Broadening the constitutency for OHS; it must be done, but how?

The FUTURE OF OHS

This panel will discuss strategies to expand the constituency for occupational health and safety, because without them , OHS has no future. Since the industrial revolution, we are cursed with a production system that harms workers, the public and the planet. We document the myriad ways that work hurts and that business is destructive, as well as a few examples that the harm has been mitigated. We try to organize and serve the most harmed members of society and we hope that demonstrating health inequities in our system will spur a humane response. We try getting LEED to incorporate OHS, we explore shareholder initiatives, but these are not getting to the root of the problem, which is that working people don't have power, and the middle class and professionals don't see themselves as workers. We need a movement that appeals to a broad constituency to make work more humane and to change the production system to one that is not destructive but sustainable. This panel will be a discussion – audience participation is most welcome, but rants, no. Strategies, yes.