United States
Health Care Workers Demand Government Provide Federal Standards for Safe Conditions
Health care workers in the United States have continued to demand
that federal standards
be developed to provide safe working conditions
for all, workers,
patients and community members alike. As a
result of determined
struggle, in June 2021, some COVID-19
protections for nurses and other
health care workers across the country were
provided by the U.S.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA). These were far
from sufficient but did include the most basic
safety protocols, like
masks -- something that the big health care
monopolies should have
adopted long ago. Full personal protective
equipment (PPE), free and
regular testing, staffing ratios, paid sick
days, all remain demands in
many hospitals and nursing homes.
OSHA provided a minimal federal standard
through an Emergency
Temporary Standard (ETS). This is about to
expire. Spearheaded by
National Nurses United (NNU), one of the largest
unions of nurses
nationwide, the demand is for OSHA to expand the
standard and make it
permanent.
As NNU brings out: "Nurses have been on the
front lines of this
pandemic from the start, fighting for the lives
of millions of people.
Being forced to wear the same N95 respirator for
a month in a war
against an aerosol transmissible disease -- in
one of the wealthiest
industries in one of the wealthiest nations --
is not just insulting,
it's an
injury, and it's incredibly dangerous for
nurses, other health care
workers, and patients." They also reflect the
social responsibility
they have demonstrated throughout the pandemic
by demanding safe
conditions and basing them on the workers' own
experience:
"The standards we have developed from our
experience with COVID must
form the foundation for a separate, broader
standard to prepare for
future pandemics and to protect all workers from
workplace exposure to
aerosol transmissible diseases. To save as many
lives as possible and
to keep our communities safe," NNU calls on OSHA
to
make its COVID ETS permanent and immediately
create a new standard for
infectious diseases going forward that provides
safe working conditions
for all.
This article was published in
December 17, 2021 - No. 121
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO081212.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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