Labor journalist Kim Kelly, author of “Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor,” was a participant and panelist at the National Conference for Worker Safety and Health (COSHCON2023). Below, she shares her reflections and experience of the event. 

In December, hundreds of workers, organizers, union members and public health experts converged on a conference center just outside of Baltimore to wrestle with some of the biggest issues facing the U.S. working class today. The 2023 National Conference on Worker Safety and Health (COSHCON2023) was held in person at the Maritime Conference Center in Linthicum Heights, MD after several years of convening in a virtual-only setting. One of my primary goals in attending the conference this year was to find out what the nation’s worker health and safety advocates were focused on, and what they saw as the biggest challenges facing workers right now.

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