LOHP Stands Against Anti-Asian Racism and Violence |
Our staff share the outrage about the racist attacks on the AAPI community and grieve for those who were killed in Georgia, many of whom were workers who died on the job. As a public health program whose work is centered on the goal of achieving healthy workplaces and communities, we recognize how important it is to focus on eliminating the racism and violence that are deeply entrenched in this country and are root causes of inequities in many forms. Recently Michael C. Lu, Dean of the School of Public Health, issued a statement calling on all of us to join in this collective struggle for social justice. We also want to highlight and share the work and calls to action from two of our partners, Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) and CA Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative. CPA shared this link for multiple ways to get involved.
|
|
In This Issue
LOHP Stands Against Anti-Asian Racism
Protecting Workers from COVID-19
Grocery Workers and the Pandemic
Workers’ Memorial Day
WOSH Specialist in Action
LOHP in the Field
- Young Worker Leadership Academy
- Training with Oakland Unified
COVID-19 Resources
|
|
|
Protecting Workers from COVID-19 |
|
Should I be notified if one of my co-workers has COVID-19? What if my employer isn’t making changes to have 6 feet of distancing? What are my responsibilities as an employer when a worker needs to be quarantined? These are just a few of the questions that workers, worker leaders, union reps, and employers bring to our trainings on the requirements of the Cal/OSHA emergency standard, effective measures to protect workers, and how to advocate if working conditions need to be improved. LOHP is part of the COVID-19 Workplace Outreach Project, which is funded by the CA Labor and Workforce Development Agency and includes a wide network of community and worker organizations doing outreach to workers statewide. “This has been an important collaboration and we are happy to be able to provide training, materials, and technical assistance to reach and better protect essential workers and low-wage, immigrant workers,” says Suzanne Teran, LOHP’s Coordinator for the project. Our work has had an industry focus – in grocery and retail as well as food processing and packing – as well as a broader focus on capacity-building and developing training and resources for workers in any industry. In April, we are launching the Tools and Strategies for Action trainings for worker and community organizations in four regions. Highlights of our recent work include:
|
|
Fact sheet also available in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Punjabi |
What’s Wrong With This Picture? Activity to Identify COVID-19 Hazards |
|
-
Trained 139 employers in grocery & retail and 111 employers in food processing & packing on developing effective COVID-19 Prevention Programs.
-
Trained 113 worker leaders in these same industries – including many UFCW and Teamsters members – to play active roles in identifying hazards and promoting effective solutions and to serve as resources for their co-workers.
-
Collaborated with Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund on trainings for janitors – on vaccines and on COVID-19 safety and workers’ rights.
-
Partnered with San Mateo Labor Council to train union leaders on the Cal/OSHA emergency standard and to train SFO Airport workers.
-
Developed a low literacy fact sheet on the Cal/OSHA emergency standard as well as tools for hazard identification and tracking and for assessing the employer’s COVID-19 Prevention Program. We also have guides to conduct short activities with workers and a Toolkit for Taking Action.
|
|
Grocery Workers Experiences During Pandemic |
|
“It has been challenging. My anxiety level has never been higher when it comes to my job but I do feel proud to be essential during these trying times.” – Grocery worker
Last summer, LOHP teamed up with UCB School of Public Health researchers, Sadie Costello and Carisa Harris-Adams, and UFCW Locals 5 and 324 to conduct a study of grocery workers to learn about their working conditions, employer policies, and physical and mental health status since the pandemic began. Over 1,500 grocery workers participated in an online survey administered in July and August, 2020. Some key findings included:
|
|
Grocery workers believed they are at increased risk because of their job and described increases in workload: 84% of workers reported that they feel that they are at higher risk of getting COVID at their grocery store job than workers in other jobs.
|
|
“I feel unappreciated as we do not get paid for the huge risk that we take by going to work everyday interacting with hundreds of people”
“I’m exhausted, overworked and overstressed to perform a two person job for the wage of one, and I always give them 100% everyday. You're so exhausted by the time your day off comes that you can’t even enjoy yourself, because you're just tired or worn out.”
|
|
|
Workers reported concern over their interactions with customers: 58% reported that it is up to them to enforce COVID-19 prevention measures with customers and 71% feared for their personal safety when engaging with angry customers.
|
|
“While I appreciate what was done by my employer, we are at high risk of infection as well as customer rage/anger.” |
|
|
Workers were under a substantial amount of stress due to their work: 70% reported being nervous, anxious or on edge due to the pandemic with 55% feeling depressed and 36% reporting physical reactions consistent with a panic attack. 70% of grocery workers reported that the demands of their job have increased substantially and nearly a third of workers have considered changing jobs because of the risk of COVID-19 at work.
|
|
“It is difficult and stressful to work with so many new conditions and hearing public opinion about it all day long.” |
|
|
Workers lacked confidence that employers would respond to a COVID-19 case appropriately: More than one in five workers believed that a coworker in their store has had COVID-19 yet almost half of the workers did not think that their employer will notify them or that the store will receive a deep clean if there is an infected worker.
|
|
"I feel so hopeless – at my store there's so many people getting sick with the virus and our store director is trying to cover up everyone that's getting sick. I need somebody to stand up for us.“ |
|
|
Laura Stock, one of the collaborators on the study, describes that “the survey provides a snapshot of conditions in the early stages in the pandemic, which is very useful for us to understand and was helpful to the union. The results were used by UFCW to document the need for new policies to protect workers, and fueled advocacy for AB685 and the new Emergency Temporary Standards for COVID-19 Prevention, both of which passed last year.” |
|
Workers’ Memorial Day - Mourn for the Dead,
Fight Like Hell for the Living
|
|
Workers' Memorial Day – held on April 28 each year – is a time to commemorate those who died on the job and renew our commitment to improving working conditions. Many organizations around the country will be sponsoring a week of activities to raise awareness and call for action to prevent work-related deaths and injuries. Stay tuned for more information on California events – we will post updates on our Facebook page. Check out the National Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health website for resources and information about national plans.
|
|
WOSH Specialist in Action |
|
Danny Borelis sees his participation in a WOSH Specialist course as shaping his trajectory as a health and safety advocate and leader in his workplace. He is the Vice President/Training Director of IATSE Local 16 – a union for technicians working in the entertainment industry – and he describes how the July 2020 course sparked his interest in additional health and safety education. Since then, he has completed both the OSHA 510 and 511 courses and is now on a path to becoming an industry outreach trainer. He cited the engaged teaching style of LOHP trainers as part of his inspiration, saying: “I want to create an environment for hands-on learning.”
Participating in the course also shifted his perspective on his own work environment. “Doing the hazard map drawing, I realized there are so many things we didn’t notice before. As a result, we took the time and set the example and the tone, so that everyone saw the space changed to be more safe.” Borelis has begun holding Safety Thursdays, with 2-3 hour trainings on topics from ladder safety to biological hazards. Through this work, Borelis is challenging an entertainment industry that says “the job is boss,” and wants to create a culture of safety, reminding technicians that “no one is paying you to get hurt.”
Borelis has faced obstacles like hesitancy to change and fear of reduced productivity: “We were building a big scaffold for a commercial job site, and I said ‘we need fall protection.’ There was a little pushback, as commercial companies tend to be low budget – they want it fast and have low overhead.” When they raised concerns that harnesses would slow them down, Borelis replied, “What’s going to slow you down more is when someone falls from 25 feet... Stopping for a few minutes to get a harness is worth it.” As Borelis continues to educate himself and others, he returns to a central theme of worker empowerment and advocacy. “You need worker-level knowledge to be empowered to say something,” said Borelis. “The WOSH Specialist training has been a great addition to our work environment.”
|
The Worker Occupational Safety and Health (WOSH) Specialist course is a leadership training course to prepare workers to take an active role in improving health and safety conditions. Since April of 2020, LOHP has trained over 200 workers in a remote format. For more information on upcoming trainings, please visit: https://lohp.berkeley.edu/trainings/
|
|
Since the spring of 2020, LOHP has shifted to providing training in a remote format via Zoom. The good news is that we have been successful at developing trainings that are interactive and provide opportunities to work in small groups and ensure participation. Interested in training from LOHP? Click here for more information and a list of some of our upcoming programs.
|
|
Here is a glimpse at some of our recent work: |
Partnership with Oakland Unified School District to Reach Immigrant Adults |
LOHP started an exciting new partnership with the Oakland Unified School District’s Adult Education programs to give immigrant adults information about COVID-19 protections. The programs include English as a Second Language (ESL), GED courses in English and Spanish, and Family Literacy. Many of the program’s students are also essential workers and have many questions about their rights at work and vaccination. The workshops, which have been in Spanish and English (with interpretation into Arabic and Chinese), have “been a great way reach immigrant workers who may not be part of unions, worker centers, or community organizations that we usually partner with,” says Alejandra Domenzain, one of the LOHP trainers. Daniel Guerra, one of the OUSD’s teachers, reflects: “Students want to get accurate information from an institution they trust to protect themselves and their families. They also want to bring the information to others.” |
|
Young Worker Leadership Academy (YWLA) |
|
In the past, the YWLA has been an all-expense paid, 3-day leadership training for teens on workplace safety, rights, and responsibilities. This year’s YWLA looked a bit different but, as Yasin Khan, one of the YWLA Coordinators, describes, “its mission – building youth leaders and advocates for safe workplaces – is more important than ever. The leadership academy introduces participants to service strategies (policy, education, media), and provides a forum for youth to plan service-learning projects for their schools and communities to promote positive, safe employment for youth.” |
|
The virtual academy was highly interactive and fun! Check out this video with some highlights of the program. Some of the new virtual activities included a COVID-19 Escape Room, a workshop on Wildfire Smoke and Young Workers, and power mapping for social change. Congratulations to our 4 teams from Nava College Preparatory Academy, North Monterey County High School, John R. Wooden High School and Pueblo Unido CDC on completing the academy! We look forward to seeing their community projects during Safe Jobs for Youth Month, in the month of May. Visit youngworkers.org/ywla to see the community projects of previous teams.
|
|
- Includes a fact sheet on the Cal/OSHA emergency standard – available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Punjabi – as well as tools for hazard identification and tracking and for assessing the employer’s COVID-19 Prevention Program. Coming soon: Short guides to conduct short activities with workers and a Toolkit for Taking Action.
-
-
School Action for Safety and Health (SASH) webinars on ventilation in schools and vaccines.
- This page includes answers to your questions on your rights as a worker, the laws that address COVID-19 and guidelines for how to prevent transmission in the workplace, and an Outreach Toolkit with materials in multiple languages. Employers will find information on how to comply with state and local requirements as well as how to keep employees and customers safe.
- Provides information about the new COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave that went into effect on March 29, 2021.
- Provides information on anti-discrimination protections and employment rights around vaccines.
- Includes tools from the California campaign to do outreach on vaccines in many languages. Will find social media graphics, factsheets, short videos.
- A new report which looks at the working conditions in LA's fast food industry and how this sector is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 transmission, carried out by the UCLA Labor Center in partnership with UC Berkeley Labor Center, UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) Program, and LOHP.
|
|
Our mailing address is:
University Hall, Suite 451
2199 Addison Street
Berkeley, CA 94720-7360
Contact Info:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
