Transnational corporations currently account for two-thirds of the industrial growth in the developing world. As the global economy expands, the issue of workplace health and safety has received growing attention from a wide range of groups including consumers, workers, unions and community activists, the media and even transnational corporations. This panel will discuss the experiences of occupational health and safety professionals, trade unionists, and university-based workplace safety training programs involved in different international health and safety capacity-building projects in Asia, Mexico and Africa. These projects share a common goal of working in partnership with local worker and community organizations to increase their ability to take action around health and safety. Yet the approach of each specific project has varied, based on the needs and strategies of the local groups. Panelists will share successes and challenges of each project, and how these approaches might be adapted by other groups. See www.lohp.org
Learning Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1.) Recognize and describe global economic forces that generate and sustain "sweatshops" in both the developed and developing worlds; 2.) Describe different approaches to working in partnership with local worker and community organizations to increase their ability to take action around health and safety issues; 3.) Discuss how they might adapt these approaches and incorporate them into their own work.
Keywords: International Health, Workplace Safety
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: N/A
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.