COSH Network in the News

  • Business Insurance

    Nonfatal occupational injuries up 7.5% in 2022: BLS

    8 Nov 2023

    “Workers more than anyone understand their jobs and worker-centered solutions lead to the most effective safety reforms that can prevent injuries and illnesses before they happen,” National COSH Co-Executive Director Jessica Martinez said in a statement. 

  • Washington Post

    This county could create the strictest workplace heat rules in the U.S.

    6 Nov 2023

    “Workers are not disposable, so they need urgent protections … in particular in areas such as Miami-Dade where 1 in 4 workers work outdoors,” said Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of the National Council of Occupational Safety and Health, a worker advocacy group affiliated with WeCount. Data from the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that 26 percent of the county’s workforce, or more than 300,000 people, work outdoors.

  • Public Health Watch

    Arizona’s Construction Workers Face Growing Risks Amid Rising Heat and a Real Estate Boom

    1 Nov 2023

    “Heat illness is one of the most preventable conditions in a workplace environment,” said Peter Dooley, a Tucson-based safety professional for the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH). “The solutions are simple: water, rest, shade. But there needs to be a program in place to prevent it.”

     

  • Alaska's News Source

    After workplace violence hits Anchorage, experts emphasize best safety practices

    26 Oct 2023

    Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, the co-executive director for the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, says there’s been a significant number of workplace homicides at rental apartments across the nation over the last several months.

  • The World

    A new underground gig economy is booming in New York City as migrants wait for work permits

    28 Sep 2023

    Wage theft is not uncommon for immigrants to experience, said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, Co-Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health

  • Every Child Thrives

    Reflecting on Labor Day and the state of low-wage workers

    12 Sep 2023

    For children to thrive, their parents need access to living wages, safe working conditions and predictable schedules. Three W.K. Kellogg Foundation grantees organizing around these issues are the National Council for Occupational Health and Safety (National COSH), Jobs With Justice, and National Black Worker Centers.

  • Phoenix News Times

    Sky Harbor workers complain of hellish conditions, low wages

    14 Sep 2023

    Katelyn Parady from the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health was among the people who spoke on Sept. 6 as Sky Harbor workers announced a complaint they filed with Arizona’s safety watchdog.

  • New Hampshire Public Radio

    New England workers face extra hazards from heat and few specific workplace protections

    7 Sep 2023

    The National Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health has a list of worker-demanded heat protections, including access to cool-down areas below 82 degrees.

  • AFGE Newsletter

    AFGE Urges Locals to Monitor Temperature, File Heat Hazard Complaint if Necessary

    5 Sep 2023

    The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) is leading a campaign to push OSHA to quickly develop a heat standard.

  • In These Times

    Will the Clean Energy Auto Economy Be Built on Factory Floors Riddled With Toxic Chemicals and Safety Hazards?

    30 Aug 2023

    “In a just transition to production of climate-friendly modes of transportation, the best practices for ensuring worker health and safety should be enshrined as a matter of standard corporate (and public) practice in union contracts,” Michael Felsen, who worked as an attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor for nearly four decades and now serves as an advisor for the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, tells In These Times. ​“We urgently need a rapid transition to safe energy alternatives, but we cannot allow worker health and safety to be sacrificed in the process.”

  • Yahoo! News

    Did the ‘Great Resignation’ Spawn ‘Hot Labor Summer’?

    25 Aug 2023

    “This Labor Day, we think it’s essential to focus on what’s needed to make all jobs safe and secure,” Jessica E. Martinez, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), said. The federation includes 26 grassroots worker groups and a broad community of unions, workers’ centers, health and safety professionals, academic specialists and non-profit advocates, and promotes training and support for worker organizing and advocacy.

  • MedPage Today

    Laboring in 90 Degrees, Indoors: Workers Push for Action on Heat-Related Illness

    10 Aug 2023

    But OSHA really isn't working fast enough, said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, at the press conference. "The OSHA normal standard-making process is extremely lengthy," she said. "These rules can take 7 years, and that's too long, because how many workers will die in the meantime?"

  • Business Insurance

    Responses mixed to federal heat safety measures

    9 Aug 2023

    “It’s important … that the president recognizes there’s an urgent issue,” said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. “In some ways there’s a risk of this announcement creating some confusion about what’s needed. What’s really needed is a standard, and fast.”

  • EHS Today

    Safety Group Says Government Heat Protection Efforts for Workers Isn't Enough

    1 Aug 2023

    On  July 28, leaders of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) said that modest steps announced by the White House to protect workers from extreme heat are insufficient.

    “Tragically, workers are getting sick and dying every day from the extreme heat driven by climate change,” said Jessica E. Martinez, co-executive director of National COSH, in a blog post on the organization’s website. “This is no time for modest steps. The President, Congress, federal OSHA and state and local officials must take bold action now, to reduce risk and save lives.”

  • HR Dive

    Biden taking steps to protect workers from extreme heat

    28 Jul 2023

    Advocacy groups, like the National Council of Occupational Safety and Health, have called for a national standard protecting workers from climate change’s effects, including smoke, heat stress and severe weather events, like wildfires— as the country continues to deal with extreme heat and air pollution from wildfires in Canada and the western U.S.

  • Bay Today

    White House escalates extreme-heat efforts as record July marks 'global boiling' era

    28 Jul 2023

    Not good enough, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health complained Friday. 

    "Workers are getting sick and dying every day from the extreme heat driven by climate change," said co-executive director Jessica Martinez



    The group called on Biden to order an emergency temporary standard to better protect workers from heat stress, establish a more stringent permanent threshold for protections and urge states to impose their own rules. 

    "This is no time for modest steps."

  • KQED

    Lawmakers Push for National Heat-Related Worker Protections Amid Scorching Temperatures

    28 Jul 2023

    All employers nationwide are already required to take steps to protect workers from any known hazards on the job. But issuing heat-specific regulations would clearly outline employers’ responsibilities, said Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, which advocates for safer workplaces.

  • Big Arizona Media

    Tips for Arizona workers on staying safe in the extreme heat

    24 Jul 2023

    “Federal law is crystal clear,” said Katelyn Parady, a Phoenix-based worker health and safety professional with National COSH. “Employers are required to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards – and that definitely includes the very dangerous hazards created by current record-breaking temperatures here in Arizona.”

  • People's World

    Republicans hate workers, schools, children, teachers and people of color

    20 Jul 2023

    The Republican money bill also reduced OSHA by more than $100 million, drawing criticism from Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of the National Council on Occupational Safety and Health. Martinez called the cuts “dangerous to workplace safety…heartless and ill-advised.”

  • Stateline

    Workers lack protections when wildfire smoke makes the air dangerous

    18 Jul 2023

    Like all worker protections, these rules aren’t foolproof: Both labor and business groups have criticized aspects of their implementation. Neither California nor Oregon requires employers to offer more paid breaks on smoky days, a provision unions had requested, said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, the co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, which advocates for workers’ rights.