For Immediate Release
Thursday, August 15, 2002
Council 18 New Mexico Hosts OSHA Health Conference
New Mexico Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Richardson is Featured Speaker
Albuquerque, NM —Fifty workers are injured every minute of the 40-hour work week and 16 of them die each day here in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' (AFSCME) New Mexico Council 18 is working to ensure its members have a safe and healthy workplace.
The one-day conference will bring together hundreds of AFSCME activists from across New Mexico who are interested in learning about how to use safety and health laws and their union to secure safer workplaces. The sessions will cover topics such as back injuries, needlesticks, infectious diseases, toxic chemicals, traffic in work zones, workplace violence and other dangerous working conditions.
New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Bill Richardson will be a featured speaker at Council 18's OSHA conference and will talk about the importance of strengthening state OSHA laws in response to national legislation signed by the Bush administration repealing OSHA's ergonomics standard.
Safe working conditions are a major priority for the union. Many AFSCME members are faced with many different and severe workplace hazards: chemicals, back injuries, workplace violence, confined spaces, speeding traffic, trench collapses and a variety of other workplace hazards that kill, injure and maim thousands of members every year.
"All workers should be able go to work in the morning and return home at the end of the day in the same physical conditions they were in when they originally left home," AFSCME New Mexico Council 18 Administrator Cuauhtemo (Temo) Figueroa said. "If our members are knowledgeable about hazards existing in their workplace and work to make sure their employers provide a safe work environment we will a reduction in the number of workplace injuries."
