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

OSHA’s updated recordkeeping rule expands the list of severe injuries that all employers must report to OSHA. Establishments located in states under Federal OSHA jurisdiction must begin to comply with the new requirements on January 1, 2015. Establishments located in states that operate their own safety and health programs should check with their state plan for the implementation date of the new requirements.

Click here for the PDF.

One of the examples provided in the guide.

The UFCW Occupational Safety and Health Office has released a guide that lists the workplace hazards that may occur in a retail workplace. The hazards listed in the guide are all violations of the standards set forth in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and should be immediately reported to a supervisor and a union steward or union representative.

The guide, which can be accessed on the UFCW Safety and Health website, provides photos of examples of the hazards that violate OSHA standards, in order to help workers and supervisors identify and eliminate workplace hazards.

A recent UFCW Occupational Safety and Health advisory addresses the issue of workplace safety during the upcoming hot summer months. 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.

All too often, we see companies putting their employees at risk in order to cut costs.  This week, a monthly report by the National Council of La Raza announced that the number of fatalities for Latino workers has increased.

The report includes a chart that shows the amount of Latino worker fatalities each year since 1997, and in 2011, there were a total of 729, the highest since 2009.  Although the higher number of fatalities may have to do with a greater amount of Latinos in the workplace, it is no excuse for the lack of worker protection programs employed by corporations.

The figures from 2011 should prompt policymakers and authority figures to amp up laws and regulations that protect workers on the job. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is sorely in need of more funding and needs to update its policies so that it can keep up with this fast paced economy.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency responsible for enforcing and strengthening workplace safety standards, is in dire need of funding and reform to enable it to be more nimble and effective in the twenty-first century economy. With a meager $500 million budget, OSHA under the Obama administration has succeeded in hiring hundreds of additional workplace inspectors, targeting enforcement to high-violation industries, and improving prevention outreach to workers around common hazards like heat illness and falls in construction. However, OSHA’s reach remains limited; in 2010, there were only 7.3 OSHA inspectors for every million workers. Vulnerable workers are further threatened by the end-of-year

Lawmakers must also act to strengthen OSHA’s authority to regulate rapidly evolving industries, such as poultry processing, and strengthen the agency’s ability to crack down on repeat bad actors, who currently consider the agency’s weak fines and legal recourse a cost of business rather than a deterrent from breaking the law. Protecting workers from deadly injuries at work requires serious consideration of these and other important legal and regulatory reforms.fiscal debate, in which cuts to OSHA’s budget could total $46 million if sequestration proceeds.

No amount of cut costs is as valuable as a human life.  It’s time for more worker protection programs in the workplace, no matter what occupation or race the employees may be. Click here to read the full NCLR report.