Lessons Learned:

1

• Lessons Learned

2

• Address immediate needs of immigrant workers
  (jobs, wage theft, immigration issues)
• Integrate HS training with other needs e.g.,
  ESL classes with OSH component
• Recognize that education and training alone will
  not solve the problem Provide support and
  assistance to workers in organizing.

3

• Reach out to workers where they are (dont expect
  them to come to you)
• Tie together multiple issues of concern to
  immigrant workers in a single project (e.g.,
  IDEPSCAs Magic Cleaners project environmental
  concerns, small business development, and worker
  HS)

4

• Gain trust of the community by working through
  trusted members (e.g., promotora projects, peer
  educators.)
• Are honest and frank with community members about
  the limitations of OSHA protectionsdont promise
  more than your organization and OSHA can deliver
  (but promise enough to avoid discouraging people!)

5

• Develop close ties to local/area OSHA offices to
  develop reputation as a reliable intermediary
  between OSHA and immigrant communities.
• Can enable community-based organizations to file
  OSHA complaints on behalf of workers, as in CLEAN
  campaign.

6

• Develop relationships with university researchers
  based on mutual respect work together on
  community-based research projects that build
  credibility and support for the cause with
  reliable data.
• Collaborations between workers and health and
  technical experts through COSH groups experts
  document hazards and research regulations to
  support campaign.

7

• Build relationships with local media people to
  establish reputation as reliable source help
  them reach into the community and tell a story.
• Build coalitions with labor groups,
  environmentalists, faith-based orgs, and public
  health professionals.

8

• MASSCOSH Floor Finishing safety campaign tying
  together immigrant worker SH, environmental
  concerns, and public safety.

9

• Mostly Vietnamese small contractors do floor
  finishing in MA.
• Use dangerously flammable chemicals.
• Responding to tragic and preventable house fires
  that caused three deaths and destroyed dozens of
  homes in Massachusetts, the states Board of Fire
  Prevention Regulations passed new regulations
  that will restrict the use of highly flammable
  wood floor finishing products.

10

• Pressuring local city councils to take action to
  protect worker HS (e.g., Workers Defense Project
  in Austin.)
• Urging local and state representatives to use
  their office as bully pulpit to demand stronger
  protections for workers, even if no jurisdiction.
  (E.g., CLEAN Carwash Campaign.)

11

• Environmental Justice in the Workplace
  immigrant workers disproportionately suffer
  impacts of OSH hazards.
• The right to safe and healthy working conditions
  as a Human Rights issue.
• Demonstrate that unsafe conditions are not just
  an immigrant workers issue but affect all
  working people.

12

• Urge a shift in view of workplace death and
  injury from unavoidable accidents to that of a
  preventable public health problem (as seen in
  shifting perceptions of drunk driving.)