Summary on Workers Memorial Day 2006 Event

On Friday April 28 the Workers Memorial Day 2006 Commemoration took place at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center, and was a great success! Nineteen organizations participated in the Resource Tables portion, bringing a wealth of material on environmental health, health services, immigrant workers, local health & safety campaigns, policy & legislation, occupational health, repetitive stress injuries & support and workers compensation.

Attendees had the opportunity to browse the Resource Tables, collect information, and speak to advocates prior to the program. At the front of the venue, a poster project by Amanda Romero, UCLA-LOSH intern, was displayed detailing worker fatalities in California collected through media coverage. Accompanying this display was a slideshow of news headlines of worker deaths in California since April 28, 2005. The event included a ?Memorial for Workers? that invited people to write names of workers they know who have suffered injuries or fatalities.

Charles Burks, President of SoCalCOSH opened the program by giving background on the organization. Linda Delp, UCLA-LOSH and Victor Narro, UCLA Labor Center co-facilitated the program. Kent Wong, UCLA Labor Center, welcomed everyone to the Labor Center space and tied in Workers Memorial Day with the events of May 1, International Workers Day. Field Representatives, Josh Englander and Oscar Garcia, gave support for the event speaking on the behalf the politicians they represent, Assemblymember Paul Koretz and U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman, respectively. Later, Kent Wong introduced Maria Elena Durazo, Interim Secretary-Treasurer, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, who spoke about immigrant workers, workplace injuries and the need to collectively work together continually to see change.

Linda Delp then gave statistics on worker fatalities, including the fact that immigrants, and more specifically Latinos, suffer more workplace injuries and fatalities. In a moment of silence, participants paid respect to workers who have suffered fatal injuries since 2005, and for Mario Vasquez, 25, who died on April 10, 2006 at the Conoco Phillips refinery in Wilmington, when a storage tank roof collapsed during repair.

The program then focused on strategies being used by local organizations to prevent / reduce workplace injuries. Rosalba Mata, UNITE-HERE Local 11 worker-organizer, spoke about the hotel room cleaners? campaign and common injuries they face. Barbara Owens, RN and member of United Nurses Assoc. of California/Union of Health Care Professionals - AFSCME, spoke on the labor-management partnership program being used at Kaiser Hospitals to prevent back injuries common with nurses.

Victor Narro then gave background on the next two organizations with whom he has worked. Jacinto Lopez, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), gave background on the organization and shared details of the Latino and Korean market workers organizing campaign taking place in Koreatown. Lastly, Efraín Martinez, representing the California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. and also a farm worker, spoke about health and safety conditions farm workers and immigrant workers face.

The program closed after inviting any attendees to share other health and safety campaigns and issues.

SoCalCOSH and UCLA-LOSH would like to thank everyone for attending and helping to make the annual event successful!

Notes from the SoCalCOSH meeting of November 18, 2005

Notes from the SoCalCOSH meeting of July 22, 2005

Announcement from SoCalCOSH - Suzan Luu is New Coordinator

My name is Suzan Luu and I would like to introduce myself to you ? I am the new Southern California Coalition for Occupational Health and Safety (SoCalCOSH) Coordinator.  I am looking forward to working with you to bring occupational health and safety issues to the forefront. SoCalCOSH aims to eliminate hazardous working conditions through working with union and community activists, health and legal professionals, students and academic researchers. We are part of a national network of 20 COSH organizations throughout the U.S.

Important issues this coalition plans to work on include ensuring that Cal/OSHA is more accountable to the real issues of working people, exchanging health & safety resources between unions and community organizations, fighting for stronger legislation and regulations, and outreaching for/ co-sponsoring trainings offered by the UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH).

SoCalCOSH is a network of union & community activists ? therefore it wouldn?t work without people like you! We need your energies in reviving SoCalCOSH in the next few months. Soon, we will be holding nominations for the Executive Committee and setting up an Advisory Board. Other ways of getting involved with SoCalCOSH is through the sub-committees which include Outreach, Policy and Education. If you are interested or would like to nominate others to participate, please let us know..

To learn more, please save the date for the SoCalCOSH quarterly meeting tentatively scheduled for Friday, July 22, 2005 at 1 PM.  At this meeting, you?ll meet other activists, discuss current health and safety issues and set priorities for SoCalCOSH.  Please join us to help SoCalCOSH in accomplishing the goal of creating a voice for the health and safety issues faced by the working people of Southern California.