HSE Recommended Reading
The USW HSE Department has assembled this list of recommended reading and resources for local union health and safety activists. It contains books, articles, websites, government publications etc. If there isn't a link to the item below, we recommend that you search for the book at your local library or at a bookstore.
There are many useful resources from outside sources provided for informational purposes. The USW neither controls nor endorses the content of these third party websites or publications. If you have suggestions for additions to this site, please contact the Health, Safety & Environment Department at safety@usw.org
We have separated our recommendations into the following categories:
Work restructuring, work organization, & lean production
Workplace bathrooms and bathroom break laws
Canadian
USW Canadian Health, Safety & Environment Department
Workers Health & Safety Centre - Ontario
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
Chemicals
New Jersey Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet
NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards
The dose makes the poison: A plain-language guide to toxicology by M. Alice Ottoboni
Environmental health
National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
US Environmental Protection Agency
Hours of work
Moments are the elements of profit: Overtime and the deregulation of working hours under the fair labor standards act by Eric Linder
The Overworked American by Juliette Schor
Accident risk as a function of hours at work and time of day (Study in Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health)
The impact of overtime and long work hours on occupational injuries and illnesses (Study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Labor history
The man who hated work and loved labor: The life and times of Tony Mazzocchi by Les Leopold
Labor's untold story: The adventurous story of the battles, betrayals and victories of American working men and women by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais
Ravenswood: The Steelworkers victory and the revival of American labor by Tom Juravich and Kate Bronfenbrenner
A people's history of the United States by Howard Zinn
Mother Jones speaks: Collected speeches and writings Edited by Philip S. Foner
The killing of Karen Silkwood: The story behing the Kerr-McGee plutonium case by Richard L. Rashke
Legal rights for unions
Legal rights of union stewards by Robert M. Schwartz
Collective bargaining for health and safety: A handbook for unions by the Labor Occupational Health Program, University of California - Berkeley
Bargaining for job safety and health by Lawrence Bacow
The FMLA Handbook: A practical guide to the family and medical leave act for union members by Robert M. Schwartz
How to win past practice grievances by Robert M. Schwartz
Strikes, pickets and inside campaigns by Robert M. Schwartz
A workers guide to winning at the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission by Marcia Goldberg, 1st Edition: Bert Cottine, Linda Birrell and Robert Jennings; Forward by Tony Mazzocchi
News/Blogs
Occupational health and safety
Assault on the worker: Occupational health and safety in Canada by Charles E. Reasons, Lois Ross, and Craig Paterson
Consulted to death: How Canada's workplace health and safety system fails workers by Doug Smith
Death on the job: Occupational health and safety struggles in the United States by Daniel M. Berman
NIEHS Clearinghouse for Worker Health and Safety Training
National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH)
Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
Organizing for health and safety Labor Research Review Vo. 1 No. 16
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)
Workplace roulette: Gambling with cancer by Matthew Firth, James Brophy and Margaret Keith
Workers at risk: Voices from the workplace by Dorothy Nelkin and Michael S. Brown
Building 6: The tragedy of Bridesburg by Willard S. Randall and Stephen D. Solomon
Dying for a living: The politics of industrial death by Lloyd Tataryn
Work is dangerous to your health by Jeanne M. Stellman, PhD and Susan M. Daum, PhD.
The Hawks Nest Incident: America's worst industrial disaster by Martin Cherniack, M.D., M.P.H.
Bitter wages: Ralph Nader's study group report on disease and injury on the job by Joseph A. Page and Mary-Win O'Brien
Muscle and Blood: The massive, hidden agony in industrial slaughter in America by Rachael Scott
We offer ourselves as evidence: Towards workers' control of occupational health by Bennett M. Judkins
Workers at risk: The failed promise of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration by Thomas O. McGarity and Sidney Shapiro
Unions and community groups
Tony Mazzocchi Center for Health, Safety & Environmental Education
National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH)
United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities (USMWF)
Work restructuring, work organization, & lean production
Hard Labour: Stress, ill health and hazardous employment practices by the London Hazards Centre
Japan in the passing lane: An insider's account of life in a Japanese auto factory by Satoshi Kamata
Working Alone: The erosion of solidarity in today's workplace by Charley Richardson (PDF)
The Steward's Toolbox: Skills and Strategies for Winning at Work edited by Mischa Gaus
On the line at Subaru-Isuzu by Laurie Graham
Just another car factory? Lean production and its discontents by James Rinehart, Christopher Huxley and David Robertson
Lean work: Empowerment and exploitation in the global auto industry by Steve Babson
Healthy work by Robert Karasek and Tores Theorell
Inhuman relationships: Quality circles and anti-unionism in American industry by Guillermo J. Grenier
The Reckoning by David Halberstam
Workplace bathrooms and bathroom break laws
Void where prohibited and Void where prohibited, revisited by Mark Linder
Walter Reuther: The most dangerous man in Detroit by Nelson Lichtenstein
Other
I've got the light of freedom: The organizing tradition and the Mississippi freedom struggle by Charles M. Payne
Educating for a change by Arnold, Burke, James, Martin, Thomas
Black freedom fighters in steel: The struggle for democratic unionism by Ruth Needleman
Punished by rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A's, praise and other bribes by Alfie Kohn
Doubt is their product by David Michaels
A civil action by Jonathan Harr
