Oral

Four senior students and recent alumni of the National Labor College, with majors in occupational safety and health, present their senior thesis research. These students have unique access to the attitudes and activities of rank-and-file trade unionists, as they are members of trade unions themselves. Papers are both activist-oriented and scholarly – a unique blend of advocacy and original research meant to improve safety and health for themselves and their union brothers and sisters. Proposed for the 2007 meetings is a panel of four students, moderated by a National Labor College college professor, as listed below: (1)Gerald Ernest, United Steel Workers, Behavior-Based Safety: Its Hidden Dangers; Tim Eynon, Sheet Metal Worker's International Association., Are Workers Torching Their Own Health? How Welding Fumes Affect the Health of Tradespersons; Palmer Hickman, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Prescriptive Requirements: The Missing Link in the Electrical Safety Compliance Puzzle; Ed Sturcken, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Graniteville, South Carolina Rail Accident: Fatal Chlorine Release; Ruth Ruttenberg, the panel moderator, is a professor at the National Labor College responsible for advising students during the research and writing of their theses. She has worked and written in the field of occupational safety and health for over 30 years.

Session Objectives: List major union-based research by union activists/students at the National Labor College Describe research findings Discuss findings and action emanating from the research