The Need for Safe Green Jobs

In his first speech as newly appointed OSHA chief about the dramatic growth in green, environmental jobs, David Michaels issued a warning: “Employers who race into this green economy without paying attention to worker safety will blunder into many preventable injuries and deaths.”

With a new grant from the National Institute Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), MassCOSH has teamed up with the New England Consortium (TNEC) to try to stem the “blunders,” providing essential safety training to workers employed in green and other new jobs funded with federal stimulus dollars.

“From fall risks for rooftop solar power installers to lead and asbestos hazards for weatherization workers, the jobs that are being expanded in our state and nationally have a host of hazards,” said MassCOSH’s new labor educator Eugene Binda, who was hired by MassCOSH to launch the green jobs safety training initiative as well as conduct outreach to area unions to identify other safety training needs. Binda worked for the Boston Globe as a newspaper pressman for thirty years, as a Shop Steward and Health and Safety Committee member for the Boston Newspaper Printing Union Local 3N and a safety trainer for the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

“Safety and health training is an essential part of ensuring we have a workforce well prepared to do these jobs,” Binda said.

With much of the federal stimulus dollars going to transportation system construction, restoration, repair, and renovation projects, MassCOSH and TNEC are providing the training to state agencies and municipalities, from departments of public works in Somerville and Littleton to a number of local highway departments. Along with safety training, MassCOSH and TNEC trainers will provide instruction that protects workers against health risks resulting from exposures to hazardous materials and wastes.

As OSHA head Michaels has said, “It's not a matter of choosing either a green future or safe jobs. It's both. It's all or nothing, and NIOSH, OSHA and everyone else needs to play a role in building this sustainable economy - an economy that will provide sufficient jobs, green jobs, and jobs that are safe for all workers.”

Meanwhile, Binda and other TNEC trainers will be busy training workers so they can identify and work to eliminate hazards and eliminate preventable injuries and deaths.