PEP, January 2006: DC 37 battles for job safety

By JANE LaTOUR

DC 37’s Safety and Health Dept. works closely with officers and members of the union’s 56 locals to improve working conditions. The department’s small staff also works in coalition with other unions and advocates, such as the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, to address vital issues such as protecting members from workplace violence and reforming the state Workers’ Compensation system.

They provide expert testimony, document violations in worksites, recommend corrective action, provide training and represent DC 37 members on the Citywide Safety and Health Committee. Some highlights from the last year give a glimpse of the union’s 24/7/365 activism on the safety and health front.

When a speeding SUV crashed through a Transportation Dept. worksite and killed DC 37 member Nick Antico in September, the Safety Dept. went to work with the officers of Locals 376, 983, and 1455. They have been meeting with DOT to evaluate and improve job site safety measures while the Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau of the state Labor Dept. conducts its official investigation.
A sustained campaign on safety issues succeeded in turning the Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services in the right direction. DCAS responded to the work of the Labor-Management Committee on Safety and Health by hiring a safety officer. The new director of training is now responsible for carrying out all the training programs the agency was mandated to do — but hadn’t done.
Worksite inspections are ongoing. A walk-through inspection of the new mortuary operated by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner at Queens Hospital Center provided an opportunity to correc t conditions before the site opened. Members of Locals 420 and 983 participated in the April walk-through and added their expertise to the process.
When the state safety and health bureaucracy was slow to respond to horrible conditions within New York City’s court system, Local 1070 mounted a campaign to publicize members’ workplace horrors. Members took to the streets in April to protest, and the Safety Dept. pressed the state Labor Dept. to take action. The Office of Court Administration and DCAS, which are responsible for the unsafe and filthy conditions, have made only minor improvements.
Safety and health staff try to prepare members to cope with the inadequacies of the Workers’ Comp system if they are sick or injured. Many DC 37 locals have received training on how to navigate the system, including CUNY and Educational Opportunity Centers Local 384, which held a daylong session in December.A conference at DC 37, co-sponsored by NY-COSH and open to members of all unions, provided a platform for Workers’ Comp attorneys and injured workers who’ve been through the system to share their expertise and point out pitfalls to avoid.
Training geared to the specific concerns of any group of workers can be provided. Activists from Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549 had three separate occasions in 2005 to take advantage of the expert training provided byNY-COSH and Safety and Health Dept. staff in workshops on issues such as indoor air pollution and members’ contractual rights to a safe and healthy workplace.
Hospital workers, clerical workers and social service workers are some of the many public employees facing increasing levels of violence on the job. The union demonstrated the need to protect public sector employees from violence at work and mounted an ambitious campaign that convinced the New York State Legislature to pass a protective law. Claiming it had “technical defects,” Gov. George E. Pataki vetoed the bill. Together with DC 37 locals and the Political Action Dept., the Safety Dept. will be working hard to enact the legislation in 2006.