Safety climate in workers using workers' centers in Chicago

This paper preliminarily assesses demographics and safety climate within a dissemination study that translates a popular education training curriculum to workers using workers' centers. Thirty-nine workers in Chicago self-completed a bi-lingual (Spanish-English), IRB-approved survey that assessed knowledge, attitudes and practices for health and safety.

Of 39 workers, 27 were born in Mexico. Others came from Central and northern South America (n=11); one did not report country of birth. All but one were male, 38 reported Hispanic ethnicity. Seventeen reported educational attainment of elementary school or less, while 21 had finished some middle school through college. One did not report educational attainment. They had worked in the U.S. for a range of 1-30 years (mean 10.3 years, S.D. 7 years).

Internal consistency for the 7-item safety climate scale was good (Cronbach's alpha 0.784). Respondents agreed/strongly agreed that at their workplaces: no shortcuts are taken with worker safety (n=20); and safety remains a priority even when a job is behind schedule (n=21). They were evenly divided regarding feeling free to report safety violations (n=17) and whether workers learn quickly they must follow good safety practices (n=19). They disagreed/disagreed strongly: that workers and supervisors collaborate on safety (n=21); workers are informed if they are not using good safety practices (n=22); and safety is a priority with their supervisors (n=26).

Workers active in workers' centers reported mixed results on safety climate at work. The safety climate scale showed good reliability with our population. Data collection is ongoing and additional information will be presented.