COSH Network in the News

  • The Progressive Magazine

    This Labor Day, Support the Union Wave

    1 Sep 2022

    That’s just one of the preventable hazards faced by workers processing the meats we’ll be sizzling on our grills this weekend. Several of her co-workers, Marielena reports, “hurt themselves lifting because the floors were wet. There were chemicals; they have cuts and the velocity [of the line] is so fast [but] the supervisor comes and yells at us to move faster.”

    Marielena tells her story at WorkedUp, a new platform hosted by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, where we are co-executive directors. WorkedUp highlights testimony from workers standing up for better work conditions. But she prefers not to use her real name due to the very real threat of employer retaliation. 

  • Phoenix Business Journal

    OSHA extends comment period on plan to revoke Arizona's workplace safety oversight

    15 Aug 2022

    Peter Dooley, a safety and health senior project coordinator for the National Council of Occupational Safety and Health, said the additional commenting period gives time to ensure OSHA makes the right decision.

    “Revoking a state plan would be an unprecedented action by OSHA,” Dooley said in a statement. “It makes sense for OSHA to take the time to review all the evidence and get this right, because having Arizona DOSH underperform lowers the bar for the rest of the country – and all workers are paying the price.”

  • HR Dive

    Citing weak enforcement, advocates pitch $100M OSHA funding increase

    13 Jul 2022

    More than a year since President Joe Biden took office, NCOSH has pushed for greater enforcement of workplace safety laws. In 2021, NCOSH leaders criticized OSHA for failing to keep workers safe during the pandemic. In its June letter, the organization also cited a “lack of consistent and aggressive enforcement of existing safety laws” that could prevent hazards such as falls and trench collapses.

  • The Seattle Times

    Union organizing is the answer when unsafe employers don’t reduce risks

    17 May 2022

    Janine Denise Johnson Williams, 50, was one of nine workers who died this past December when a tornado struck Mayfield Consumer Products in Kentucky. She is survived by her husband, four children and 17 grandchildren. Five workers at the Mayfield plant say they asked to leave after severe weather alerts but were told to stay or risk being fired.

    These three preventable deaths are just a few of those that took place at workplaces recognized as this year’s Dirty Dozen unsafe employers by our organization, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH). Each year we release this list to call attention to egregious actions by companies that put workers and communities at risk.

  • The Pantagraph

    Commentary: Organizing to reduce workplace dangers

    17 May 2022

    But in today’s labor market, where employers are dealing with a shortage of workers, the old tricks aren’t working. Workers are standing up to intimidation with bold campaigns at companies like Starbucks, Amazon and Dollar General. Stories from these workplaces and others can be found on workedup.us, a new National COSH platform for workers who are joining together to turn bad jobs into good jobs and good jobs into better ones.

  • The Progressive Magazine

    Organizing to Reduce Workplace Dangers

    17 May 2022

    Janine Denise Johnson Williams, 50, was one of nine workers who died this past December when a tornado struck Mayfield Consumer Products in Kentucky. She is survived by her husband, four children and 17 grandchildren. Five workers at the Mayfield plant say they asked to leave after severe weather alerts but were told to stay or risk being fired. 

    These three preventable deaths are just a few of those that took place at workplaces recognized as this year’s Dirty Dozen unsafe employers by our organization, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. Each year we release this list to call attention to egregious actions by companies who put workers and communities at risk. 

  • Entrepreneur

    New York Lawmakers Seek to Limit Warehouse Productivity Quotas, Targeting Amazon

    2 May 2022

    For the third time this year, Amazon was singled out by the National Occupational Safety and Health Council for its grueling warehouse labor practices and having an injury rate more than double the industry average. Limiting productivity quotas prevents workers from abiding by questionable safety standards and can "ease the bargaining process" when making workplace health claims, Senator Ramos explains in a statement. If the bill is passed, companies would be required to go through an extensive assessment of all conditions and tasks, and face penalties if they fall short in safety standards.

  • Food and Environmental Reporting Network (FERN)

    AG Insider Amazon, Starbucks make workers’ rights group’s ‘Dirty Dozen’

    1 May 2022

    Released in honor of Workers’ Memorial Week, National COSH’s “Dirty Dozen” report is an annual list of “egregious” employers, all of whom are accused of exposing their workers to preventable hazards. Companies are selected based on their prominence and the degree to which they allegedly endangered their employees. This year, nearly half of the companies on National COSH’s list are involved in farming or the food industry, and the report highlights serious labor violations throughout the supply chain.

  • Digital Information World

    Amazon Makes Onto The Unsafe Working Places List For The Third Year In A Row

    30 Apr 2022

    If you are unaware of the workings of COSH or more commonly known as Council for Occupational Safety and Health, then worry not, as they are a national advocacy group regulating and monitoring working conditions in numerous organizations. Their list Dirty Dozen now includes Amazon. While the massive package delivery platform has to say otherwise, the facts and figures prove that they deserve to be on the list, if not at the very top.

  • Law 360

    Amazon, Starbucks Among 'Dirty Dozen' In Job Safety Report - Law360

    28 Apr 2022

    The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health named Starbucks, Amazon, Dollar General and nine other companies in the organization's "dirty dozen" report released Wednesday, which labels 12 businesses it says.

  • Occupational Health & Safety

    National COSH Announces “Dirty Dozen” Employers -- Occupational Health & Safety

    28 Apr 2022

    Yesterday, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) announced this year’s “dirty dozen” employers, companies who have unsafe work practices.

    According to National COSH, in 2020, more than 4,700 workers died because of workplace incidents. It estimates that more than 95,000 workers die every year from long-term exposure to hazards and toxins.

    National COSH announced this during Workers’ Memorial Week, a week to remember those who lost their lives on the job, and one day before Workers’ Memorial Day.

  • Paris Beacon-News

    'Dirty dozen' of America's worst workplaces disclosed

    27 Apr 2022

    The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) revealed this Wednesday its “Dirty Dozen” report, in which it listed the 12 companies that failed to implement workplace safety laws to protect their employees in 2021, a year marked by the pandemic but which also registered several work accidents.

     Jessica E. Martinez, co-director of National COSH, said at a press conference today that those companies “unnecessarily expose workers to preventable hazards, leading to illness, injury and death.”

  • Business Insurance

    Watchdog group slams companies for alleged unsafe working conditions - Business Insurance

    27 Apr 2022

    The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health on Wednesday released its annual report on employers nationwide whose alleged unsafe working conditions have led to deaths or serious injuries, with COVID-19 safety lapses now on its radar.

    While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration identified 1,945 workplace deaths from COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, National COSH said in its report that the number is likely higher, citing a rise in U.S. deaths since 2020.

  • Engadget

    Amazon makes advocacy group's list of most dangerous US workplaces, again

    27 Apr 2022

    Amazon has made a list for the most dangerous workplaces in the US for a third time. The advocacy group National COSH (Council for Occupational Safety and Health) has included Amazon in a "Dirty Dozen" list meant to shame what it sees as the least safe American workplaces of 2022.

    National COSH noted that one of the workers who died was reportedly forced to work while ill as he didn't have enough unpaid time off. It also pointed to worker Jennifer Bates' concerns that the "pace of work" and overall strain contributed to injuries.

  • Yahoo.com

    Amazon makes advocacy group's list of most dangerous US workplaces, again

    27 Apr 2022

    Amazon has made a list for the most dangerous workplaces in the US for a third time. The advocacy group National COSH (Council for Occupational Safety and Health) has included Amazon in a "Dirty Dozen" list meant to shame what it sees as the least safe American workplaces of 2022.

    National COSH noted that one of the workers who died was reportedly forced to work while ill as he didn't have enough unpaid time off. It also pointed to worker Jennifer Bates' concerns that the "pace of work" and overall strain contributed to injuries.

  • People's World

    After decade of defiance, OSHA plans to take over Arizona enforcement

    26 Apr 2022

    The announcement is already drawing cheers from the labor-backed National Council on Occupational Safety and Health and its Arizona affiliate, and, predictably, jeers from the right-wing Republicans on the House Education and Labor Committee, led by notoriously anti-union Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. She called OSHA’s move “a power grab.”

  • Augusta Free Press

    Occupational safety concerns ahead of Amazon Fulfillment Center opening

    7 Mar 2022

    Taking all of this into consideration it comes as no surprise that Amazon landed a spot on the ‘Dirty Dozen’ list of the most hazardous employees in the USA courtesy of the National Council on Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH).

  • Business Insurance

    COVID-19 rules, pandemic fatigue raise workplace violence risk

    2 Mar 2022

    The “COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for employers to take effective measures to reduce risk for workers,” Jessica Martinez, Los Angeles-based co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health wrote in an email. “Every employer has a legal and moral responsibility to provide a safe workplace free from recognized hazards, which certainly includes the hazards of workplace violence.”

  • People's World

    High Court corporate hacks toss worker safeguards against coronavirus

    14 Jan 2022

    In a brief to the court, the AFL-CIO and several unions argued strongly for the OSHA standard and for protecting the health care workers as well. The labor-backed National Council on Occupational Safety and Health had previously blasted the lower court ban on OSHA’s rule. The court majority upheld that ban.

    “It’s shameful and outrageous to see anyone put politics ahead of public health,” National COSH co-Executive Director Marcy Goldstein-Gelb said then.

  • EHS Today

    Everybody Has an Opinion: SCOTUS Shuts Down OSHA’s COVID-19 Mandate

    14 Jan 2022

    Jessica E. Martinez, co-executive director, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH):

    “At a time when the COVID-19 virus is spreading faster than ever, workers will pay the price—with their very lives—for this wrong-headed decision by the Supreme Court. A deeply flawed opinion ignores law and precedent that clearly states OSHA’s authority to protect workers from dangerous conditions. It’s good to know that workers in federally-funded health care facilities will still have protections from COVID-19, but we cannot leave other workers defenseless against a deadly virus. OSHA can and should still require employers to meet their legal and moral obligation to provide a workplace safe from known hazards, which certainly includes infectious diseases like COVID-19.”