Laboring for Health - cont.

 

In 1939, Carey McWilliams’ book, Factories in the Field, followed by John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, highlighted the desperate conditions of migrant farm workers.

 

How many people know that the long-overdue move to ban smoking in airplanes was the direct result of lobbying by the flight attendants’ unions and the AFL-CIO?

Mine worker safety has always received attention, due to the frequent and dramatic accidents in the mines. The United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund was established in 1946, with the federal government as a party to the agreement. In its wake, new clinics and hospitals were built in the coalfields to deliver health care to miners and their families. Many of the health problems involved black lung disease, and the union was critical in achieving legislation to protect workers from coal dust and to compensate victims. Ironically, this history has not translated into a current clean air policy by the union.

 

In fact, for many unions, health and safety is a double-edged sword that pits public health against the threat of job loss. These days, employers faced with a push for more
stringent health or environmental rules threaten to move to countries with no such legislation, forcing unions to make difficult decisions about their priorities. In 2000, Appalachian coal miners moved to back George W. Bush in the presidential election based on Bush’s promise to revive the coal industry...

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