Multimedia Resources that Support
Workers Taking Action
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Strategies to address problems at work can take many different forms, and LOHP collaborated with five worker organizations to create web-based stories showing strategies workers used to demand better protections during the COVID-19 pandemic – and get positive results.
“Across the five stories you learn about a variety of strategies: workers asking their employers for changes; organizing work stoppages; doing door-to-door outreach and community events; filing complaints with public health departments, Cal/OSHA, and the courts; community members supporting workers through petitions, protests, and fundraisers; and workers talking to investors about their working conditions,” says Alejandra Domenzain, LOHP Program Coordinator. “Although these are focused on COVID-19, the strategies can be used to address any health and safety issue.”
The web-based stories include videos, a timeline of key events, and links to relevant resources. “Our goal was to capture these truly inspirational stories about workers in retail, fast food, food processing, agriculture, and restaurants and create practical ‘how to’ pieces that others could learn from and use. The videos feature workers and organizers talking about how they carried out the strategy and what made a difference. The timelines include actual letters, complaints, petitions, and other materials they used,” says Suzanne Teran, LOHP Program Coordinator.
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The Young Worker Leadership Academy's (YWLA) mission to build youth leaders and advocates for safe workplaces remains more important than ever. The leadership academy introduces participants to various 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. This year we held a hybrid academy including interactive Zoom sessions and an in-person day for the Northern California teams at UC Berkeley and Southern California teams at UCLA, with the Labor Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) Program.
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YWLA 2022 hosted teams from Brentwood, Orosi High School, North Monterey County High School, Nava College Prep High School, and Central High School in Los Angeles. Four Youth Mentors, who are returning alumni of the YWLA, took a leadership role by facilitating activities and mentoring teams.
Team Spotlight: One of the YLWA teams, the Social Engineering Team, was made up of teens from Drew High School, Pittsburg High School, and Heritage High School. Their feedback describes some of the ways in which YWLA has an impact:
"I feel a lot more comfortable knowing what my rights are and what resources are available. I feel more secure and like I can be a resource for my friends that are already working. It's been really fun to work with my team and meet other people!" - Lauren
"YWLA has been a really great experience! I walked into this thinking it might not be interesting but it's been so engaging that it has me excited to learn more about workplace rights, safety and to get a job myself." - Lea
"It's been really great learning about the laws around work. I didn't know that if it's a school day there is a limit to how many hours a young worker can work. I'm looking forward to learning about what other high schoolers know about young worker safety through our project."- Catalina
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May is Safe Jobs for Youth Month! |
Every May, LOHP coordinates an annual public awareness campaign that highlights the importance of preventing young workers from getting injured on the job.
The goal is to protect young workers from injury by raising community awareness about child labor law protections and workplace health and safety issues.
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Promoting Worker Engagement with Cal/OSHA |
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As the pandemic started, LOHP and the National Employment Law Project (NELP) partnered on a project funded by the Workers Lab Innovation Fund to improve collaboration between two crucial players in efforts to protect workers’ health and safety: Cal/OSHA and worker organizations.
In conducting inspections and enforcement, Cal/OSHA may struggle to connect with workers who may not speak English, fear employer retaliation, and are wary of talking to government staff– especially when they are undocumented. Worker organizations such as unions and worker centers are a trusted source of information for diverse worker communities and can provide linguistically and culturally competent support. Closer collaboration could help encourage workers to participate in enforcement activities.
“Together with NELP, we brought together worker organizations that have filed Cal/OSHA complaints to identify challenges and strategies for collaboration. We heard from senior Cal/OSHA staff that it’s helpful for them to hear directly from workers and organizations,” says Alejandra Domenzain, LOHP Program Coordinator.
In January, LOHP organized an all-day workshop for Cal/OSHA regional managers and senior engineers to hear about worker organizations’ experience with filing Cal/OSHA complaints. Worker centers and unions reaching farmworkers, janitors, and workers in warehouses, supermarkets, and airports suggested best practices the agency could adopt to conduct investigations that recognize and encourage the central role of worker participation. “For example, recommendations included communicating more with worker organizations filing claims, conducting worker interviews away from the worksite, strengthening language access, and incorporating information on best practices in training for new hires,” says Laura Stock, LOHP’s Director.
LOHP and its partners plan to continue this work with Cal/OSHA staff to explore how to integrate promising practices into the orientation for new hires.
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Every year on April 28, Workers Memorial Day is observed to remember the thousands of workers who died on the job, mostly in preventable incidents. LOHP’s mission is to do everything we can to prevent these deaths and promote safe, healthy, and just workplaces. In the coming weeks, we will post information on our website and socials about California events or actions to commemorate this Day. |
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Training employers of workers with intellectual or developmental disabilities |
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Grocery workers training: activity on COVID-19 hazards |
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Here is a glimpse at some of our recent work: |
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Conducted a 7-hour hybrid training,"Problem-Solving for Safety," for pre-apprentices in Jewish Vocational Service's (JVS) Civil Services Pre-apprenticeship Program, which prepares machinists and mechanics for future work in the water industry or in automotive work.
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Conducted a workshop on COVID-19 protections with day laborers at the Mountainview Day Worker Center.
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Partnered with UFCW on a series of trainings with grocery workers in their NorCal Meat Cutter Apprenticeship program, on COVID-19 protections and workers’ rights.
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Conducted two WOSH Specialists classes, each carried out over 4 half-day sessions, and trained 46 workers who came from a variety of industries including state and local government agencies, non-profit organizations, health care, agriculture, and union locals.
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Collaborated with the Department of State Hospitals and Cal/OSHA Consultation Service to train health and safety officers around the state on Cal/OSHA's Injury and Illness Prevention Program standard.
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Conducted a training for employers of workers with intellectual and developmental disabilities on how to use the Staying Safe at Work curriculum to teach their workers key health and safety skills.
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COVID-19 and Schools Fact sheet - Fact sheet focuses on employee rights and protections under Cal/OSHA, as well as other statewide requirements for schools to protect their employees.
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Day Laborer Employer Fact sheet (English) (Spanish) - Best practices for those who hire day laborers.
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Taking Action Toolkit - Guide, in English and Spanish, that includes resources to help workers, unions, worker centers, and other organizations think about the range of options for resolving problems at work and tips for implementing specific strategies.
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Our mailing address is:
University Hall, Suite 451
2199 Addison Street
Berkeley, CA 94720-7360
Contact Info:
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Interested in Training from LOHP?
Click here for more information and a list of upcoming trainings
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