COSH Network in the News

  • Bloomberg Law

    Amazon, UPS Safety Maven Faces OSHA Staffing, Policy Pressures

    14 Feb 2025

    Keeling will be under pressure to take some of these initiatives across the finish line. Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, said her group wants OSHA to adopt a national heat rule.

    “Now more than ever, OSHA must be a strong and proactive agency that enforces safety laws, protects all workers, and moves urgently to adopt critical new standards, including a national heat protection rule,” she said.

  • Documented

    Trump’s Attack on DEI Initiatives Could Put the Kibosh on Immigrant Worker Safety Programs

    4 Feb 2025

    Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), says that by restricting DEI policies, organizations like hers would not be able to effectively reach the most vulnerable workers, like undocumented immigrants who may need workplace training in languages other than English.

  • Chicago Tribune

    State lawmakers move measure aimed at protecting warehouse workers amid complaints that demands for speed hinder safety

    30 Jan 2025

    “Heat is something that a lot of people misunderstand, but high indoor heat is something that we see a lot in this work,” said Jessie Cruz, who represents the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health in Chicago. “This bill is protecting a lot of warehouse workers from unrealistic quotas and hazardous safety conditions, but we would like to see more addressing indoor heat and ergonomics for the workers.”
     

  • The Robot Report

    Miso Robotics refines Flippy Fry Station with AI and partners

    28 Jan 2025

    Attending the fry station is one of the most dangerous jobs in commercial kitchens, noted Miso Robotics. Almost 80% of fast-food employees have sustained burns within the past year, according to a 2024 survey conducted by Hart Research Associates on behalf of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.
     

  • WTOPnews

    From LA wildfires to hurricanes, immigrants help rebuild after disasters. Many may be deported

    16 Jan 2025

    Day laborers hired to clean up homes often don’t have protective equipment or safety training, exposing them to “severe hazardous materials” and dangerous environments, said Jessica Martinez, executive director for the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a network of labor organizations that has trained workers in post-hurricane recovery. She added that Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric also discourages workers from asking for basic resources because they fear being targeted and deported.
     

  • OHS Online

    National COSH Opens ‘Dirty Dozen’ Nominations, Announces COSHCON2025 Location

    9 Jan 2025

    National COSH is accepting nominations for its 2025 Dirty Dozen report and relocating its annual COSHCON conference to Chicago.

  • The Good Men Project

    National COSH on More Than 5,200 Us Workplace Deaths in 2023: To Save Lives, Listen to Workers

    9 Jan 2025

    “We know from long experience that the surest way to make our workplaces safer is to put workers at the center of the conversation,” said Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of National COSH. “Workers know their jobs. They know where the hazards are and how to eliminate them.

  • Risk & Insurance

    US Workplace Deaths Drop 3.7% in 2023: Department of Labor

    6 Jan 2025

    “More than 5,200 deaths on the job is still way too many,” said Jessica Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH). “We are also deeply concerned that Black and Brown workers continue to suffer from a higher rate of occupational fatalities, a sign of the persistent effects of discrimination in our workplaces.”
     

  • EHS Today

    Fewer Workers Died on the Job in 2023

    20 Dec 2024

    "We know from long experience that the surest way to make our workplaces safer is to put workers at the center of the conversation," said Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of National COSH. "Workers know their jobs. They know where the hazards are and how to eliminate them.

  • CNN

    There were 458 workplace murders last year. They’ve become disturbingly frequent

    19 Dec 2024

    “The average third grader gets more training in what to do (with an active shooter) than most workers,” said Jessica Martinez, executive director of the National Council on Occupational Safety and Health, a public interest group."

  • Construction Dive

    Construction fatalities hit highest number since 2011

    19 Dec 2024

    “More than 5,200 deaths on the job is still way too many,” Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, said in a statement.  “We are also deeply concerned that Black and Brown workers continue to suffer from a higher rate of occupational fatalities, a sign of the persistent effects of discrimination in our workplaces.”

  • NYU University Life

    How to Keep Workers Safe When It’s Scorching or Freezing Outside

    16 Dec 2024

    The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health has been training workers and advocacy groups as well. And much more.

  • Long Island Business News

    New OSHA rule: ‘Safety first’ gets a second look

    2 Dec 2024

    The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health has said that allowing workers to select their own third-party experts to accompany inspections ensures that information about workplace conditions can be accurately communicated across language barriers, and may also reduce fear of retaliation from employers.

  • New York Times

    This Florida Farmworker Is 75 and Still Toiling in the Heat

    26 Oct 2024

    His first heat stroke came in 2018, when he lost consciousness and had to be hospitalized. The episode inspired WeCount!, an immigrant and worker advocacy group, to campaign for a local law that would require employers to provide water and rest and shade breaks for Miami-Dade County’s more than 60,000 agriculture and construction workers on excessively hot days.
     

  • Sourcing Journal

    Oxfam Files Formal UN Complaint Against Amazon, Walmart’s ‘Systematic Human Rights Violations’

    17 Oct 2024

    Oxfam is far from the only organization that has tried to take action against Amazon and Walmart; earlier this year, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) named Walmart to its “Dirty Dozen” list, accusing it of “unsafe and reckless” conduct toward its employees.

  • In These Times

    The Race Against the Clock to a Workplace Heat Rule

    18 Oct 2024

    The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), which advocates for abuse- and exploitation-free workplaces, is building on local organizing with a nationwide campaign to pass the federal OSHA rule. It has 20 local affiliates and also serves as a hub for smaller grassroots groups like Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ), a worker center in Illinois. 
     

  • Chicago Tribune

    Recent string of violence at Chicago workplaces raises concerns about employee weapon possession

    11 Oct 2024

    Workplace violence is a “known and dangerous workplace hazard,” particularly in retail environments, said Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.
     

  • Civil Eats

    Battling Meltdown: If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Work for Change in the Kitchen

    7 Oct 2024

    In the interim, workers are fighting for what the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) calls “heat justice.” COSH, a federation of 26 grassroots worker groups, is advocating for a slightly more comprehensive national heat standard than proposed by OSHA. The COSH standard would require workplaces to maintain a maximum temperature of 80 degrees, and if that is exceeded, ensure that workers have access to water and breaks in air-conditioned spaces.

  • OSV News

    At Catholic institutions, unions and employers negotiate tensions for the sake of mission

    4 Oct 2024

    Ascension — the largest nonprofit and Catholic health system in the United States as of 2021, with 140 hospitals in 19 states — has come under fire from the NNU and other labor advocacy groups. In April, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a worker health and safety advocacy group, listed Ascension among its annual “Dirty Dozen” list of employers, alleging poor safety practices and “severe staff cuts” that “create unsafe conditions for patients and workers” in its report.

  • Arizona's Family (CBS Affiliate)

    Labor secretary to visit Tucson as OSHA pushes federal heat protections for workers

    17 Sep 2024

    “It is hard to overstate how life saving this proposal will be if it becomes a rule,” said Katelyn Parady, a Phoenix-based staffer with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.