Research, updates, and worker safety resources

For Cecilio Rodriguez, a veteran MBTA janitor, a proposed 30% staffing cut meant 30% more trash to pick up, 30% more vomit to clean, and a 30% increase in having to deal with dirty, used needles. It also meant having to say goodbye to 30% of her co-workers.

Night after night, the man would come to the store where Rebecca worked, asking the teenager to go out with him and making other inappropriate comments. When she asked for help from her boss, he told her to make sure she was nice to the customer.

In 2004, the fatal electrocution of 39-year-old Roger LeBlanc, a Massport electrician, spurred labor unions and MassCOSH to unite behind health and safety legislation seeking to ensure that no other public employee would suffer a similar fate.

Press Statement 10/16/2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, MassCOSH Executive Director cell (617)-642-1878 Patricia Strizak, MassCOSH Health and Safety Trainer cell (516) 509-3602   10/16/2014   BOSTON – With the recent Ebola infection of two nurses in Texas, it is alarming that t...

BOSTON A new WBUR poll finds strong support for a ballot question that would allow every employee in Massachusetts part- and full-time to accrue and use sick time.

Click here to view our 2014-2015 Legal Access Attorney Directory The 2014 MassCOSH Legal Access Attorney Directory is our latest effort to ensure that all workers have the tools and resources to fight against unjust and unsafe working conditions.

Now that school is nearly over, 23 million youth across the US will be heading to work for the summer, said Justin Caballero, a 17-year-old MassCOSH Teens Lead @ Work (TL@W) peer leader. Jobs are important but young people face dangers.

For over 10 years, Marta Medina has helped ensure that the millions of riders who use the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) have clean bathrooms, stairs and elevators. Her work also includes keeping subway maps and signs graffiti free and trash cans empty and sanitary.

For the family of Victor Gerena, January 14, 2014 was the start of a long, painful process from which they will never fully heal. That morning, Gerena was working the night shift for Sea Watch International Seafood in New Bedford when he became entangled in a rotary turbine engine.

Thanks to the time, effort, and generosity of MassCOSH supporters, June marked the passage of major legislation with tangible impacts on all working people in Massachusetts.

Click here for a PDF of: An Act providing benefits for permanent functional loss and disfigurement under the Workers Compensation Act. On May 7, 2012, Sylbert Stewart was working on metal plating when he fell into a vat of chemicals at the Belmont factory where he worked for 14 years.

Retail Store Homicides Highlight Risks Facing Teen Workers; 200,000 Sexual Assaults Each Year David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, said today that teen peer education programs are an effective way to reduce and prevent the hazards of workplace violence.

I WAS saddened to read about the Vermont floor worker who suffered severe burns when the solvent he was using on a laundromat floor burst into flames, reportedly heated by a nearby dryer (Worker hurt in dryer-sparked blaze, New England in brief, June 9).

Click here to view the 2014 Dying for Work in Massachusetts: The Loss of Life and Limb in Massachusetts Workplaces

NEW BEDFORD The death of seafood worker Victor Gerena could have been prevented had Sea Watch International followed safety protocol, according to his mother Ada Garcia. And now, she said, five kids are without a father.