COSH Network in the News

  • Context

    In extreme heat, U.S. looks at worker protection standards

    27 Jun 2025

    More than 69 million U.S. workers are at risk from extreme heat as summer begins, according to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), a network of worker safety organizations that launched its heat campaign last year.

    Brittney Jenkins, a COSH coordinator, has been helping workers prepare their testimony.

  • OHS Online

    Arizona Workers Demand Statewide Heat Protection Standard Amid Soaring Temperatures

    18 Jun 2025

    “Protecting workers is not optional. It is a moral responsibility. If we are good enough to build the houses, clean the buildings, wash the cars, and pick the food, then we are good enough to be protected while we do it,” said Tony Pineda, Advisor for the Josefina Ahumada Worker Center and We Rise! Worker Leader with the National Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH). “We are not asking for anything extravagant. We are asking for water, shade, rest, and respect. We are asking for training and real protections, so we do not have to risk our lives every time we go to work,” he added.

  • Inside Climate News

    US Labor Advocates Demand Heat Protections for Workers as Planet Warms

    17 Jun 2025

    Jazmin Moreno Dominguez, a community organizer and representative of the Arizona Heat Coalition, advocates for worker heat protections in the state. But she didn’t speak at the rally as an organizer. She spoke as a daughter who has feared the summer months for as long as she can remember.

  • KJZZ Phoenix

    Arizona labor groups call for workplace protections from extreme heat

    17 Jun 2025

    The groups call themselves the Arizona Heat Standards Coalition. In a letter to Gov. Katie Hobbs this week, they said they want the Arizona Department of Occupational Safety and Health to adopt heat safety rules for all workers in the state, including requirements for water, shade and rest breaks.

  • OHS Online

    Nationwide Week of Action Launches to Demand Heat Protections for U.S. Workers

    17 Jun 2025

    “Workers are not disposable,” said Brittney Jenkins, National COSH’s Worker and Network Organizer for the Southern Region. “We expect construction workers, farmworkers, and delivery drivers to labor under deadly conditions—without even the most basic safeguards. That is unacceptable.”

  • Every Child Thrives

    Climate change and heat standards at work

    9 Jun 2025

    Jessica Martinez, executive director of National COSH, emphasizes the severity of the situation: “Every year, we tragically lose around 2,000 workers to preventable fatalities and witness over 170,000 injuries and illnesses linked to extreme heat. These staggering figures, while alarming, are likely just the tip of the iceberg.”

  • HR Dive

    Climate change will cost your healthcare plan. Analysts want to know how much.

    5 Jun 2025

    There are also long-term health concerns associated with heat and environmental stressors, such as chronic kidney disease and worsening of conditions like asthma and diabetes, Jessica Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a worker-led advocacy group, said in an email.

  • Feet in 2 Worlds

    The Shifting Immigrant Hustle

    3 Jun 2025

    In the last episode of the season, host Shaka Tafari speaks with three women who work at the intersection of labor and immigration. They discuss the most pressing threats to immigrant workers, as well as the ways immigrants can resist these threats and support one another.

    Our guests include: Mary from Mujeres Inspiradas en Sueños, Metas, y Acciones (MISMA); Saba Waheed, director of the UCLA Labor Center, and Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH).

  • Illinois Answers Project

    ‘Most Drivers Aren’t Making Money:’ App-Based Gig Work Promised Freedom and Flexibility. Workers Feel Exploited and Unsafe.

    27 May 2025

    In fact, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health named Uber and Lyft among the most unsafe employers last year, alongside certain meatpacking, industrial farm and lumber mill companies.

  • KJZZ Phoenix

    Hobbs wants new guidelines to protect Arizona workers from extreme heat

    23 May 2025

    In a statement, Katelyn Parady, with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, said her organization hoped to see the state outline rules for paid breaks and access to water, but also hoped the guidelines would include clear enforcement measures.

  • World Socialist Web Site

    Musk’s gutting of workplace safety and the investigation into the death of Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr.

    20 May 2025

    Two of Musk’s companies made it to the National Council of Occupational Safety and Health’s (COSH) “Dirty Dozen,” a list of the worst workplace safety offenders.

  • America's Workforce Podcast

    The 2025 Dirty Dozen with National COSH Executive Director

    9 May 2025

    Jessica Martinez, Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the statistics of workplace injuries and fatalities, the annual release of the 2025 Dirty Dozen report highlighting negligent employers and the greater challenges faced by immigrant workers in hazardous industries.

  • International Rental News

    Construction safety in limbo as Trump admin shutters federal agency

    7 May 2025

    Jessica Martinez, executive director of National COSH, said, “This is a tragedy. The gutting of NIOSH is a direct assault on workers’ safety, health, and lives. Leading to more death, more injury and less accountability.”

  • In These Times

    Building Bridges and Erasing Jail Debt: Katherine Passley

    1 May 2025

    Labor Organizer of the Year Katherine Passley [of COSH Affiliate Beyond the Bars] is bridging the gap between—and combining the strengths of—labor and criminal justice reform movements.
     

  • KJZZ Phoenix

    Phoenix advocates mourn worker deaths, demand stronger protections from fatalities, injuries

    1 May 2025

    Katelyn Parady with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health said there’s no reason Arizona shouldn’t be leading the nation on heat protections.

  • OHS Online

    Protecting NIOSH

    1 May 2025

    Similarly, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) Executive Director Jessica Martinez added in another statement that “changes to its [NIOSH] structure must not compromise its mission or the well-being of workers.”
     

  • CBS News Miami

    Homestead nursery accused of failing to protect employees on the jo

    30 Apr 2025

    "People have a moral right to water, to shade to rest, to be able to go to work alive and be able to return home to their loved ones..." said Oscar Londoño, Director of COSH Affiliate WeCount

  • Mississippi Public Broadcasting

    For second year in a row, Hattiesburg’s Mar Jac Poultry among nation’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ employers

    30 Apr 2025

    “Mar Jac continues to face significant health and safety and abuse issues, even as recent as 2024 and into 2025. The company has been cited multiple times by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for serious violations, including incidents involving underage workers and fatal workplace accidents,” said Jessica Martinez, Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.

  • Vanguard News Group

    Detained Immigrants Face Forced Labor at GEO Group Detention Centers

    30 Apr 2025

    “Working for The GEO Group while detained at the Golden State Annex was nothing short of forced labor,” one former detainee stated in the National COSH release. “We had no safety training, no protective gear—only punishment if we refused.” The anonymous former worker described being stripped of rights and said collective organizing became essential to defending basic dignity. “No one should be exploited for profit behind bars,” the individual added.
     

  • Miami Herald

    Plant nursery workers stage Homestead march to highlight dangers of extreme heat

    29 Apr 2025

    “We are holding these crosses with much sadness in our hearts because they have the names of human beings who could have been us,” said Alejandro, a member of the worker rights organization WeCount! who declined to provide his last name. “These were hard-working people who went to work one day, just to provide for their families, and never came back home.”

    Marchers also singled out one local nursery included this week on a “Dirty Dozen” annual report produced by a worker advocacy group called the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.