current line speed limits in poultry plants and permit processing to increase from 75-91 birds per minute to 175 birds per minute. No study has been conducted to determine the impact that increasing the speed of the line will have on worker safety.

USDA did not contact the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency responsible for protecting the health and safety of American workers, before publishing this proposed rule. This sets an alarming precedent for all agencies that may want to use administrative rulemaking to change policies that could weaken health and safety protections for workers. This lack of transparency or collaboration with the agency responsible for workplace safety could put workers in danger. And as we know, when worker safety is at risk in food processing facilities, the safety of our food supply can also be jeopardized.

Please join the UFCW in urging the USDA to pull this rule in its entirety until adequate safety studies are conducted and OSHA uses this information to create standards to protect workers. Click here to send a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, urging him to pull the poultry rule today.

Provision will compromise food safety by allowing states to forgo federal meat and poultry inspections

Washington, D.C. – The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) joined forces with the American Federation of Government Employees today to oppose a provision in the House Farm Bill that will put consumers at risk of food borne illnesses and further subject food workers to unsanitary work conditions.

The provision will eliminate a 40-year-old protection in the federal meat and poultry inspection acts that bans state inspected meat and poultry from being sold in interstate commerce.  The provision will also allow the vast majority of meat and poultry plants to forgo federal inspection in favor of more lax state inspections, which ultimately puts the health and safety of millions of consumers at risk.

“This amendment will weaken America’s food safety net, pure and simple,” said Michael J. Wilson, UFCW International Vice President and Director of Legislative and Political Action.  “Anyone who pretends that state inspection is the same as federal inspection also believes in the Tooth Fairy.  In addition, it will encourage thousands of facilities who are currently federally inspected to opt for a more ‘friendly’ state inspection.  Like a tainted piece of meat, this provision deserves the stamp of rejection.”

For more than 100 years, the UFCW has been fighting to improve the working conditions of food workers and the safety of our food, and currently represents more than a quarter of a million workers in the meatpacking and poultry industries.  In addition to protecting the rights of food workers, the UFCW is also a founding member of the Safe Food Coalition which consists of consumer groups, groups representing victims of food borne illnesses, and watchdog groups that are dedicated to reducing the incidence of food borne illnesses in the United States.

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