Worker safety

We asked construction safety experts: What’s the most important advice you can offer building trades union members?

Oregon OSHA has the lowest fines in the nation: The average for a fatal accident is $1,077. Oregon labor wants that to change.

ATU Local 757 tells Oregon lawmakers assaults on bus drivers are increasing, and asks to tighten a law classifying such assaults as felonies.

A federal judge has dismissed a business group lawsuit that challenged new rules protecting Oregon workers from heat and smoke.

Portland-area construction leaders take stock of progress toward more welcoming workplaces over the past two years.

What is a life worth? According to Oregon OSHA, it seems, $5,400. That's how much it recently fined a company after a worker was killed on the job.

UFCW Local 555 president Dan Clay says retail workers shouldn't have to fear gun violence but it's becoming increasingly common.

Student behavior – including assaults – are a factor in record-high classroom aide and support staff turnover.

Incidents of disruptive airline passengers and abusive mass transit users have increased sharply in the past few years.

The crash is the latest evidence for what union-represented paramedics have described as growing public hostility toward ambulance workers.

Assaults on paramedics and EMTs have changed the nature of a job for workers who didn’t historically face on-the-job violence.

It took a few years, but Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health agency has finalized rules protecting Oregon workers from heat and smoke.

So-called “safe rest villages” in Portland are highly unsafe for staffers, leading workers to seek union representation with AFSCME.

Privately-insured and self-insured employers are rejecting worker comp claims at a greater rate than the state-chartered non-profit SAIF.

Last year more than 69 Oregonians died from injuries sustained while working, not including the 169 who died after workplace COVID outbreaks.

Transportation-related accidents are the lead cause of workplace death— more fatalities than falls, violence and harmful substances combined.

Most on-the-job deaths occur in the trucking industry, but a handful of workplaces have a higher fatality rate.

Oregon's proposed rules protecting workers exposed to extreme heat and wildfire smoke could be the strongest in the country.

Attacks on parks workers. Assaults on bus drivers. Safety concerns are driving some employees to leave their jobs altogether.

Unions are encouraging members to get vaccinated, but are also trying to protect the rights and jobs of workers who haven’t been vaccinated.