Posts Categorized: Legislation and Politics

Earlier this month, John Morawetz from the ICWUC’s Health and Safety Department joined a Congressional roundtable with lawmakers to strengthen safety protections for chemical workers across the country.

“Unions have a proud history of fighting for the right to a safe workplace and for the basic right for workers to return home after a day on the job as healthy as when they left,” Morawetz said to members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at a June 4 roundtable.

In coordination with the UFCW’s Legislative and Political Action Department, Morawetz also testified to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation on March 12. He spoke about the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, which was established in 2007 by the Department of Homeland Security to identify and assess security at high-risk chemical facilities. He also underscored the important role unions play in promoting strong and effective health and safety standards at chemical plants.

“Unions have made sure their members are educated and trained on the safety and health hazards they face on the job,” he said. “Union negotiators bargain over health and safety contract language, actively participate in the investigation and identification of health and safety hazards and testify in support of legislation which strengthens workplace security. Unions are actively involved in making our workplaces safer.”

Morawetz highlighted the importance of the security and safety of workers in chemical plants, speaking from his three decades of experience investigating occupational health hazards. He focused on the measures that will not only protect our country from a terrorist attack, but also minimize the impact to workers and local communities of a hazardous material release resulting from a natural disaster or accident.

He also made four recommendations to the committee that are crucial to the security and safety at chemical facilities, including more worker involvement in chemical plant security, including CFATS inspections; effective training; strengthened protections for whistle blowers; and identifying and disseminating successful practices.

“Chemical workers have direct, current knowledge and experience of plant operations that is invaluable in solving site specific problems,” he said. “Chemical workers know first-hand how a plant works, what chemicals are used, how those chemicals react to one another, their facilities’ weaknesses and the most recent operational changes. We also know if backup systems will work when the power goes out. We know the exact location of the CFATS hazardous materials and we know if training is effective. All these responsibilities make chemical workers the first and best line of defense.”

You can read the full testimony here.

UFCW International President Marc Perrone supported the U.S. House Appropriations Committee for taking steps this month to protect the safety of food and workers at our country’s swine slaughter plants.

With the goal of putting workers and families first, the amendment passed by the committee and championed by U.S. Representatives Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) and David Price (NC-04) aims to halt the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection rule that increases pork plant line speeds and puts American workers and consumers at risk.

The amendment would prevent the USDA from spending funds to implement the rule. Perrone’s statement reads as follows:

“America’s food safety and the safety of the workers who produce our food must never take a backseat to corporate profits. Today’s vote to defund this dangerous line speed rule makes clear that Congress is ready to honor that commitment and the USDA must do the same.

“Increasing line speeds needlessly threatens the quality and health of America’s food supply and cruelly endangers the lives of workers who help produce that food. The proposed USDA rule would dramatically weaken protections that Americans depend on to be able to select safe, healthy food to feed their families every day.

“Our members in pork plants nationwide understand from firsthand experience that the USDA’s proposed rule would hurt workers, consumers, and our economy. We urge the USDA to stop this rule and do its job to protect American workers and consumers.”