Title: Book Review: Mogensen, Vernon (ed.). Worker Safety Under Siege: Labor, Capital, and the Politics of Workplace Safety in a Deregulated World

Author:

Section/SPIG: Occupational Health and Safety

Issue Date:

Reviewed by Linda Forst, MD, MPH
forst-l@uic.edu

This book is written for those who care about the effects of globalization on workplace health and safety. Strung together as a series of 11 essays by experts in organizational psychology, journalism, safety science, public health, policy, urban studies, history, political science, labor studies, and medicine, this 220-page paperback volume evaluates the effects of corporate deregulation and tax cuts on the lives of workers, worldwide.

The book is divided into three major sections. The first section, 'Free-Market Ideology and the Evisceration of Workers’ Safety Rights,' contains three essays that focus on who should bear the responsibility for fatal and non-fatal injury and illness in the workplace.

Chapter 1 gives a series of vignettes that demonstrate society’s double standard when it comes to assigning blame: when a space shuttle explodes (Challenger, 1986, killed seven astronauts), there was an extensive investigation into the root cause — an evaluation of the entire space program, as well as its systems and materials. All aspects of the program were called into question. In the case of workplace disasters, newspaper descriptions and opinion surveys more frequently assign responsibility to the workers, highlighting unpredictability of the work site and carelessness of the injured workers. Chapter 2 points out cases and policies that allow negligent employers to go unpunished for gross health and safety violations that result in severe workplace injury. Chapter 3 applies the recently developed perspective of “behavioral economics” to worker health and safety: rational decision making on the part of workers to protect themselves from risk is superseded by their immediate need for income; they may also lack information and awareness of workplace hazards, how to prevent them and the responsibility of employers to provide them with a “safe and healthful” environment. The author promotes empowering workers to organize and to participate in decision making to improve safety conditions.

The second section contains four essays regarding challenges to health and safety. Chapter 4 uses the silicosis story to describe the weakness of OSHA, NIOSH, and MSHA in controlling silica exposure, particularly for abrasive blasters of oil drilling equipment on the U.S.-Mexico border. The rise of serious and fatal injuries for Hispanic and foreign-born workers who take on the most hazardous work with inadequate safety protections is described in Chapter 5. Surveillance data show increased incidence rates in agriculture, textile products, construction, hotels, restaurants, and landscaping, the industrial sectors where Hispanics are employed. There is also a description of the most frequently cited OSHA violations by industry, showing “hazard communication” as the leading violation in five of the six economic sectors. OSHA’s efforts to reach this vulnerable work force are also described. The problems of indoor air pollution and ergonomic hazards are described in the next two chapters.

The third section has four chapters of case studies that bear on the impact of neoliberalism on workers rights in Canada, Brazil, Russia, and Hungary. These each describe the dismantling of safety protections and decreased participation by workers, the lack of consideration of health and safety as a cost of production (as demonstrated by cutbacks in skilled workers, poor maintenance, and an increased production mandate), and the reduction of workplace safety that is evolving with the rise of neoliberalism. The chapters are relatively brief and provide easy and pointed reading about the most critical aspects of workplace health and safety in neoliberalist world economies. Each chapter is well notated and referenced, providing a catalogue of the most recent and relevant policies and resources that bear on this topic. Chapter 5, “How Safe Are U.S. Workplaces for Spanish Speaking Workers?” has charts, tables, and references that bring the reader up to date on all the issues surrounding the immigrant and Hispanic work force.

The audience for this book is all occupational and environmental health and safety professionals, trade union leaders, political activists, and those who are interested in the effects of globalization on individuals, communities, and societies, worldwide. For students of globalization, the book supplies easily accessible information on the array of issues explaining the increased burden of occupational illness and injury in the changing world economy. For those who are well versed in this area, it not only is a reference book to keep on the shelf, but also suggests approaches to addressing these problems. It is essential reading for those interested in understanding and impacting worker health and safety today.