The Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works to ensure that all workers are treated with respect and dignity, earn a fair wage and return home to their families alive and well. We educate and mobilize workers, unions, and community activists to…
As of October 15, 2022, Al Vega, long time member of the MassCOSH team, will become its first-ever Chief of Strategy and Engagement. The new role is part of a re-structuring plan as outgoing Executive Director Jodi Sugerman-Brozan will be joining the City of Boston and Mayor Michelle Wu’s new Cabinet for Worker Empowerment as Deputy Chief, with a focus on worker protections. MassCOSH will also be hiring a Chief of Operations to join Al as part of a new leadership team.
On August 17, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration granted Massachusetts initial approval to enable Massachusetts’s safety and health plan to be responsible for protecting state and local government workers with safety standards that meet or exceed OSHA standards for private sector workers. The Massachusetts State…
One of MassCOSH’s historic victories is about to hit an exciting benchmark. In 2019, after over a decade of advocacy, MassCOSH and our allies secured the expanded OSHA protections to approximately 430,000 Massachusetts State and Municipal workers when the Act to Further Define Standards of Employee Safety went into effect.
MassCOSH is pleased to welcome our new intern, Josi Gomes Timas. Josi comes to us from the esteemed Labor Studies program at UMass Boston and works with MassCOSH Tuesdays and Thursdays, assisting our Teens Lead @ Work program and our Worker Center. Under a decade ago, Josi moved to the…
It’s crazy to believe that MassCOSH’s first ever TL@W participants could now have children old enough to join the program themselves, a true testament to the longevity of a program that has reached thousands of young people with the message their health and safety on the job matters. On July…
Last month, MassCOSH Director of Policy and Programs, Al Vega, joined with the Massachusetts Labor Guild and the Brockton Workers Alliance for two Saturday’s worth of trainings for low-wage workers. The Labor Guild is one of many MassCOSH faith-based partners and can trace its roots back to the Great Depression,…
May was a month of celebration and recognition for MassCOSH! On May 5, for the first time since 2019, MassCOSH held our Celebrating the Movement fundraiser in person at Freeport Hall at IBEW Local 103. Not only did the party raise a record amount of funds to go towards the…
In 2019, 43 workers died from heat illness nationwide and at least 2,410 additional workers suffered serious heat-related injuries and illnesses. As climate change leads to increasingly hot weather, occupational safety experts see an immediate need to protect workers at risk. On May 25, MassCOSH took part in a countrywide…
MassCOSH and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO collaborated to produce the 2022 Dying for Work: Loss of Life and Limb in Massachusetts Workplaces report (Click here to download from MediaFire https://www.mediafire.com/file/iobcafmq1efnhth/DFW_Apr22.pdf/file). The Massachusetts AFL-CIO is the umbrella organization for more than 750 local unions, joint boards and district councils in the state,…
While keeping a close eye on COVID-19 rates, MassCOSH is resuming important events in-person. Check out the below for more details: First, MassCOSH plans to resume its powerful observation of International Workers’ Memorial Day at the steps of the Massachusetts State House on Thursday, April 28 at noon. We…
On April 6, MassCOSH joined with our allies, including Massachusetts Not 4 Sale Coalition and Gig Workers Rising (GWR) for a rally and the release of an illuminating report titled Death and Corporate Irresponsibility in the Gig Economy. The 26-page, heavily footnoted report explores the hazards gig workers face on…