UAW Health and Safety Department Records
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UAW Health and Safety Department Collection Records, 1946-2003 67.5 linear feet Accession #1576 OCLC # The records of the UAW Health and Safety Department were placed in the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs between 1994 and 2005 by the UAW and opened for research in July of 2005. Records from the late 1940's and early 1950's processed into the UAW Social Security Department: Industrial Health and Safety Division Collection have been incorporated into the new collection. The UAW recognized the importance of occupational health and safety early in the union's history, establishing the Health and Safety Division in the Social Security Department in February of 1948. A 1949 Administrative Letter stipulated that contract provisions developed by the Health and Safety Division required management to permit the division to make examinations and investigations when requested by plant health and safety committees. In the 1973 contract, the first one to specify in detail measures designed to protect the health and safety of UAW members, professional staff members were designated to sit on the union-company national health and safety committees which plan and supervise the development of company-wide programs. By the 1980's, however, concerns over health and safety hazards in the workplace had grown to the point where the International Executive Board felt the need to establish an independent department. When it did so in December of 1981, the staff of the UAW Health and Safety Department was recognized as the largest group of its type employed by a North American labor union. The department's first director, Dr. Franklin Mirer, a toxicologist and industrial hygienist and assistant director of the Social Security Department, had been with the UAW since 1975. UAW Health and Safety Department staff work in coordination with international representatives in national departments and regions and hundreds of full-time local union health and safety representatives to achieve effective health and safety collective bargaining language, to pressure legislators and government agencies to set and enforce safe standards for hazardous materials and conditions in the workplace and to institute programs for in-plant health and safety education. UAW Health & Safety Dept. Collection The records of the UAW Health and Safety Department include correspondence, departmental publications and radio script dramatizations of incidents from department files, meeting minutes, government agency, union and company plant inspection and accident investigation reports, OSHA and Michigan Department of Labor plant citations, departmental and government research studies of workplace mortality and health and safety hazards as well as materials related to litigation and OSHA hearings that document the activities of the department and worker health and safety issues generally. Important subjects in the collection: Automobile industry and trade--Health aspects Automobile industry and trade--Safety measures Automobile industry workers--Health and hygiene--United States Carcinogens--Safety measures Chloroform (Freon)--Toxicology Factories--United States--Safety measures Formaldehyde--Health aspects Foundry workers--United States--Health and hygiene Glass fibers--Health aspects Hazardous substances--Law and legislation--United States Hazardous substances--Safety measures--United States Human engineering (ergonomics) Industrial accidents--United States Industrial hygiene--United States Industrial safety--Law and legislation--United States Industrial safety--Standards--United States Lead--Health aspects Metal-working lubricants--Health aspects National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Occupational diseases--Mortality Occupational mortality--United States Reproductive health Safety education, Industrial Silica--Health aspects United States. Occupational Safety and Health Administration United States. Occupational Safety and Health Administration--Confined space entry standard United States. Occupational Safety and Health Administration-Lockout/ /tagout standard 2 UAW Health & Safety Dept. Collection Important correspondents in the collection: Ken Bonkowski Barrie Brooks Melvin Glasser Dan McLeod Franklin E. Mirer Rafael Moure Randy Rabinowitz Frank Rapp Michael Silverstein 3 UAW Health & Safety Dept. Collection Contents 67 storage boxes 1 manuscript box Series I, Franklin Mirer Correspondence, 1976-1986, Boxes 1-8: Files are arranged chronologically. Series II, Office Operations Files, 1947-2003, Boxes 9-10: Staff meeting minutes, departmental reports and publications and scripts for "To Your Industrial Health" and "Danger—Men at Work," radio programs produced by the department in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Files are arranged alphabetically. Series III, Subject Files, 1960's-1991, Boxes 10-29: Correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, legal documents and research studies related to the department's efforts to identify and control hazardous substances and unsafe working conditions in UAW- represented facilities and to the union's relations with government agencies responsible for regulating workplace health and safety. Also included are files documenting the work of the joint union- company health and safety committees and the department's involvement in contract negotiations. Files are arranged alphabetically. Series IV, Local Union Files, 1946-1994, Boxes 29-68: Correspondence, material safety data sheets, plant inspection, epidemiological, accident and fatality reports, NIOSH Health Hazard Determination Evaluations and other industrial hygiene studies, federal and state citations for health and safety regulation violations and other material documenting health and safety conditions in the automobile, agricultural implement, aerospace and related industries. Files are arranged numerically by local union number. 4 UAW Health & Safety Dept. Collection Series I Franklin Mirer Correspondence, 1976-1986 Boxes 1-8 Box 1 1. Correspondence, 1976-77 2. Correspondence; indexes, Jan 1978-Sep 1979 Box 2 1. Correspondence; indexes, Oct 1979-Apr 1981 2-23. Correspondence, Oct 1979-Apr 1981 Box 3 1. Correspondence; indexes, May 1981-Oct 1982 2-20. Correspondence, May 1981-Oct 1982 Box 4 1. Correspondence; indexes, Nov 1982-Feb 1984 2-21. Correspondence, Nov 1982-Feb 1984 Box 5 1. Correspondence; indexes, Mar 1984-Mar 1985 2-21. Correspondence, Mar 1984-Mar 1985 Box 6 1. Correspondence; indexes, Apr 1985-Jan 1986 2-18. Correspondence, Apr 1985-Jan 1986 Box 7 1. Correspondence; indexes, Feb-Dec 1986 2-18. Correspondence, Feb-Dec 1986 Box 8 1. Correspondence; indexes, Jan-Dec 1987 2-18. Correspondence, Jan-Dec 1987 5 UAW Health & Safety Dept. Collection Series II Office Operations Files, 1947-2003 Boxes 9-10 Box 9 1-2. International Executive Board, reports to, 1983-91 3. Inspection report distribution, 1992, 1996 4. Mirer, Franklin, resume, 1988 5-11. Newsletter, 1972-87, 1990-2003 12. Publications, 1950's-1980's 13. Radio program ("To Your Industrial Health"), 1947 14. Radio program; "I Feared the Night—Insomnia," 8 Jan 1949 15. Radio program; "There's One in Every Shop—Rheumatic Heart Disease, 15 Jan 1949 16. Radio program; "They Ask a Miracle—Pneumonia," 29 Jan 1949 17. Radio program; "The Charge Was Murder—The Need for Professional Eye Care," 12 Feb 1949 18. Radio program; "Feature assignment—Fire Prevention," 19 Feb 1949 19. Radio program; "Childhood Enemy Number One—Rheumatic Fever," 26 Feb 1949 20. Radio program; "The Most Important Day in Your Life— Emotional Illness," 5 Mar 1949 21. Radio program; "Enemy of the Young in Heart—Tuberculosis," 12 Mar 1949 22. Radio program; "The Uninvited Guest—Poisonous Fumes," 19 Mar 1949 23. Radio program; "The Disease Nobody Knows—Alcoholism," 26 Mar 1949 24. Radio program; "The Strange Case of the Silent Racketeer— Deafness," 2 Apr 1949 25. Radio program; "Crusader in Overalls—Eye Injuries," 30 Apr 1949 26. Radio program; "Drums of Death—Arsenic Fumes," 3 May 1949 27. Radio program; "How It All Began—Safety in Power Press Operation and the Michigan Safety Conference," 10 May 1949 28. Radio program; "No One Believed Him—Post Traumatic Neurosis?," 21 May 1949 29. Radio program; "Mystery in the Flames—Fire Prevention," 28 May 1949 30. Radio program; "Mysterious Fever—Metal Fume Fever and Health Conditions in Foundries, 4 Jun 1949 31. Radio program; "Death Takes a Fishing Trip—Nitrous Fumes," 10 Jun 1949 6 UAW Health & Safety Dept. Collection 32. Radio program; "Everybody's Business—Workmen's Compensation," 11 Jun 1949 33. Radio program; "Arthritis," 25 Jun 1949 34. Radio program; "Under Threat of Death—Minimum Standards Legislation," 2 Jul 1949 35. Radio program; "When a Heat Wave Strikes—Heat Cramps, Heat Exhaustion, and Heat Stroke," 9 Jul 1949 36. Radio program; "Double Edged Sword—Dermatitis," 16 Jul 1949 37. Radio program; "A Cabin for Sale—the Deaf and Hard of Hearing," 3 Jul 1949 38. Radio program; "Are You Your Brother's Keeper?—Eye Injuries," 30 Jul 1949 39. Radio program; "Do You Recognize This Man?—Safety Guards on Machines," 6 Aug 1949 40. Radio program; "Six Days to Live—Solvent Vapors," 13 Aug 1949 41. Radio program; "I Had Polio—Rehabilitation," 20 Aug 1949 42. Radio program; "Snowblind in August—Welding," 27 Aug 1949 43. Radio program; "the Invisible Strangler—Carbon Monoxide," 3 Sep 1949 44. Radio program; "Now You See It, Now You Don't—Lead Poisoning," 9 Sep 1949 45. Radio program; "The Man with the Broken Mind—Mental Illness," 18 Mar 1950 46. Radio program; "When Death Comes Calling—Solvents," 1 Apr 1950 47.