Les Leopold will help kick off this year’s APHA OHS Social Hour at the APHA Annual Meeting, Sunday, Nov. 4 at 5:00 p.m. in Washington, D.C. (see APHA Annual Meeting Program for location) with a reading from his newly published biography, The Man Who Hated Work And Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi (Chelsea Green Publishing). 

Many APHA OHS Section members know Mazzocchi as the man for whom one of three OHS Section Awards is named.  The OHS Tony Mazzocchi Award “gives recognition to grassroots health and safety activists in Local Unions or other local organizations fighting for the health and safety rights of workers.”  Many others in the OHS Section were influenced by Mazzocchi, directly or indirectly, as he was one of the first labor leaders to build bridges between the public health community and unions in an effort to defend the health and safety of workers, their neighbors and the environment.

As chronicled in The Man Who Hated Work, Mazzocchi’s inspiring story spans the Great Depression to his death in 2002, including his youth in 1930s Brooklyn, his participation in the Battle of the Bulge, organizing “On the Waterfront” in Red Hook, and his rise to prominence within the labor movement, from local leader to national officer.  The book also takes a close look at Mazzocchi’s pivotal role in founding OSHA, blowing the whistle on asbestos hazards, winning laws giving workers and communities the right to know about toxics, and fighting for health and safety in the atomic energy industry – including his role as a mentor to Karen Silkwood. 

According to Leopold, who directs both The Labor Institute and the Public Health Institute, Mazzocchi was “the Rachel Carson of the American workplace.”  He was instrumental in building the occupational-safety movement, the environmental-health movement, labor-environmental alliances, and in creating a new generation of worker-oriented occupational-health professionals.  As a result of his pioneering work, Leopold says, “Today fewer workers inhale toxic fumes, fewer lungs are filled with poisons, fewer skins are scarred from caustics and acids, and fewer bodies are maimed and mauled.”  Because of Mazzocchi, he says, “There is less suffering from work-related cancer, radiation sickness, emphysema and neurological disorders. The epidemic is not over, but Mazzocchi – more than any other individual – brought it under control.” 

“Tony conjured up a labor movement that didn’t really exist, but just might,” writes Leopold in the book’s introduction.   “This movement would be militant and green. It wouldn't just fight to protect the workforce from toxics — it would eliminate toxics.  It would bring about radical changes that would stop global warming. It would give workers real control over the quality and pace of work and over corporate investment decisions. It would champion the fight against militarism and for justice and equality.  It would win life-enhancing social programs like free health care. It would dare to create a new political party to counter the corporate corruption of the two major parties.”

“In short,” Leopold concludes, “it would make good on its potential to transform American capitalism into something much more humane. “    

To order advance copies of the book, visit the Chelsea Green Web site at www.chelseagreen.com.  For bulk orders (five or more), call The Public Health Institute at (917) 606-0511.  For more information visit www.TonyMazzocchi.org, a Web site devoted to the book featuring photos, an excerpt covering Mazzocchi’s relationship with Karen Silkwood, and other background information, as well as a discussion board.