Page 5 - Work Force May 2016

Warning: Right-to-work could be hazardous to your health
States that have adopted so-called right-to-work laws, where paying union dues is voluntary, show higher incidents of on-the-job injuries and risks to workers.
A recent analysis of the coal mining industry shows stark evidence that on-the-job safety goes hand in hand with belonging to a union.
According Harvard University’s Kennedy School Review, Stanford Law School Professor Alison Morantz studied the relationship between coal mine safety and unionization from 1993 to 2010.
May 2016
“Using historical data from
the Mine Safety and Health Administration, Morantz found that unionization predicted
a substantial and significant decline in fatalities and traumatic injuries. For traumatic injuries,
this difference ranged from 13
to 30 percent, while 28 to 83 percent fewer fatalities occurred.
If unionization were a prescription medication and Pfizer got its hands on this data, you can bet you would hear ‘talk to your doctor about unionization’ in every timeout during Monday night football,” Danyaal Raza wrote in
the Kennedy School Review article. In an ironic twist, Raza noted
that Morantz’ study found higher reported injury rates in unionized mines. She credited that to tougher reporting requirements in union workplaces, or higher rates of injury reporting, than in non-union workplaces.
The reverse of this phenomenon can be found in non-union work sites that employ what some call “safety bingo” or behavior-based safety programs. A running tally is often kept at the front door or gate of the work site that notes how many days have passed since there
was an injury on the job.
The problem with this sort of
promotion is it puts pressure on the employee not to report an injury, which means more workers are working injured to please the company owner.
Having a union will not end difficult, hazardous and dangerous work, but it will ensure that workers will have somebody watching their back and ensuring the employer does not take shortcuts when it comes to preserving occupational safety and health.
— Lou Hmieleski
The Work Force 5