Officially WisCOSH began in 1978 but it’s founding members began advocating on behalf of Wisconsin’s workers years before that as they advocated getting an OSHA presence in the state of Wisconsin. Once that was finally accomplished they formally organized as WisCOSH, the Wisconsin Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, and have continued to put worker health and safety at the forefront of everything we do.
Throughout its history WisCOSH has been at the forefront of activities aimed at improving the safety of work and the environment in which workers perform that work. Getting an OSHA office opened in Wisconsin was a big deal as it had been more than seven years after the signing of the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970 and the opening of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration in Washington D.C. in April of 1971 before the first office was opened anywhere in Wisconsin. Without WisCOSH‘s efforts it may not have happened at all as there was already talk in some corners of Congress of defunding or doing away with OSHA altogether.
But who IS this WisCOSH? And where did they come from?
In 1972 and 1973 a number of WI residents heard about things happening in Chicago, IL. There were events and information sessions being held by a group calling themselves the Chicago Area Committee on Occupational Safety and Health or CACOSH. Upon returning to Wisconsin these front line workers, healthcare professionals, legal professionals and some small business owners decided that it seemed like a good model to get things accomplished. So they created an Action Organizing Committee and set about the hard work of getting what workers and employers had been promised with the OSH Act of 1970: work and a place of work free from recognized hazards and OSHA‘s help in doing so.
These Wisconsin residents were not alone in taking notice of the events happening in Chicago. There were people from Pennsylvania, New York city and many other areas across the country. And many of them also started “cosh” groups though not all of them incorporated “cosh” into their name. Some of them were city specific like CACOSH while others were statewide organizations like WisCOSH. Over the years many cosh groups have formed, and some have persevered while others have not. Currently there are 26 COSH groups across the country and more in the process of forming.
While each COSH group is independent historically they have collaborated in may areas. One thing that the COSHs did was to hold an annual meeting where they would all meet and discuss what they have been working on during the year, identify common issues that could be worked on by any and all of the COSHs that chose to do so and they sought funding that the COSHs could apply for and receive to assist them in doing their work and reach their goals. Each year this conference would move to a different COSH group so that it could help spotlight the group and what they were doing as well as to see the environment that the groups were operating in. WisCOSH hosted two such conferences with the first shortly after forming WisCOSH and a second one 27 years later with intervening conferences being held in Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston and many other locations. In order to further build the movement the individual COSHs formalized their long standing informal arrangements and created the National COSH so that there could be a national entity that could speak on topics to the national media and Congress as well as seek funding to help the COSH groups become more stable as well as assist new COSH groups to form.
What has WisCOSH done besides get OSHA to open offices in the state?
Do you know what the OSHA 300 Log is? It is required of employers to record workplace injuries, illnesses that require more than first aid or deaths that occur in the workplace. Every worker has the right to see the OSHA 300 Log and is able to get a copy of it each year. With few exceptions all injuries and illnesses occurring in the workplace or due to workplace exposure to hazards must be recorded, including those of management and outside contractors or delivery people, and the names cannot be removed or blocked. Another part of the OSHA 300 Log is the annual posting of the Annual Summary which must be posted in the workplace where workers have access to see it. But it almost didn’t come to pass. Originally OSHA had tried piloting it as the OSHA 200 Log in Oregon and it did not work well. OSHA was considering scrapping the program until WisCOSH asked them to reconsider and to bring it to Wisconsin. It was an overwhelming success and has since been updated and expanded into what is now the OSHA 300 Log.
One item that had not been considered when the OSH Act of 1970 was crafted was that while workers were legally guaranteed safe work in a place of work free from recognized hazards there was no enforcement action included. A worker could go to their boss and state that they believe they are being injured or made ill by something in the workplace and the employer could tell them not to worry about it and to go back to work. What workers needed was the “right to know” so that they could independently decide whether they were being harmed in the workplace and not have to just take the employer’s word for it. WisCOSH was able to rally workers and legislators around this fact and get the first, or one of the very first, “Right To Know” legislation passed and signed into law by the Republican Governor Lee S. Dreyfus. Soon other states were following suit. When that started happening corporations went to Congress and urged them to pass a national right to know law so they would not have to try to comply with the many differing state laws.
WisCOSH has held symposiums on a number of topics related to worker health and safety including: Indoor Air Quality; Cell Phone Use & Increase In Cancers; Lock Out, Tag Out; and many others. WisCOSH has held training sessions on topics such as: OSH Rights & Responsibilities; Teen & Young Worker Rights At Work; Hazard Identification At Work; Workplace Bullying & Violence; OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard; Respiratory Protection For Nursing Home & Long Term Care Workers; The Hazards We Face In Helping Others (for outreach workers); and many more. WisCOSH has created videos such as Deadly Dilemma. Each year WisCOSH hosts a Worker’s Memorial Day event in Milwaukee, WI and they cohost an event with the Milwaukee Area Labor Council. When able to WisCOSH also participates in other Worker’s Memorial Day events in other areas of Wisconsin.
WisCOSH also works with the United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities (USMWF), an organization started by and for family and friends of workers that lost their life due to a workplace incident. If you or someone you know has been affected by workplace tragedy you could not hope to find a more caring and giving group of people who have gone through such a loss themselves and are there to help the families and friends of those victims of workplace incident.
WisCOSH has accomplished many things in its more than 45 years of existence. And there is no intention of stopping or slowing down any time soon. We hope you’ll join us and make this a better place to live and work for everyone.