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Safety and health links
and
news about immigrant, vulnerable workers |
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This page is
divided into two sections. The first section is a list of links
to documents about safety and health for immigrant workers and
other vulnerable workers. The second section is a list of related
news articles.
Para obtener
información en español, haga
click aquí.
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indicates that a link is only available in Adobe Portable Document
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Safety and health links concerning immigrant
workers and other vulnerable workers |
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 Workplace Safety
and Health Issues Confronting Immigrant Workers-- NYCOSH Testimony
to the Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Safety and Training
of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Washington, DC, February 27, 2002
 American
Industrial Hygiene Association White Paper on Occupational
Health, Safety and Environmental Conditions in Sweatshops
(2001)
Application
of U.S. Labor Laws to Immigrant Workers: Effect of Hoffman
Plastics Decision on Laws Enforced by the Wage and Hour Division
(U.S. Labor Department, Wage and Hour Division, 2004)
Building
Alliances to Improve Women's Occupational Health (Maritime
Centre of Excellence for Women's Health)
California's
Immigrant Workers Speak up About Health and Safety in the
Workplace (UCLA-Labor Occupational Safety & Health
Program, 2002)
Centers
for Disease Control Efforts to Address the Health and Safety
Needs of Immigrant Workers (National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health testimony Before the Senate
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, February
27, 2002)
Challenging
Exploitation and Abuse: A Study of the Day Labor Industry
in Cleveland (2001)
An Examination of Occupational Safety and
Health Materials Currently Available in Spanish for Workers
as of 1999 by Marianne P. Brown
Overtime
and Extended Work Shifts: Recent Findings on Illnesses, Injuries,
and Health Behaviors
(National Instittute for Occupational Safety and Health, April
2004)
Fatal
Occupational Injuries to Foreign-Born Workers by Selected
Characteristics, 1994-99 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Fatal
Work Injuries among Foreign-Born Hispanic Workers (Monthly
Labor Review, October 2005)
From
Orchards to the Internet: Confronting Contingent Work Abuse
(National Employment Law Project and the Farmworker Justice
Fund)
Hispanic
Workers in the United States: An Analysis of Employment Distributions,
Fatal Occupational Injuries, and Non-Fatal Occupational Injuries
and Illnesses by Scott Richardson (2003)
Immigrant
Worker Project (National Employment Law Project)
The Impact of Multi-Language Worksites on Safety,H&E
professionals
Information
on Temporary Workers (The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration's official interpretation of the safety and
health responsibilities of temp agencies, 1996)
Latin
American Workers' Project
Latino
Workers in the Construction Industry: Overcoming the Language
Barrier Improves Safety (Professional Safety, June 2004)
Maquiladora
Health & Safety Support Network
NAFTA's
Labor Side Agreement: Fading into Oblivion? An Assessment
of Workplace Health and Safety Cases (UCLA Center for Labor
Research and Education, 2004)
The New New Yorkers: at Salons,
Trouble Is in the Air: Effects of Exposure to Toxic Chemicals
Will Be Examined in a Survey of Korean Nail Workers (Newsday,
March 24, 2004)
Nonstandard
Worker Project (National Employment Law Project)
Occupational
Health Among Latino Workers: A Needs Assessment and Recommended
Interventions by Rafael Moure-Eraso and George Friedman-Jimenez
(2003)
Protecting
Workers at Special Risk: Women, Older Workers, Young Workers
and Immigrants (1999 Conference on the Medical-Legal
Aspects of Work Injuries)
Proyecto
de los Trabajadores Latinoamericanos
Public
Report of Review of NAO Submission No. 2000-01 Federal
agency set up by NAFTA to investigate charges of labor rights
violations in the NAFTA countries confirms allegations about
exposure to toxic chemicals and ergonomic trauma in U.S.-owned
maquiladoras (U.S. National Administrative Office, 2001) For
a report of the workers' December 12, 2000 testimony about
their working conditions, click
here.
Queens Worker
Health Protection Project
Reaching
Spanish-Speaking Workers and Employers with Occupational Safety
and Health Information by Tom O'Connor(2003)
Review
of the Occupational Health and Safety of Britain’s Ethnic
Minorities (Health and Safety Executive)
Safety
is Seguridad: A Workshop Summary (National Academies
Press, 2003)
Voices
from the Margins: Immigrant Workers' Perceptions of Health
and Safety in the Workplace The UCLA-LOSH
Program conducted an ethnographic in-depth study of 75 immigrant
workers in six industries in Southern California between January
and October 2001. The industries chosen were: day labor, domestic
work, garment work, homecare, hotel and restaurant work. Most
of those interviewed -- 90 percent -- worried that they would
get injured on the job. The majority said they had experienced
work-related injuries or illnesses, but only two thirds had
reported these to their employers. Those who did not report
gave a variety of reasons for not doing so, not the least
of which was concern that their employer would retaliate against
them.
Welfare
and Low-Wage Workforce Project (National Employment
Law Project)
Women
Migrant Domestic Workers: Bringing the Sector Into the Open
In many countries domestic service is one of the main activities
of migrant women. But despite growing significantly in size,
this phenomenon remains today largely invisible and ignored.
These migrant domestic workers, due to their social isolation,
their direct dependence on their employers and their continuous
presence at their place of work, are amongst the most vulnerable
of all foreign women workers, and also the most difficult
to unionise. What are their living and working conditions?
How are trade unions around the world mobilizing to help and
organise them? (International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions, December 2002)
Work
and Family Project (National Employment Law Project)
Worker
Protection: Department of Labor's Efforts to Enforce Protections
for Day Laborers Could Benefit from Better Data and Guidance
(U.S. General Accounting Office, 2002)
Información en español
2000 Guia
de Respuesta en Caso de Emergencia (U.S. Department
of Transportation, Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of
Communications and Transportation of Mexico)
Asbesto
en la Construcción (El Centro de Protección
de los Derechos de los Trabajadores)
Biblioteca
Electrónica de Salud y Seguridad Ocupacional en la
Construcción (Center to Protect Workers' Rights)
Calidad
del Aire Interno (Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union,
1992)
Centro
Internacional de Informacion sobre Seguridad y Salud en el
Trabajo (Organizacion Internacional del Trabajo - International
Labour Organization)
Centro
Panamericano de Ingeniería Sanitaria y Ciencias del
Ambiente (Pan American Health Organization site with
complete versions in English, Spanish and Portuguese)
Centros
Para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades
(EEUU)
Cierre
con Candado y Etiqueta/Bloqueo (California Division
of Occupational Safety and Health, 1998)
Comite Fronterizo
de Obreros
Cuidándose
y Ayudándose así Mismo Después de un
Desastre (National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder, U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs)
Derechos
del Empleado en el Lugar de Trabajo (Occupational Safety
and Health Administration, 1988)
Eres
Un Joven Que Trabaja? Cosas Que Debes Saber Sobre La Seguridad
Y La Salud En El Trabajo (National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health)
Estrés
por sucesos traumáticos: Información para el
personal de emergencia (Instituto Nacional de Salud
y Seguridad Ocupacional)
Exposición
a Patógenos Transmitidos por la Sangre en el Trabajo
(Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 1992)
Información
Sobre Riesgos de Los Productos Químicos (Occupational
Safety and Health Administration, 1989)
Información
Sobre Riesgos Normas de Cumplimiento (Occupational
Safety and Health Administration, 1989)
Instituto
Sindical de Trabajo Ambiente y Salud
Lastimaduras
en la Espalda (Center to Protect Workers' Rights, 1997)
Lesiones
en la Espalda (El Centro de Protección de los
Derechos de los Trabajadores)
El
Manejo de Equipaje (Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, 2002)
Manual
de Control de Estrés (Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union, 1995)
Manual
de Seguridad con la Electricidad (Retail, Whlesale
and Department Store Union, 1994)
Prevención
de la Violencia en el Trabajo: Enfoque de la Unión
(Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, 2000)
Proyecto
de los Trabajadores Latinoamericanos
Recursos en Español (U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency)
Títulos
en Español (E.E.U.U. National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, National Agricultural Safety
and Health Database)
Trabajadores
Inmigrantes de California Toman la Palabra y se Expresan Acerca
de la Salud y Seguidad en el Centro de Trabajo (UCLA-Labor
Occupational Safety & Health Program, 2002)
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Safety and health news concerning immigrant
workers and other vulnerable workers |
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The New New Yorkers: at
Salons, Trouble Is in the Air: Effects of Exposure to Toxic Chemicals
Will Be Examined in a Survey of Korean Nail Workers — It began with a runny nose and
red, irritated eyes, but then came the coughing. Before long,
Soonok Kim was having trouble breathing. A doctor diagnosed her
with severe asthma, which she believes was likely the product
of more than a decade spent working at nail salons with little
ventilation and lots of chemicals.  (Newsday, March 24, 2004)
Outreach Focuses on Workers' Rights, Safety: Work Place Health
Disparities Increasing among Hispanics — While rates
of occupational injuries, illnesses and fatalities have been
falling in the United States for most populations, such incidents
continue to rise for Hispanic workers, particularly immigrants.
The issue is especially difficult to tackle, as such workers
confront numerous barriers to standing up for their health and
rights as workers. (The Nation's Health, March
2004)
Day
to Day, but Making a Living — You've seen them
or men like them: Gonzalo Javier and eight others standing on
the sidewalk in front of a paint store in Woodside, Queens, waiting
for a contractor to drive up and offer them a day's work. But
how many paint stores and how many Gonzalo Javiers are there
around New York City? In the first attempt to survey the informal
system that provides workers for painting, landscaping, construction
and housekeeping jobs, a study has found that 6,000 to 8,000
day laborers regularly congregate at 57 places in the metropolitan
area. The study, which surveyed 290 day laborers last summer,
also found that they earn, on average, $9.37 an hour in the spring
and summer and $7.61 an hour during the slower winter months.
(New York Times, April 11,
2003)
China's Workers Risk Limbs in Export Drive
— YONGKANG, China — In his 17 days of molding
tool boxes, Wang Chenghua learned to work like a metronome. He
slipped strips of metal under a mechanical hammer with his right
hand, then swept molded parts into a pile with his left. He did
this once a second for a 10-hour shift, minus a half-hour lunch.
Just before lunch on the 18th day, he lost the beat. The hammer,
backed by 4,000 pounds of pressure, ripped through the middle
and ring fingers of his right hand, reducing them to pulp. (New York Times, April 7,
2003)
City Takes On Day Laborers: Long-Festering
Labor Problem Comes Out In Hearing — With some of
them wondering what took so long, City Council members Wednesday
began tackling the issue of what to do about day laborers —
the immigrants who wait on street corners around the city for
work. “I’m amazed at the years and years and years
that this has existed,” said Helen Sears, a Democrat whose
district takes in parts of the Roosevelt Avenue day laborer strip
in Queens. (Newsday, January 16, 2003)
Report
Finds Widespread Non-Reporting of Workplace Injuries by Immigrant
Workers
— A new report based on detailed interviews
with immigrant workers in Los Angeles documents that almost all
the workers are concerned about getting injured or made ill by
workplace conditions, but more than a third of the workers who
had experienced work-related injuries and illnesses had not reported
them to their supervisors or employers. The report, which was
produced by the Labor Occupational Safety and Health program
at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA-LOSH), the
UCLA-LOSH Program, is based on an in-depth study of 75 immigrant
workers in six industries -- day labor, domestic work, garment
work, homecare, hotel and restaurant work -- in Southern California. (NYCOSH
Update on Safety and Health, January 8, 2003)
For
Day Laborers, Another Dollar Could Mean Another Death
— Driving down Conklin Street in Farmingdale that morning,
you would hardly have noticed Juan Oliva. He was standing in
one of those clutches of immigrants that sprout on street corners,
hoping to snag a day's work from a passing contractor. In that
way, he was thoroughly ordinary. So was the job he got. Mr. Oliva,
21, and three other men were offered $90 each to load onto a
truck dozens of heavy 4-by-10-foot sheets of particleboard from
a store that was closing. That afternoon two weeks ago, 600 pounds
of board fell on Mr. Oliva, killing him. (New York Times, December
1, 2002)
Through Workers' Eyes, a Different City: Unseen America
Project Lets Immigrants Tell Their Own Stories —
One photographed chairs because she rarely sat down. Another
took pictures of a steaming cup of coffee because he usually
worked out in the cold. And one woman clicked as her 25-year-old
son got his hair trimmed because her work had kept her from
seeing him get his first haircut when he was a child. The images,
stunning in their simplicity, tell stories. They are the sometimes
personal, sometimes poignant and always illuminating tales of
dozens of faceless janitors, nannies and day laborers given
cameras by their union and urged to make pictures. (Washington Post, November 25, 2002)
GAO Says
Protections for Day Laborers Limited by DOL's Enforcement Procedures — The Labor Department's investigative
procedures make it difficult to detect violations of wage and
safety laws on behalf of day laborers, according to a report
released Sept. 27 from the General Accounting Office. The report,
solicited by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), said day laborers
appear to have characteristics that make them the most vulnerable
to workplace abuses, including limited education skills and significant
language barriers. In addition, many day laborers are undocumented
immigrants, which can inhibit their willingness to complain of
poor working conditions or unpaid wages, according to GAO. (Daily Labor Report, October
1, 2002)
Contractor on L.I. Is Charged With
Cheating Day Laborers — A Long Island construction
contractor was arrested this morning on charges that he refused
to pay four workers $8,360 in promised wages. The state attorney
general's office said it was the first time it had filed criminal
charges against an employer for failing to pay immigrant day
laborers. (New
York Times, June 13, 2002)
Trabajadores
sin protección
— "Todos sabemos que los trabajadores inmigrantes deberían
estar mucho más protegidos de los peligros por medio de
una reglamentación fuerte, en vez de una promesa para
implementar directrices voluntariamente", dijo Omar Henríquez,
coordinador de programas para la juventud y para los inmigrantes
de NYCOSH. NYCOSH, un comité que trabaja en favor de la
seguridad y salud de los obreros representa a más de 250
sindicatos, ambientalistas y activistas que trabajan por la salud
y la seguridad de los trabajadores en su lugar de trabajo. Funcionarios
de la administración Bush dijeron el viernes que las directrices
a seguir para reducir los accidentes de trabajo en industrias
no especificadas deberán ser adoptadas voluntariamente
por los empresarios. (Hoy, 8 de abril de 2002)
Deaths of Hispanic Workers Soar 53%
— The Labor Department is intensifying efforts to stem an
alarming rise in workplace deaths among Hispanics. Such deaths
were up 53% in 2000 from 1992. Meanwhile, deaths dropped 10%
for non-Hispanics, the latest data show. Fatalities fell in most
of the nine years among non-Hispanics. But they rose steadily
for Hispanics. (USA Today, March 25, 2002)
NYCOSH Testifies at U.S. Senate Education and
Labor Committee Hearing in Washington — In a Senate
hearing room crowded with immigrant workers, senators heard about
workers who have fallen to their deaths, been exposed to toxic
chemicals and toiled on farms without access to drinking water
or bathrooms. "We are treated like garbage," said You
Di Liao, in testimony to Senate subcommittee on employment, safety
and training. (NYCOSH Update on Safety
and Health, March 1, 2002)
"Dreams Flourish–Then Perish: Lured by Dollars,
Many Immigrants Find Death in Dangerous Jobs — They
were two young men from the mountains of El Salvador who came
to America with the same dream -- to earn enough for a better
life for their families. Instead, they died in America's garbage."
— That is the lead of a series of articles about the high
risk of injury, illness and death faced by immigrant workers
in the U.S., published in Newsday in July 2001. The complete
series is posted on the Center for Public Integrity's website.
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