Occupational Health and Safety

To support the union’s efforts at improving occupational health and safety for its members, the ILWU was awarded a grant in 1979 by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to develop and implement a union-wide health and safety program – which focused first on the Longshore Division because of the industry’s high rate of injuries and illnesses.

The program’s long range goal has been to help locals develop their own health and safety procedures. Occupational health and safety issues for ILWU members have also directly affected the communities in which they work.

In 1983, for example, the union’s investigation into the hazards of the pesticide ethylene dibromide, then being used in response to the Med Fly infestation of California crops, helped identify the dangers of the chemical to all who came in contact with it, including to longshore workers exposed when the spayed fruit was loaded on ships for export.

Then, in 1986, the ILWU took the lead in stopping shipment of nuclear waste across West Coast docks. The union’s opposition came from the knowledge of how vulnerable the material is to spills and leaks caused by accidents or bad weather – either of which could expose longshore workers and the surrounding communities to radioactive peril.

Similar concerns for worker health and environmental safety led members of the IBU to wage a three-year campaign – which they finally own in 1990 – to contain toxic vapors emitted during fueling operations aboard barges in the San Francisco Bay.

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