Health and safety director receives national honor
Jonathan Rosen, director of PEF’s Health and
Safety Department, received national recognition for his efforts in
November.
The American Public Health Association, at its annual meeting in Washington,
presented Rosen with the 2007 Tony Mazzocchi Award for outstanding
grassroots activism in fighting for the health and safety rights of workers.
The founder of the Labor Party in the U.S., Mazzocchi led the Oil, Chemical
and Atomic Workers Union and was considered the most influential labor
leader in the area of occupational safety and health until his death in
2003.
In presenting the award to Rosen, APHA praised him as “a tireless health and
safety activist for more than 25 years,” who has led the state and national
fight for preventing workplace violence and has been “instrumental in
shaping the field of workplace violence research, insisting on ... research
methods that emphasize the importance of including workers in all phases of
a research project.”
Rosen shared the 2007 Mazzocchi Award with Tammy Miser, an activist who
launched national Web sites to help the families of workers who are killed
on the job, and to compile and report the “Weekly Toll” of recent workplace
fatalities.
– Sherry Halbrook
Cornell ILR honors PEF H&S chair
By SHERRY HALBROOK
PEF Health and Safety Chair Kathy D’Arminio was honored in November by the
Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
D’Arminio, who also serves on the PEF PS&T Contract Team and the Executive
Board, received the Jessica Govea Thorbourne Courage Award at the 60th
Anniversary Celebration of Cornell ILR Labor Programs, held November 15 in New
York City.
The award recognizes individuals “who have demonstrated exceptional and
courageous service to the cause of organized labor and all working people.”
The ILR established the award as a tribute to Thorbourne who grew from a
childhood as a farmworker in California to a labor organizer and activist and
then as a labor educator with the Cornell ILR Extension program until her death
from cancer in 2004.
In presenting the award to D’Arminio, the ILR said her “focus on health and
safety, as well as her courage in the face of tremendous challenges, was shown
after the catastrophic floods of April 2005 in western New York paralyzed the
region and killed 16 people. Kathy led her union’s effort to get management to
let people go home, seeking intervention from state legislators to protect her
members from being penalized for the work they missed during the disaster.”
“The safety of our drinking water at work and at home was a serious concern,”
D’Arminio said, “and many members were afraid to come to work because of the
unsafe conditions all around us.
“I work for PEF and our members because I care about their safety and my own,”
she added. “I try to be proactive with management to resolve problems. This will
make the workplace safer and more productive. Safety would be in jeopardy
without our active union.
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