Fighting for your health and safety

By Kevin Ferreira
Executive Director, Sacramento-Sierra’s BCTC

As we celebrate another Workers’ Memorial Day here in Sacramento, I want to remind everyone that protecting safe and fair work environments is a critical part of what we do here at the Sacramento-Sierra’s Building and Construction Trades Council. We work in a physically demanding and often dangerous industry, and ensuring that we have the equipment, training and support required to stay safe and healthy is critical.

Throughout history, unions have fought this battle to make work free of injuries and harm—but those protections have been hard won through decades of organizing and fights.

In fact, some of the laws and rules we take for granted were the result of tough union fights.

Take, for example, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970, which unions helped create and pass. It was the first piece of law to establish federal safety standards and created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to enforce them.

Unions also managed to have the “general duty clause” included in that legislation, which requires employers to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards. As well, unions won the right to have union representatives go with OSHA inspectors during inspections, ensuring that workers have a say in oversight. That act fundamentally changed working conditions not just for union members, but all workers.

Unions were also behind the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), signed into law in 1993 after organizing by unions including AFSCME.

This legislation ensures workers have up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year to care for a new child or help with a family illness. Before this, workers could be fired simply for needing extra time to care for their families.

These are just two examples of the ways unions have fought and won to make workplaces safer and more fair. It’s a fight we will continue to have, and win. Your Building Trades Council is committed to the wellbeing of our members and their families, and we will always fight to protect you.