Workers Memorial Day 2022: What are the BCTGM’s Health & Safety Priorities?
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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28 Apr Workers Memorial Day 2022: What are the BCTGM’s Health & Safety Priorities?

Posted at 11:53h in Uncategorized by

The International Union has always made the health and safety of its members its highest priority.
The pandemic, and the increased focus on America’s workplaces, gives the Biden-Harris Administration a unique opportunity to begin a meaningful transformation of the American workplace into something healthier, safer, more sustainable and more productive.
BCTGM members deserve a workplace where deaths, illness and injuries are reduced to their lowest levels possible. Workplaces with lower injury rates also have reduced medical costs, less time lost from work, lower training costs and higher productivity.
To that end, the BCTGM will continue to focus on several key areas that BCTGM members have identified as key priorities:

Strengthen Safety Laws and Regulations
The majority of the country’s safety laws were drafted and implemented in the 1970’s and need to be updated to account for new technologies, chemicals and work systems.
New regulations on combustible dust, ergonomics, and _ need to be passed immediately.
OSHA’s Injury and Illness Reporting system needs to be modernized, made more transparent, and employers must be held accountable for keeping accurate records.
Safety Enforcement
OSHA needs the proper tools to be able to effectively regulate and enforce the nations safety laws. Specifically, OSHA must:
• Bolster oversight of state OSHA plans to ensure they equal, or are better than federal OSHA rules and regulations.
• Increase the number of inspectors and inspections.
• Increase fines for employers, especially those that have a history of ignoring safety laws.
• Hold company CEO’s and Boards of Directors responsible for the safety of their businesses.

Sensible Standard-Setting Process

The current process to pass a standard takes too long and is too cumbersome. A streamlined process needs to be made available to allow for the rapid creation of new standards.
Very few new regulations have been passed into law despite a completely transformed work environment. New regulations that deal with nanotechnology, _ must be introduced.

Input From Workers
Workers need to be part of the regulation-creation process. Workers, not white-collar managers, understand the work process best and can identify hazards and how those hazards can be eliminated or reduced. Too often, the voices of workers and their union representatives are left out of the standard-setting process.

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